Front cover image for Motivate your writing!

Motivate your writing!

Print Book, English, ©2005
University Press of New England, Hanover, NH, ©2005
xviii, 226 p. : il. ; 24 cm
9781584654421, 9781584654537, 1584654422, 1584654538
1117697463
Introduction: Motivation and writing : so what?
Part I. Motivation : why people do what they do: 1. What is motivation? ; Extrinsic motivation ; The motives
2. Identifying your own motives ; Motive imagery ; Practice scoring for motive imagery
3. The achievement-motivated writer ; Characteristics of achievement feedback ; Dealing with writer's block
4. The affiliation-motivated writer ; Characteristics of affiliative feedback ; Dealing with writer's block
5. The power-motivated writer ; Characteristics of power feedback ; Dealing with writer's block
6. The writer with multiple motives
7. Discovering motives using reality testing ; Motive-related behaviors ; Identifying your motives worksheet
Part II. Motivation: why published writers do what they do: 8. Motives, readers, and writers ; Motives and reading matter ; The research ; But what about me?
9. Being overmotivated
Part III. How writers see themselves: 10. Where writers are coming from ; Values (and motives) ; Self-image and social role: thinking about yourself as a writer ; The background of writers: where do they come from?
11. Assessing self-image ; Using the writer's self-image sort ; Fooling the watcher ; "Can I write on demand?"
12. The impostor syndrome: "Am I really a writer?"
13. Attribution theory ; It'll never be like this again
14. The problem-solving model inside a motivated thinker ; The problem-solving model in easy stages
Part IV. Creativity: 15. Motivating your creativity
16. The seven deadly myths of creativity ; Heredity ; The muse ; Solitude ; Discipline ; Similarity/the "right" way ; Completeness ; Worthiness/belonging ; Forget the myths
Part V. Goal setting: 17. Overview of goal setting ; Muddlin' through ; Direction and domain ; Rational goals
18. Goal issues: finding your balance point ; Different people need different goals ; "Challenging" and "realistic" depend on your perceptions ; The balance point changes based on external issues ; The balance point changes based on internal issues ; Give yourself flexibility in your goal setting ; Summary of a good goal ; Examples of things you can influence for goals
Part VI. The process of writing : how it works; what you do: 19. Styles of the creative process ; Mozartian and Beethovenian
20. Steps in the writing process ; Generating ideas ; Identifying a topic ; Plotting ; Researching ; First-draft writing ; Editing ; Rewriting
21. Parts of the work ; Beginning, middle, and end ; The beginning ; Starting your flow ; Sitting down and warming up ; Getting to the beginning ; Jotting down ideas ; Freewriting ; Outlining ; Plotting ; The middle ; Natural breaks ; Rewriting ; Approaching the denouement ; The end ; The next one
22. Motivate your selling! ; Getting an agent ; Getting past rejection ; Changing strategies over time ; Self-confidence
Part VII. Development : managing and changing yourself (and your writing): 23. Demotivators ; The environment in which you write ; Other people
24. Superstitions
25. Recharging your motives
26. Motivate your learning ; Basic principles of personal change
27. Workshops ; Benefits of the workshop ; Dangers of the workshop ; Small group research ; Things to watch ; Case study: the Cambridge science-fiction workshop ; A picture of a successful workshopper
28. When you are not writing
29. Support systems ; What is your network? ; A far from complete list of writer's organizations
30. Changing your motives ; Set your values ; Do your research ; Find your reinforcers ; Find your sources of feedback ; Find your potential obstacles ; Changing your motives: the actual process in detail
31. Last words ; Long-term results ; If all else fails
Appendixes: Appendix A. Discovering your motives using the picture story exercise ; Appendix B. Case studies ; Appendix C. Sample development plans