How Is Your Motivation Going?

It is a sad fact that around 80% of people who start to write a book, never finish writing it.
 
Why such a high dropout rate?
 
It’s not easy to say as those that don’t finish don’t tend to talk about why they didn’t finish, but we can make a few assumptions which may not be too far off the mark.
 
First there is the time factor. Writing a book is a very time consuming activity and when someone has competing priorities, such as work or family, something has to give and the thing that is easiest to abandon is writing.

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Secondly, some people don’t actually realise that writing a book is quite difficult.

​They assume that the words will simply flow from their brains to their keyboard of their own volition and in no time at all there will be a 90k manuscript that is all ready to go to the publishers.
 
That is down to a lack of research, of course. Anyone who spends even the smallest amount of time on social media groups dedicated to writing would soon see the posts from frustrated writers and would realise that writing isn’t anything like as easy as it seems.
 
Then comes the realisation that writing the book is only a fraction of the work that is involved in producing a book. Once it is written it has to be edited, market tested (beta readers), edited again, proofread and then the biggest mountain is still ahead: either finding an agent or going self-published.
 
That is enough to put the less motivated off the idea of finishing their book.

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Which brings us to the biggest barrier of all for finishing the writing of a book: a lack of basic motivation.
 
It is very easy to come up with an idea for a book. We can be inspired in all sorts of ways, including the “I’m pretty sure I could write a better book than this myself” we have all probably felt after reading a mediocre book.
 
But the world is full of half-finished projects for which the explanation is that the person who started the project didn’t have enough motivation to finish it.
 
Real writers are highly motivated. There can be no doubt about that.
 
There are many reasons they are motivated, and we can take a look at some of them.

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The most obvious is that they have a story to tell and writing it down is the best way of telling it, other than pinning someone in a  corner and telling it to their face while they try to escape.
 
I’m one of those sorts of writers. Once I have an idea for a story there is no way I can rest until it is written.
 
Sometimes I’m halfway through writing one story when a second comes along and demands attention. It can be a real problem finishing the first story while the second one jumps around in my head trying to get my attention.
 
I think that many real authors suffer from that problem, which is why they produce so many books at frequent intervals. They just can’t stop the stories from flooding out.

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The second motivation is that people do it for money.
 
If you are just starting out on your journey as an author, and the possibility of making a lot of money is what is motivating you, then brace yourself, because I have some bad news for you.
 
70% of all the books ever written never sell more than 100 copies.
 
How motivated do you feel now?
 
There are many reasons why they never sell more copies, and a lack of marketing is one of them, but it shows you what a tough industry you have chosen to enter.
 
Of the remaining 30%, 70% of those will never sell more than 1,000 copies. To put that into context, you have to sell around 30,000 copies to make the equivalent of the “living wage” in the UK, which is about £20k p.a. at time of writing (about $25k or €23k).

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Only the smallest percentage of authors will ever make more than the living wage from writing books and the mega rich authors are the ones that get their books turned into movies or TV series.
 
Yes – that could be you. But before you give up your day job, ask yourself what the probability is.

​The vast majority of authors are the equivalent to the Sunday-morning-in-the-park footballers comparing themselves to Lionel Messi (or Joe Burrow if you are American).

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For many authors writing starts out as a hobby; something they like to do to pass the time. The thought of actually publishing a book often doesn’t cross their mind. It is something suggested by someone who has read their “scribblings” as they self-effacingly describe them.
 
Those people tend to be some of the ones in the 70% who never sell more than 100 copies, because they don’t understand that the writing is the easy part. It is the marketing that sells books and that is the difficult part. Thos sorts of people would much rather just keep on with the writing part, so their books never sell.
 
Which is a great pity because they might be potential best-sellers, but no one will ever know.

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For some people writing is cathartic.
 
Writing allows people to express their emotions, especially negative ones. Getting things down on the page is a form of release. It can also provide insights into why people feel the way they do, so it is good for their mental health. I have met many authors who have told me that this is why they write.
 
Many of those sorts of books become best sellers, because the emotions expressed are so authentic.

I have described just 4 examples of motivation for writing in this blog, one of which is actually built on a false premise. There are many more I am sure. Why not tell us what motivates you to write? Use the comments section below to share your story.
 
So, if you are just starting out on your writing journey, ask yourself how you are going to keep yourself motivated for weeks, maybe months, on end while you work on your book.
 
Then ask yourself how you are going to keep yourself motivated during the seemingly endless querying process.
 
And, if the querying process doesn’t pay off and you end up self-publishing, ask yourself how you are going to keep yourself motivated while you market your book yourself.

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I’d love to be able to answer those questions for you, but in the writing world there is no boss or team to help you stay motivated.

There is only you, the device you are writing on and, if you are lucky, a loved one who will keep you supplied with cups of tea and comforting words.
 
But you aren’t really alone. There are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of people in the world just like you. Join a writers’ group either in the real world or the virtual world, because they, too, can provide you with encouraging words.
 
But it will still be down to you to do the rest and there is no one to motivate you to do it except you.
 
If you happen to have some good motivational tips, please feel free to share them in the comments below.
 
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