May 26, 2025
What are your triggers for writing? (For instance, what gets you hyped or starts the story in your head).
What chills your drive to write?
Let’s start with the easy one. What chills my drive to write? There are two main ones: stress and lack of privacy. Stress can come from a variety of sources, but financial is the primary one. (Isn’t that true for many of us?) You’d think writing would be a way to relieve stress, but that doesn’t work for me.
Then there’s the lack of privacy. My writing space is now in a public area of our house. There’s frequent foot traffic passing by. Even if I’m deep in writing, I can be interrupted frequently. Not just when I’m writing, either. I could just be surfing the net or listening to music and I’ll get a tap on the shoulder. I frequently feel as if someone is watching me. Plus, there’s too much noise. My headphones cancel out a lot, but not all of it. It makes it hard to concentrate. (I think I have a harder time concentrating in general these days.)
What gets me hyped?
I didn’t use to need to get hyped to write. It was a constant state of being. Give me ten minutes and a piece of paper and pen, and I’d be spitting out words. But I’ve slowed down. It might be that I’m trying to work on too many stories at once. (I’m working on three.) I used to work on one at a time, so my concentration is scattered. Or it’s all the outside pressures I’m dealing with. Or maybe I’m worried no one cares about my writing.
But a good idea will spark my urge to write every time. I’m currently working on my third version of a short story, and the more I work with the main character, the plot keeps shifting into something new and better. Or maybe a twist will pop into my head as I crawl into bed after a writing session, as my character tells me what I’ve missed. (His name is Amos Headley. Love that name.)
Anyway, the longing to write is still with me constantly, even if I don’t get to it. (Which makes me feel guilty. Which, in itself, is a deterrent to writing. Vicious cycle.)
What triggers the other authors on this hop? Find out by following the links below.
As always, until next time, please stay safe.
May 26, 2025
What are your triggers for writing? (For instance, what gets you hyped or starts the story in your head).
What chills your drive to write?
Considering I never imagined I would write ANYTHING, I seem to add a good number of words every day without too much effort. I just wish I could find a way to get more people to read them.
Don’t we all!
I hadn’t really considered privacy as a factor, but it totally is! I know that once I was able to get a home office established (after my eldest grew up and moved out, leaving an open room), it made a HUGE difference in my ability to focus. @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
I used to have the privacy issue when living at my parents’ home. It can really put a stopper in your productivity.