What drives a person, motivates them to complete something massive, like a book?   As I mentioned in a previous post, Stephen Crane wrote “The Red Badge of Courage” in seven days.   Woof.   He must have been possessed.   The man who ran the original marathon, Pheidippides, ran from a battle raging in the city of Marathon, 26 miles, to Athens to warn the people there.   Then he collapsed and died.   Obviously, he was highly motivated.   Why do people do it today?   I couldn’t answer that question.   Maybe it’s the same reason George Mallory attempted to climb Mount Everest, “Because it’s there.”   He failed 3 times, however.   What my point?   How many of us, writers or anything else, will fail halfway up our mountains?   Is our resolve strong enough to bring us to the ends of our respective tasks?
          Ever looked at the outside of a book, like, maybe, War and Peace and thought, “That’s huge.   I’m not even going to start that”?   The first published edition of War and Peace was 1,225 pages long while Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is 870, (US).   What’s a few hundred pages among friends?   Still, Order of the Phoenix looked pretty big on the outside.   I don’t think anyone had doubts about reading the whole thing.   Why not?   Probably because we knew the author could tell a decent story and keep us hooked.   I think I read half of it the first night I got it home.   Tolstoy may have been able to tell a story 150 years ago, but times have changed.   The everyday reader isn’t really interested any more.
          As I said, a good writer knows how to make a long, arduous journey seem to fly by.   Readers either read a book to the end, or they don’t.   The quality of it pretty much determines that.   What about the writers, the creators?   What motivates them to finish their mountains?   Some might argue that writing a novel is just as draining, (emotionally), as it is to climb Everest.   I know many people have finished a book that just hit the shelves and said, “Two more years for the next one.   I think I’m going to die….”   I think that thought has occurred to everyone whom has ever started writing a novel.   “I think I’ll die before I finish this….”
          I don’t always feel motivated, “but when I do…,” I’ll let you know.   Perhaps it’s psychological: motivation strikes us at some of the worst times, like driving to/from work, or at a party.   Maybe this happens because, somewhere in our individual subconscious, we know that we can’t follow through on it.   I get ideas for new stories all the time.   I don’t always follow through on them.   I used to be able to get decent motivation from my music, but the songs get old, all too quickly, and it’s difficult to find adequate replacements.   That’s my current struggle.   You would think that the potential to be uber rich would be sufficient.   Alas, still working.
          What motivates you? Don’t be a stranger.