What's a good source of writing motivation?
We tend to think that the desire to communicate, to see people enjoying our words, and maybe a modicum of recognition as the motivators for writing, but sometimes getting mad works, too.
In the March issue of The Writer magazine, children's author Pamela Jane recounts how her eighth-grade English teacher accused her of copying a story she'd written. When she denied it, he told her in front of the rest of the class, "I don't believe you."
She didn't speak, but inside she was saying, "Just wait. Someday I'll be a real writer. Then you'll be sorry."
By the time she became an author, the English teacher was dead, but he'd unwittingly given her a kind of gift: "a gritty determination to prove he was wrong."
BEING ENCOURAGED TO WRITE HELPS, TOO
In the same article, Pamela Jane shows the other side of the coin. A chemistry teacher astonished her by saying he wasn't worried about her chemistry grade "because I know that someday I'm going to have your books on my shelf."
When her first book came out she sent him a copy and a letter telling him how much his words had meant to her. He read her letter at his retirement ceremony.
PS: Don't stint on encouraging words, you never know the effect they may have.
(You'll find plenty of encouraging words in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
