Hello!

Reminder: Slots are open for half-price "Kickstart Your Novel" support. Scroll down for the details or book here: calendly.com/aliluke/kickstart

One topic that came up a lot in the recent Aliventures survey was how to get motivated to write.

Perhaps that's something you're struggling with too. You want to write (so the motivation is there, somewhere!) but you don't have the headspace or the energy at the end of a long day.

You might sit down at your laptop, intending to write ... only to end up reading news headlines, watching YouTube, or scrolling on social media instead.

I think every writer is familar with this kind of procrastination. And I know it causes some writers to worry that they're just not cut out to be a writer: they're not motivated enough to actually do the writing.

But in most cases, there's something else behind that procrastination.

What you're really struggling with isn't motivation. 

It's uncertainty.

When you don't know what you're going to write – when you've run out of story ideas or you don't have a clue what happens next in your novel – it's no surprise that you're struggling to motivate yourself to sit down and put words on the page.

You don't need better focus or more motivation. Instead, you need clarity about your story itself.

I wrote about figuring out what comes next in your story in the newsletter a couple of weeks ago, but if you don't have time to read that, here's a really quick exercise you can do.

Take 5 minutes to brainstorm the next few points in your story. 

If you're not sure, ask yourself questions like:

• What would my character do next?
• Who else might be involved?
• How will this scene make things more complicated?

Don't worry too much about getting this "right". Just pick something that seems to make sense for your story currently. This is just one draft: you'll get to rework it at a later stage.

Happy writing,

Ali

P.S. If you missed last week's blog post, you can find it here:

Annual Writing Goal Progress in Q2, 2025 (Ditched Daily Writing Goal … and Wrote More!)

During 16+ years working with writers, I’ve seen an awful lot of people get stuck somewhere in their first three chapters. 

They want to write a novel – they’ve been dreaming about it for years – but they can’t move forward.

It’s usually because of one of these three reasons:

1. They’ve stalled on the starting line. They have an idea, character sheets, world-building notes, even an outline … but they can’t quite take that step of typing “Chapter 1” and writing the first sentence.
2. They’re not sure what comes next. They had lots of ideas for the opening, and they nailed their inciting incident … but then they ran out of story somewhere around the Chapter 3 mark.
3. They keep editing what they’ve already written. They want the beginning to be perfect … so they have one or two chapters that they’ve tweaked over and over again, but nothing after that. 

Does one of those resonate with you, too?

Here’s the good news: you don’t need to spend weeks or months taking yet more writing courses and classes.

We can fix this in an hour.

Even if you’ve spent years stuck at the start of your novel, we’ll make dramatic progress together … and get you set up for writing all the way to “The End”.

You'll get an hour-long one-to-one coaching session with me, including:

📝 A step-by-step worksheet that helps you through the specific roadblocks you’re facing (we’ll fill this in together during the session).

📍 A high-level roadmap for your novel, with major plot points pinned down so you’ve finally got a clear direction to go in.
 

🎯  A clear and achievable action plan to take you through the next couple of weeks of writing.

❓ The chance to ask any questions you have, both during our call and by email afterwards.

💌 A check-in email from me a week after our call so I can cheer you on with your progress and support you with any issues that have come up.

✨ A BONUS check-in email from me the following week for extra support. I’ll throw in extra free resources as needed (e.g. a custom worksheet for you).

Price: $150 $75 (slots only available until Friday 18th July)

Book your slot now:

calendly.com/aliluke/kickstart

🛡️ 100% money-back guarantee: As with everything I sell, I’ll always be happy to give you a full refund, no quibbles or awkwardness, if you go through Kickstart Your Novel then feel it wasn’t the right fit for you.

If you’re wondering why Kickstart Your Novel is so cheap and/or why it’s only available for two weeks … it’s because I’m still refining the process! You get to work with me at half the usual rate and you’ll get more support and follow up too. :-) I’m planning to launch it at full price around the end of August.

Hope to be hearing about your novel very soon,

Ali x

P.S. Not quite sure or have a question before you commit to Kickstart Your Novel? Want one-to-one support from me with a different stage of writing? Just hit “reply”. I’ll always be honest about whether I can help with your specific situation.

Here’s the link again with my available time slots over the next two weeks:

calendly.com/aliluke/kickstart