![]() ![]() I read a smart book called Getting Things Done by David Allen because I was feeling overwhelmed with commitments. A great habitat for mice, but terrible for my mental state. This time last year, I had two big plastic boxes and several bookshelves overflowing with story drafts, events details, admin stuff, travel plans, ideas and magazines. I can't help it, I'm hot for filing systems. My wife Naomi almost kicked me out of bed a few months ago when she saw that the book I was enjoying so much had a big picture of a suspension filing system in it. So what would that story be for you? Is it better than the one you're working on at the moment? I came up with a stick alternative: 'Write the book you would be most jealous of your best friend writing.' The best bit of writing advice I ever heard was, 'Write the story you would most like to read, but that hasn't been written yet.' This is the carrot version of the advice. I'm always most inclined to write if I've got an idea I'm really excited about. Writing at dawn may not be your thing yet, but how good would it feel if by the time the rest of the country was just getting up, you had already done a great day's writing? Getting up at that time was agony for the first three years or so (I really like sleep), but now the habit is set so hard I do it automatically. I start at 6am at the weekends too, and while I'm on holiday. So I write every day from 6am till 7.30am. If I didn't have a regular commitment to myself, I would make excuses and then feel guilty about it. I know some writers who are able to produce work writing in sporadic bursts, a few times a week, late into the night, when they have the opportunity, but I could never work like that. What's the worst thing that could happen to your future if you don't write today? Find your fear and then run from it. He's being interviewed by Mariella Frostrup about his first novel. ![]() The radio is on, and my worst enemy from school comes on. I'm back in the pillow factory where I once worked for a month - the most depressing month of my life. Who isn't? I visualise what will happen if I don't fully dedicate myself to writing. What's your carrot? Specifically, what does success look like to you? ![]() Everywriter tv#My new carrot is chatting to Mariella Frostrup on TV about my first novel. I visualised myself opening a similar box of copies of my first book every day for more than a decade. Marty's dad gets a box delivered, and in it are copies of his book, which has just been published. Everywriter movie#Who doesn't? Since I was a teenager, the carrot I was always chasing was a scene from the movie Back to the Future, where Marty McFly goes back to 1985 at the end of the movie to find that his meddling in time has made his family gorgeous, confident and successful. My Murakami alarm was motivational tool number one. He had a big speech bubble coming out of his mouth saying, 'get up and write Adam'. Seven motivational tools every writer needsĪdam Marek offers his advice on staying focused while you're writing your masterpiece.įor years, the first thing I saw when my alarm went off at 5.57am was a photo of Haruki Murakami stuck to the side of my chest of drawers. ![]()
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