Find The Enthusiasm For Writing

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Nothing was every achieved without enthusiasm." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


I'm not sure where all of you are located, but I'm in Kentucky and the weather is turning a chill in the air. Fall is coming and I LOVE IT!

. . .my writing not so much. . .

My walks have gotten longer, my outside time has gotten longer, my snuggle in my bed has gotten longer, and my writing time has gotten. . .shorter!

What happened to my mojo where I couldn't wait to get up in the morning? What happened to my characters fighting over who was going to talk to me first in the morning? WHAT HAS HAPPENED???

I might be a bestselling author and have an amazing STREET TEAM and helpful blog. . .but I too get the life sucked out of me at times, not very often, but  it does happen.

Why now? Usually this time of the year is when I curl up with my laptop, journal and pound out the words.

This made me sit back and think about my career goals and how bad I want success? Asking myself how can I maintain the passion that I've always had.

Here are a few tips I came up with:

1) Hide and Seek!

Simply stated, FIND the passion!!
I went back through my journals, I keep a journal for each novel I write, and see all the quotes, photos, ideas, and inspiration that kept me going with them.

I realized that I hadn't done that with my current WIP. I have simply just wrote, wrote, and wrote, feeding my creative mind very little. We all must eat or we waste away to nothing. AND that is NOT what I want.

2) Keep it!

WOW! Once I found the passion by going back through my journals, it was easy to slip back into the basics of why I started writing, the joy that it brought me, escaping into the world that I have created. A world that so many others have enjoyed.

This feeling made me even more passionate about writing and fall in love with it all over again. But how do you maintain it?

You have to figure out what keeps your passion for writing. For me, it's getting those inspirational quotes or amazing reviews from my book that I cut out, the readers, the creation of making up a new world and mapping it out. All of these things helps write each one of my stories.

It's all about maintaining the passion you have for writing.

There is NO way that I'm alone in how I've been feeling lately! You have to have some tips that help maintain your passion, WHAT ARE THEY?

Write Smarter, NOT Harder!

If you are anything like me, writing does not stop at writing your book. You tweet, write blogs, status updates on Google + or Facebook, responding to blog comments, guest blog. . .the list goes on and on. But how present are you? I mean really present?

Yes! Sometimes we are just DEAD TIRED!!! (no pun intended because I am a mystery writer!)

Anyways. . .the more time you are on-line, the less time you live in the real world. And the real world is how you became a writer.
At least that is the case for me. Over the past couple of years I have worked endless on my writing and on-line presence. Both are very important for success in this industry and we still need to maintain the presence.
Can we maintain it without living on it?

Over the past couple months I have been finishing my novel, A Charming Crime. It's the first book in a new series, Magical Cures Mysteries. Along with this I decided to do a blog tour and send out ARC's (advanced reading copies) to several review blogs/sites. This all takes time, a lot of time to set up.

I was exhausted by the time I got my writing, edits, and blog posts written, not to mention keeping up with all the on-line stuff. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my on-line groups and I wouldn't be where I am today without them. But it was leaving little time for my family, friends, and getting my blog tour nailed down.

So I came up with a plan. I made a list of items that needed to get completed for the week. This also included everyday life things like pay a bill or go to the grocery, tweet team, streat team. It isn't a list with times or days, but two columns. One for to-do today and a to-do for the week. Daily I set a timer for twenty minutes and do all I need to do on Twitter and Facebook. I could spend HOURS on these two social medias, so when I have to get my work done, I set the timer!
Under pressure or timer, you'd be surprised how much you can get done and NOT stray.

What have I learned? A TON!
I have become more proficient with my tasks during the day. I'm getting more accomplished including writing and leaving time for family and friends! It's also boosted my creativity. Without looking up everything and anything under the sun or clicking on a link from the yahoo mail page (yes! They suck me in!), I'm living my everyday life and that includes my writing career! I'm more fulfilled and satisfied instead of scatterbrained about what and when I need to do something.

I'm happy to say that I'm writing another book, the blog tour is all ready to go, and I get to close my laptop before dinner to be with my family and friends. It's nice to be back in the present!

What about you? Are you a PRESENT writer? If so, what do you do? If not, what can you do to be present?

Great article on successful writing tips!