All writers face the atrophy of motivation to complete a memoir that seems to come with writing a long literary work over months and months and even over a period of years.

Let’s face it: writing can be hard and discouraging. The most interesting of topics (at least they seemed so at one time) may grow stale and uninteresting as you write and rewrite (and ask yourself who would possibly want to read it). Writers rightfully want to know what they can do to get back in the groove of production that had marked their earlier efforts.

A Technique For Motivation

One technique that seems to work (especially in combination with other efforts) is to bring the phase of your project that you are working on (and possibly postponing) to a close—whether that phase is the end of the book, a chapter, or a scene. When you experience your production resulting in completion—especially if you print your text and place it in a three-ring binder for you to read (and admire!), you may well feel elated as you realize that it is “adding up.” Who wants to be stuck in and endless project?

If too many pieces remain unfinished, you may feel dispirited as you contemplate all that must to be researched, thought through, written and rewritten before you are finished. One problem with unfinished work is often that you have lost the train of inspiration. You may no longer remember what it was you felt was so important about a specific memory. Now not only do you have text to write, but you must to recapture the flow of your writing. You must reignite the motivation to complete a memoir

• Look at the writing you are now engaged in and bring some part of it to a close: whether that is researching, writing the first draft, adding images and metaphors or polishing the draft.
• Having done this you may just find yourself looking forward to completing another piece.