How I Stay Motivated to Write by Molly Hogan

Let's face it: Teaching does not leave much time for other activities. Carving out consistent writing time is a commitment that can be challenging to uphold. I have my ups and downs, but here are a number of things that help me to write regularly.

1. Being part of a writing community:
Having a supportive, authentic audience and contact with other writers makes all the difference in the world. I can't emphasize enough how TwoWritingTeachers and Poetry Friday Roundup (and the writers I’ve met there) have supported and influenced my writing. Having one or two weekly “deadlines” to post is just the nudge I need.

2. Writing Morning Pages:
I've been in the habit of writing morning pages for a while, and it’s become a key part of my writing routine. Every weekday, I get up at 4:30 am and I write. I like the idea that I'm coming to writing from my dreams, before I have time to filter them through the day and my own skewed lenses. Often I have no idea what I'm going to write until I begin. Starting my day with writing centers me.

3. Recognizing that Some Moments Beg to be Written About:
The moments, phrases or ideas that pop into my head over and over are the ones I need to write about. I've learned that if I keep thinking about it, there's something there, some gold to be mined or a seed to cultivate. Sometimes I can't see it or find it until I begin to write. That process of discovery is an intoxicating part of writing.

4. Writing Something/Anything:
In Anne LaMott's wonderful book, Bird by Bird, she writes a whole chapter on "Shitty First Drafts." Reading that chapter is liberating. "Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts," she writes. Or, as Jane Smiley said, "Every first draft is perfect because all a first draft has to do is exist." When I get discouraged, I remember this and it takes the pressure off and allows me to get something, anything, down on paper. Once I have a first draft, even a crummy one, I can really begin to write. Once I've written something, I'm more apt to revisit that writing and write more. It's a beautiful, messy, self-perpetuating cycle.

5. Recognizing How Writing Enriches My Life:
Writing opens my eyes to see the world in fresh and unusual ways. It keeps me tuned in.
Recently, I was walking on the beach with my husband. Small white and purple shell fragments littered the tide-dampened sand as far as we could see. "It's like a star-lit sky," I said. "Just flip your world upside down. It looks like we're walking on the stars!"

If I didn’t write, I never would have appreciated that moment in the same way. Writing primes me to look at things differently and more intently, and opens me up to nuances and possibilities. I keep writing because looking at the world through a writer’s eyes can, in an instant, transform a walk on the beach and create a galaxy under my feet.



Molly Hogan is a fourth grade teacher at a rural K-8 school in Maine. She lives in an empty nest with her husband, two cats, lots of books and too many dust bunnies to count. She shares poetry and prose at her blog, Nix the Comfort Zone.