How do I motivate myself to write?

It's kind of basic but you just have to do it. Writing is about discipline. If you have a general outline it'll be easier to fill in the blanks. A whole lot of writers approach it like any job. You set a time frame and you write. At first maybe just an hour a day. Keep what works and dump what doesn't. Which might be all of it. And that's fine. But waiting for inspiration doesn't serve the nuts and bolts of writing. As far as the fear you might be more focused on the result and not the act. I don't know what genre you're writing in but unless it's educational, which is all about serving an audience, you may want to focus on serving the characters and story. You can't reach an audience without that in place first. Good luck.

Every project starts small and scales up. Your future writing project is no differnet. You don't owe me answers but a couple of questions for introspection:

1) How often and how much do you read? Try to get a good pace going of reading . If you don't read you won't ever wrtie. They reading and writing are peanut butter and jeally.

2) What techniques have you worked on ? Foreshadowing personification, symbolic scene writing. what are you working on?

3) Do you belong to a writing community (aka not here somewhere where writers hang out online) ? What do you do on in that space?

4) Do you keep a notebook with you when you are out and about to write in when you get an idea? (if not start doing that)

5) Do you block off writing time. It can be a 2 a.m. but do you block off time that is for writing?

If you waiting for an inspiration or to be in the mood I would telll you by contrast, and I don't mean to be insensative, but I would tell you writing is probably not for you. It is project work and it scales from small to large.

Best of luck.

It's like a job. Don't depend on inspiration, just do it. If you don't get it right then do it again. It's the doing that matters, not the results. I was 19 when I began my first novel and 60 when I finally finished one. I'm a slow learner. In the last 15 years I have written 4 novels, 4 novellas, and a bunch of short stories. I love the work, if not always the results. Just do it.

The best thing you can do is to qualify yourself, this will give you confidence. Start with YouTube videos about "The Hero's Jourmney", "weak words" and "Show don't tell", - writing is a craft like carpentry or knitting and you can learn it. Let yourself fall down some writing craft rabbit holes and then start with a short story with just two characters. Polish it, rewrite sections, make every sentence sparkle. Now introduce a third character (non human). So a dog or the landscape or the weather, make this a significant factor in your narrative. Now you need to start sharing and getting feedback. I'll happily review / edit a few shorts for you.

As a writer, I know story ideas always seem to pop in your head and when they do, you usually spend time on those ideas, but then when hitting a lull or brick wall they get shelved or stored away. A writer doesn't forget those stories, (they are their children so to speak) the writer just spends time on another until they can get back to them. Writing is for the writer because there is always a critic. Write because you enjoy what you write. If you publish, great! Just do it for you and don't worry about what may come. Some will like it and some won't, but what counts is if you like it. Take the time, it's worth it.

How do you motivate yourself to do anything that requires prolonged focus? Every time I take a break from it and wander off it's like starting over when I return to it. It's like it takes hours and hours to get into it and suddenly the call to set it down and tend to something else. Frustrating.

Start using AI. Pass your notes to AI and watch it develop the book for you. If you don't like the version, you can simply start a new version by altering your inputs a bit.

You can easily publish for free on Kindle Direct Publishing.

Just do it, if they suck them you accept it and learn from it. You can't improve if you don't learn from your failures, and you won't have failures if you don't just write

I find its better to set some time specifically for that and jsut write. Even when it's not using my preplanned characters and world.
Im still bad at doing it, but if I know its time I at least try.

Novel writers all share the same behavior…they write every day, usually the same schedule. It’s a discipline. If you only write when you are highly motivated you’ll never do it.

I dunno about you, but for me it'd help to have a group that reads each other's work and offers feedback that doesn't suck. I dunno where you might find such a thing

Just write and don’t worry about it. You’ll have all the time in the world later to go back and edit it again.

Google 'the first draft is terrible'.
Every writer thinks the same as you do.

I am the exact same way. I have the entire book in my head and three chapters written.

If you find out, please let me know.

People say that you can tell when something is forced, but in my experience, that's nonsense. Set aside time each day, or at least a couple of times a week, and just do it.