Writing With Zest And Confidence
Find A Worthy Project To Fuel Your Motivation
Back in the inaugural issue of this newsletter, I wrote about how I worked my way through a bout of writer’s block. The block was an unusual experience for me – since adolescence, I have steadily turned out multiple forms of writing: humor columns, newsletter reporting, magazine articles, press releases, etc. Even when not producing work for pay, I usually have a journal going, with plenty of plans in it for future writing projects.
Those older journals held material key to the prolific ideas I was able to articulate years later when I ran Creative Liberty, a blog that celebrated the creative process. (You can visit the archives here.) I created my very own theory of “creative momentum,” and one of it elements was choosing a worthy project.
Worthy projects are like magnets. If you’ve got one, you’ll find yourself flying to the keyboard, tapping out paragraph after paragraph with zest and confidence. Worthy projects are not always an antidote to writing slumps or blocks – but they certainly can help.
The Hallmarks Of A Worthy Project
Clearly, a writing project that excites you is more fun and creates more motivation than one that leaves you feeling like just phoning it in. What makes a project one that’s “really worth it”? As I wrote in a Creative Liberty post on the topic …
It’s a stretch for you. Sometimes a big stretch. Completing the project will compel you to develop new skill sets or refine old ones, and it will push you out of your comfort zone.
It puts you in “flow,” that magical state that happens when your skills are perfectly matched to the challenge at hand. You have many moments of timeless engagement when you’re working on your best projects; for many of us, that’s what keeps us coming back for more.
It takes on a life of its own. The best of worthy projects end up being self-organizing and not entirely under your control. As you expand your relationship with the project, it can often lead to the involvement of others, either as participants or as members of an intimately engaged audience.
It scares you a little. Or a lot. That goes back to the “stretch” part. Most of my worthy projects have had me asking “what on Earth do I think I’m doing?” at one point or another.
There’s the potential for the project to have a legacy. It doesn’t have to be anything grand. Regardless of the size of your project, there’s pleasure to be had if you’ve left something behind – a song, a blog, a book, or the smiles and memories that you and your collaborators have shared.
Another characteristic of worthy projects is that they expand your world, despite demands placed on your time and energy. They manifest what feminist psychiatrist Jean Baker Miller called the “5 Good Things” that define a growth-enhancing relationship. Translated for writers, this means …
They give you a sense of zest or well-being.
They provide you with the ability to take action within the project.
They increase your self-understanding and knowledge about writing.
They expand your sense of self-worth as a writer.
Working on them encourages you to participate in other writing projects or creative endeavors.
The last point is especially significant. A worthy project doesn’t (and shouldn’t) become so all consuming that you cannot see beyond it. Use a notebook or another idea-catching method to collect your thoughts for future engaging projects, so you have a source ready when you finish your current one.
Need Some Ideas For A Worthy Project?
If you are feeling a bit dry on potential ideas for a worthy project, here are two activities you might try. Both hold the potential to bring meaning to your life, as well as those of many others.
Oral history projects. Nonfiction writers, especially those with journalism backgrounds, often have many of the critical skills needed to gather oral histories from people who have witnessed or participated in a significant event, or lived through a remarkable time period. If you can operate audio or video recording equipment, conduct an interview, and organize or actually create a transcript, you can assist a narrator (as interviewees are often known) in sharing their life story with future generations.
You can get up to speed on how to do oral history interviews by reading this primer prepared by the Smithsonian. The Oral History Association prepared a guide to conducting oral history interviews remotely last summer, so you don’t necessarily need to leave home during the pandemic to participate.
One way to search for existing oral history projects to join as a volunteer is to simply Google “oral history projects near me,” or “oral history projects” and add a modifier related to a favorite hobby or interest. There are projects across the nation, varying in scale from the tiny to the mighty.
Keep a COVID diary or journal. A worldwide pandemic is raging. You can record how the phenomenon is influencing how you live by keeping an electronic or pen-and-paper diary. Some people are already doing this in one form or another. Writers might consider this as a worthy project for two reasons: one self-focused, the other legacy-focused.
If you choose to write personal essays or memoirs later on, you will have a rich source of material to draw upon that reflects what this time period is like for you.
Historians and future generations (who won’t have the personal memories you do of this time period) can gain more personal insight into what this unique period in history was like for ordinary people.
Where will your worthy project take you?
If you have undertaken a worthy project related to your writing and would like to chat about it with me, just reply to this email! If your story is really good, I may even share in a future newsletter.
That’s it for this issue! Until next time, wishing you long days and pleasant nights.