Music for the Day

It’s one of those topics that I think about whenever I have a walk outside, usually at night. After all, whether you draw or write, being motivated helps fuel you. And yet, I have seen plenty of cases where some genuinely creative people lost motivation for years and even a decade. And I will admit that I’m one of them.

While I blame my time at Amazon for it, I’ll also admit that my dry points began earlier. Perhaps I let myself get distracted from being in a chat community (Crimson Flag). Or maybe, after writing a couple chapters of Deviant Reunion/Battlefield, I got demoralized and stopped. Perhaps one of those days, I’ll go back to that story and write it. But, of course, it’ll be different. Heck, one of the ideas I had at the time has been thrown off of canon during that time.

If you were wondering what that idea is, A-Fox, also known as Daren, was supposed to be Daren Crevan’s feral form that he would develop in a story. And then A-Ninetales, also Daren, separated from A-Fox when he developed macro powers. If you were wondering why I have so many Darens, that is why. The timeline got split into three!

Which makes me think of a story where they’ll all meet up.

What was I talking about? Oh, yes. Motivation. It’s dangerous to lose motivation, especially when you get yourself rolling. After all, losing that would cause you to lose momentum, and once gone, it’s challenging to regain it. I should know. Even after returning to posting my stories for a few years now, I don’t get the same number of favorites, views, comments, etc., that I used to with my stories.

Which leads me to a tricky point: how do you regain motivation? It’s one of those things where it’s different for every person. For some, chatting with folks about your writings can be a good refuel. For others, treating it like a career instead of a hobby can be an excellent reason to get motivated. For myself, it’s to get into a different place from home, like a library or a workplace, where I get myself motivated.

Indeed, it’s how I managed to get back into writing. Back in 2018, a few months into working for Safeway, I got into a habit of coming to work early. I believe it’s because I was a few minutes late for work due to traffic, and while I wasn’t reprimanded, it made me careful in making sure traffic doesn’t screw me over again. So, I got there early and, because I was asked not to clock in early unless demanded, I often sat in the Starbuck café waiting until one day I got the idea to use that time to write. So, I did, and I made my comeback with The Pokémon Prometheus.

Regardless of how you find your motivation (unless it involves illegal or immoral actions), I do encourage you all to seek it rather than wait for it to come. If you don’t, you may find yourself waiting weeks, months, years, or even decades for it to come, and it will be less worth it the longer it takes. After all, once the wheel of creation stops rolling, people will leave, and even if you do get it moving again, it’ll likely take you a long time to get back to where you were.