Motivation

There hasn't been an update for An Earth Pony's Tale in a while, and while I'd like to claim that it's because of some big event that's been taking up all my time, the truth of the matter is I've been struggling to get myself motivated to write it. I've been trying various ways to get myself back into a rhythm, but I've not been able to get myself going beyond very short bursts.

I'm pretty sure this comes down to inexperience. As I've alluded to in other posts, this is the first time I've every tried to really do some proper writing, and even though AEPT isn't exactly comparable to Dickens, for me it was quite an ambitious task to try and write a comparatively long multi-chapter story based on perhaps one of the most unpopular fanfiction cliches imaginable. Perhaps it was a little too ambitious, because right now at the moment I load up the new chapter I'm supposed to be writing and I'm just drawing a blank despite feeling pretty sure in my head I know exactly where I want the story to go. Then of course, I end up finding something else to do, get distracted, and at the end of it all I've wasted my time and made minimal progress.

I've heard tales of successful writers, in both fiction and non-fiction, talk about how they actually dislike writing, and I don't think I ever really understood until I tried to do it for myself. I think writers like having written something, but the process taken to get there is an incredibly frustrating one, full of doubt and second guessing yourself. I suspect more experienced writers have ways to deal with this feeling, but I'm not sure I've quite worked that out yet. It's not easy to work out how to do without a finished work to your name, and even if I wasn't having trouble getting motivated AEPT is far from a finished work.

This isn't the first time I've felt this way about something I've started working on. It is however, one of the few times I've felt this way about something that other people have been interested in. I am aware that there are people who want to me carry on, and I'm grateful that they are so positive about something I've written. Despite everything I've said above, I do want to finish the story, and even though I struggle sometimes I'm going to do my best to keep going. It just might take a bit longer than I planned, that's all.

So, that's the bad news. But there is a silver lining to all of this. I've started writing something else, completely separate from AEPT - a short, one chapter story, involving Celestia and some characters that you may have seen elsewhere but as far as I'm aware have made no appearance in a fanfiction yet. I'm aiming to have this completed as soon as possible, so I can at the very least claim to have a completed story, and hopefully even a good one.

Thanks for listening,
Biscuit.

Comments

[horizon]

Swung by to check out how EPT was going — realized I'd forgotten to follow you and thus never got the blog post.

I know how that feeling goes. It's SO hard to force the muse into anything. Long projects, especially, require an entirely different kind of momentum from creative momentum. If you've been bit by the writing bug, I recommend making plans to participate in NaNoWriMo — I've done it half a dozen times now, and it's always been remarkably instructive in teaching me how to route around lack of motivation and "my story sucks" syndrome and the other big things that halt projects.

Warren Ellis also has good advice about writer's block in his uniquely Warren-Ellis-being-profound-while-being-full-of-shit way. I disagree with him that writer's block isn't a problem, but his solution is remarkably effective. Just write. Whatever you write, just write. Sit down and finish something, even if the act of finishing it makes it suck, because then you've got something. You can fix suckiness by editing, but you can't fix a blank page except by filling it.

There are a number of pony tumblrs and FIMFiction groups and such out there that offer writing prompts, or if you have random thoughts about interesting scenes throughout the day, you can make little notes about them and then craft them when you're back at a computer.

At any rate, best of luck! Really, EPT showed a lot of promise, and got a good reception (and lots of upvotes) for a first-time story -- even if you drop it and move on to something else, I think people will respond well. I'll look forward, either way.

- H