Sith Would Be Better Writers Than Jedi...Fight Me!

 I don't know exactly where or when I heard this, but there was a study done that showed people who worked angry were a lot more effective than people who weren't angry when they work.  Which made total sense to me.  When I get payments in the mail, people and companies are usually stupid enough that I start to get annoyed and at this point it's kind of just part of the process of getting myself psyched up for the battle.

It's kind of like Michael Jordan or other athletes who are not very nice before and during a game.  Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown actually keeps a list of all the wide receivers drafted ahead of him to remind himself of all the players teams thought were better than him.  I've commented before how teams love the "No one believes in us!" argument to get themselves motivated.

Maul would be a great writer!

So with that anecdotal evidence and an actual scientific study, it seems negative motivation can work far better than positive.  So here's the thing with the title:  writers often talk about writing in quiet spaces and putting on soft music and drinking tea and whatever like a Jedi.  Maybe that's not how we should do it.  Maybe you should be putting on death metal and drinking energy drinks or Jägermeister shots or something to really get you pissed off and psyched up.  Use your anger and hatred like a Sith Lord.

That was probably a benefit of working in coffee places or Panera Bread or wherever; I'd have all these stupid people being stupid around me to get me grumpy and thus want to actually finish what I'm doing.  That can happen even when I'm writing in the car in a parking lot and some jackass nearly hits my parked car to save like 0.05 seconds.  Or someone leaves a cart like five feet away from the cart corral.  Stuff like that can help to get the grumpiness going.

Though I'm not sure you really need to be grumpy.  Sometimes I think all you really need is love a simple goal of some sort.  I might goof off more in the early morning or afternoon, but once it starts getting closer to lunch or dinner, then I'll get more focused.  Or maybe I just have to piss or shit and so get focused to finish what I'm doing so I can pack up and go do that.

Anyway, if you're in a slump, maybe try changing things up and instead of the tea and New Age music, drink some Red Bull and turn on some Megadeth or whatever.  See if that fires you up.  Or just remind yourself that no one believes in you!  No publisher or agent wants your story!  No one wants to read it!  It's you vs. the world!  

Let the hate flow through you.  Good...good...

And so on...