15 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Write Today

1. Start a Hub.

2. Bring a journal or one of those classic yellow pads of paper to a coffee shop. Caffeinate yourself. Don't bring your phone.

3. Bribe yourself with a reward. If you write 500 words, then you can watch an episode of your favourite show or buy that cupcake that's staring at you from the glass case in the coffee shop.

4. Start by making a list of your writing goals. What are you working on right now? When do you want to finish it? How much do you need to accomplish today, this week, or this month?

5. Do a free-write. Time yourself for five minutes. It's only five minutes. You can do it. Write as fast as you can for the entire time. Do not take the pen off the page. It can be about anything. As a prompt, start with, "Right now I feel..." if you'd like. Anything goes in a free-write, so don't feel bad if you end up writing, "potato, potato, potato..."

6. Start with one sentence. Make it your goal to just write one sentence. Maybe more will come out.

7. Don't take yourself too seriously. If you're really stuck, write jokes, a to-do list, or a journal entry. Doodle. Just be with the page in whatever way you need to be.

8. Go outside. Clear your head.

9. Give yourself permission to be a bad writer. We're all bad writers at least some of the time. That doesn't mean you're some kind of imposter or that you shouldn't bother trying. Keep writing, and if you suck, you suck. Nothing wrong with that.

10. Make a list of the potential things you could do to motivate yourself to write today.

11. Talk it out. Sometimes what we want to get across feels too complicated and muddled. Record yourself speaking about your topic, characters, idea, or story. Attempt to transcribe what you said. Then leave the transcription behind and start writing if you can, or simply stick to your script.

12. Remember that person in your high-school creative writing class that the teacher adored? That absolutely brilliant teenage author who could do no wrong and was always leaps and bounds ahead of you? Write a short story about what their life must be like now. It's okay to be a little mean. They won't see it.

13. Read an interesting book and take notes in the margins.

14. Listen to the radio or a podcast and write down the lines that strike you.

15. Give yourself permission to write. There will always be work, school, chores, friends, family, and the internet. There will always be a thousand different distractions, but if you are a writer than writing is important to you. So make it important. Let it take priority. Let yourself write even if there are more useful or practical things you could be doing. Just let yourself write. It is never a waste of time.