Sep. 20: Rekindling Enthusiasm

Today's meditation is about rekindling enthusiasm for a writing project for which you have lost that spirit of enthusiasm. Fred White gives some good suggestions for how to keep your enthusiasm going. The one I liked the most was to treat one's self to a chocolate sundae. The "Try This" segment did not have a writing assignment but did give three good suggestions of what to include in a what-to-do-in-case-of-discouragement plan. His suggestions are some common sense ideas that take time prior to writing that many of us do not take. It is sort of like reading the instructions that come with a "needs assembly" item you bought. All to often we start trying to put the thing together without first reading the instructions. Comedians claim this is a male failing but I think it is more a human failing because I know many women, self included, to tend to do this too. In order for writing to really work, particularly some larger project, it does take some planning prior to actually beginning the project. For me the preplanning that tends to not get enjoy attention is having a realistic timeline. I also need to have in my timeline the times that I will have sufficient time to fully develop the story. I now have in progress three stories of undetermined length plus a Bible study or several devotionals. However, I am currently so involved in making items for my two mission concerns that I do not have sufficient time to develop these further unless they just happen to fall within the framework of a Daily Writer assignment.

I also liked his idea of writing down a one-page explanation of your reasons for embarking on the project and why you think it's a worthy project. I not only think his reasons for doing this (reminding yourself of you original goals and reasons as you weather harsh criticism) are good but this would also help you keep your storyline following your original objectives. I sometimes find myself getting sucked down some rabbit hole that has nothing to do with the story I'm trying to tell. This makes the flow of the writing very disjointed.