Unexpected Demotivators

I have this weird thing with colours.

I discovered it years ago when I was new to writing as a serious venture. I had decided to spend the whole day working on my latest novel, “The Shrinking City of Shar.” I set up at the kitchen table near the window and away I went. My emotions were all over the place that day. Literally from one minute to the next I could go from feeling on top of the world to wondering why I ever thought I could be a writer.

I finally started paying attention to what was happening around me each time my emotions took another sudden swing. I had to know what the hell was going on. The answer ended up being very simple and utterly ridiculous.

It was the sun… literally!

There were a lot of clouds in the sky. When the sun was out and shining, the colours were bright, and I believed in myself. When it went behind a cloud, the colours were dull… and I doubted everything.

I don’t know why the brightness of colours affect me so much and I don’t need to know why. Just being aware of it robs it of 90% of its power. The last 10% I take care of by acknowledging the phenomenon to whoever is nearby in the moment, crying out “I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE” every time the sun disappears to make fun of it.

One of the most important purposes of the MOJO is to help you become self-aware. Not all our mental and emotional barriers to writing are complex or deeply rooted and for most of them, simply becoming aware of them can disempower them without further work needed.

If you keep track of your moods throughout the day and pay attention to the little things that may have set them off, you’ll be surprised at how simple and ridiculous some of your demotivators are.

It might be a sound or a smell or an image.

It might be the font type and size you use (that’s one of mine) or if you’re writing with a blunt pencil verse a sharp pencil (also mine)

Are you truly incapable of writing something great or did you just catch a whiff of the disgusting lemon scented rubbish bags shifting your entire system of self-belief?