#MotivatedWriter Series ~ How to get motivated to write.

If you're in the industry you hear it all the time. "I've always wanted to write a book." With a smile on my face I usually tell the person that all you have to do is start. Of course the very unserious "writer" will give me a list of their excuses as to why they can't. A writer who will consider it says, "How do I start." To me that is the key phrase that says, I'm ready.

You have to be motivated to write. Simply put, it takes time out of your day just as it does to go to the gym. Now you can't just sit down and usually write an entire book in one day. You have to start a little at a time. The key is to start.

Motivate your writing by sitting down with a notebook and writing whatever comes to mind. Perhaps you don't want to write a book, you want to write a blog. Google blog topics and you'll be amazed at what comes up. If nothing else you'll have some writing queues to get you started. Let your brain flow for a little bit.

Set out a few minutes in your day, every day to write. You don't need eight hours a day unless you intend on this being your whole career and you can financially afford that now. Ten minutes will be a great start. As your craft grows so will your motivation to continue writing regularly.

Once you start the process of writing with the intent to publish or just to get started it will be like going to the gym. One day you lift  five pounds. After a few weeks you lift twenty. Like I said, you're not going to become a writer in one day, okay you will, perhaps just not a published one. But on day one you wrote something. What usually happens is his motivates you to write something else the next day.

If the desire is really in you it will begin to self motivate you.

If you've loved writing in the past and lost sight of it this process can help you get back on track again. Continuing to carve out a little time each day will help to keep you motivated.

Journal writing is equally as motivating for the creative process. Seriously, jotting down what you did, saw, felt in a day will keep that daily task minder in the back of your head. Every little bit counts. Just like running. Every step gets you to your goal.


Follow the #MotivatedWriter Series
HOW TO GET MOTIVATED TO WRITE
HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED TO WRITE

 Author Bernadette Marie is known for building families readers want to be part of. Her series The Keller Family has graced bestseller charts since its release in 2011, along with her other series and single title books. The married mother of five sons promises Happily Ever After always…and says she can write it, because she lives it. 

When not writing, Bernadette Marie is shuffling her sons to their many events—mostly hockey—and enjoying the beautiful views of the Colorado Rocky Mountains from her front step. She is also an accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do.

A chronic entrepreneur, Bernadette Marie opened her own publishing house in 2011, 5 Prince Publishing, so that she could publish the books she liked to write and help make the dreams of other aspiring authors come true too.

Keeping the positive side

Best Selling Author
Bernadette Marie

It wasn't so long ago that you'd hear me say the word "hate" before almost any sentence.  "I hate school. I hate that dress.  I hate my body.  I hate that."  Yes, this was me.  What an ugly word. I was young.  Newly married.  Desperate to have a baby.  I was hanging out with old friends that I'd grown up with.  Trouble makers, no.  Deviants? No.  Gossips...this is summed up with OMG!

It was brought to my attention at a wedding a of a friend that my outlook on life sucked.  While sitting among friends I hadn't seen in a long time and their spouses we were catching up.  Inevitably the conversation steers to, "I saw so and so  at the store the other day.  Did you know they got married..."  Typical conversation, right?  However, my negative self would reply, "Well, did you hear that they..."  Again, OMG!!!

One of my friend's husbands, whom I really didn't know well looked right at me and in front of all my friends, my husband, and my mother said, "Do you only know the negative things about people?"

WOW!  Talk about a come to God moment.  Lightning bolt to the head.  A slap across the face.  This was exactly what I was doing, idle gossip with  no purpose.  I spent the rest of the reception with my head down, mouth closed, and heart squeezing because I looked like an idiot.

It didn't take much more to learn my lesson.  In sixteen years you haven't heard the word hate come from my lips.  It's a nasty word.  And in my home, of now five sons, its a four letter word that is not said by any of us.  Idle gossip has no place in my life.  If you choose to share it with me I listen, but I don't have to reply.

This very significant moment in my life taught me I needed to hang out with people who were a bit more positive.  I began to do that.

At the time I owned a small salon.  I began to gather friends who had like interests, who wanted to build a business, who wanted to help me along the way.  From there I began my family, started direct sales companies, and again, began to build relationships with like minded, motivated people.  In the past sixteen years I have revamped my life.  I want your successes for you as much as I want my own.  I want you to feel as good about yourself as I do about myself.  And idle gossip is a thing of the past.  I surround myself with bright thinkers.  Positive thinkers.  People who take care of themselves and will take care of you too if you needed it.

Heading into my 40th year I look around me and I'm pleased with what I've built.  Businesses. Careers. I've lived out many of my childhood dreams, and I continue to do so every day.  In this year I will become a second degree black belt.  Every day I tie on that belt I smile.  I can't believe that is me!  There is no room in this world for hate, not even for the word, because soon enough it begins to become you.

Gone are the days when I had friends only because I'd known them a long time.  Now are the days I seize the moment to find a new friend and have another positive moment in my life.

To those friends I've lost because I was petty, maybe you could give me another try.  To my new friends, thank you for being the positive crowd I needed.  To those I've yet to meet, I want only the best for you.  Let's take the world by storm and make it a wonderful place to live!

Drop hate from your words, from your hearts, and from your way of living.  Open yourself up to the greatness that is in you and in others.  When you feel the negative come along, only you can make it go away.  Is every day easy? No, but it doesn't have to beat you down either.  When you feel like slashing out at the world on Facebook or Twitter, write it and then delete and put good out into the universe.  I'm here to tell you it'll come back to you.

Have a Positive Day!
Bernadette Marie