Momentum Matters: Because Pushing a Boulder Uphill Sucks

Writing advice ranges from “Write every day until the end of time” to “Write whenever your muse makes a surprise visit.” So what’s the right habit to get into? Neither, all of the above, and everything in between!

Huh? I know, it sounds confusing. Time to clarify.

You Determine What’s Right

Only you know what works best with your writing style, your personal schedule, and your goals. If you work a full-time job that takes fifty hours per week and you’re trying to fit writing in around that, you’ll probably have to be a little more lenient with your creative schedule. Likewise, if you have more freedom with your calendar, you may be able to dedicate more time to your writing.

The key is to make a plan and stick to it.

What’s in a Plan?

When you make a plan for your writing (or anything else, for that matter), you’re making a commitment to follow through. If you plan to write every afternoon at 4:00 p.m., start thinking of that time as an unbreakable promise to yourself. Would you break a promise to your bestie to meet for coffee? Not likely. It’s your turn to be your very own bestie and stick to what you’ve promised yourself.

When you do, you’ll feel accomplished — and you’ll gain momentum toward completing the project you’re working on.

The Rolling Boulder & the Coyote

Many of you probably remember a cartoon (now considered vintage) in which an ornery coyote was continuously being overrun by a runaway boulder careening down a steep hill. The coyote NEVER won because the boulder always gathered so much momentum that, by the time it reached the coyote, it barreled right over him, flattening him into a once-more-foiled antagonist.

THAT’S the kind of momentum you want when you write! We all want the kind of unstoppable energy of an enormous boulder rolling downhill. We want our fingers to fly over the keyboard, barely suppressing flames as our words hit the screen.

Sciency people say the recipe for momentum is something like:

Mass (M) times Velocity (V) = Momentum (M)

As a word person, itchy things start to happen inside my brain as soon as math starts putting letters into problems I need to figure out. It’s sort of like mixing chocolate and vinegar. Some things should never be done.

In order to banish the numbers from the equation, I’ve come up with a words-only equation to explain momentum for writers:

Writing + More Writing = Momentum

(See, it’s math with NO numbers! There should be a Nobel Prize for that. THIS is the kind of math that makes sense.)

The Opposite of Momentum

If you lose momentum, you end up with negative momentum. For writers, this is known as the big void, the giant empty, the what-the-hell-did-I-write-two-weeks-ago moment. It’s not fun or productive, because it usually entails going back in time and reading everything you’ve written up to that point, because you have ZERO idea what’s happened to your characters.

Why? You’ve been on an extended mental vacation that included zero time dedicated to plotting, writing, or editing. Essentially, your characters have been running rampant, having keggers and partying it up while you, the parent, have been napping and pretending that trips to the mall count as ‘research.’

Pushing a Boulder Uphill Is No Fun

Boulders are heavy, and guess what? You get to start pushing this one from a dead standstill. It’s been sitting there for a while, so it’s mired in a whole lot of nebulous plot lines that seem vaguely familiar, yet distant because they’ve been allowed to rest for so long. You’ll also have people poking you and asking when you’ll be turning things in.

You finally get a little angsty when you realize you’ve left the boulder sitting just a little too long. You’ve dropped the ball and suddenly find yourself in the position of playing catch-up. Future and current work doesn’t stop while you procrastinate, so while old work piles up, new work and ideas keep coming. After a while, it gets tougher and tougher to get your boulder to budge.

Procrastination Is Fun, But Have You Tried Just Getting Shit Done?

There’s something to be said for the feeling of accomplishment that comes from meeting — even BEATING — a deadline. It’s that shazam-kapow-kaboom! moment when you know you got your stuff done and you can start planning for the next thing on the calendar. You’re not playing catch-up and you’re not making excuses…you’re just GETTING SHIT DONE. Hello, momentum!

And guess what? If you’ve kept to your writing schedule, whatever you planned, when it’s time to hit the keyboard again, you’ll remember exactly what your characters have been up to. Consistency provides clarity.

Do you need to write every day? Nope. Can you write every day? Sure! If you’ve got space on your calendar, go for it!

Do you have to finish your book in six months? No way. Is it possible? Absolutely! You can write from dawn until dusk every day from “Once upon a time” to “The End” to complete your project.

The goal is to set your schedule and stick to what works for you. When you build a consistent pattern with your writing, you’ll build momentum. Pretty soon, your book will be just like a boulder rolling down a hill, and you better keep up, you brilliant author, because when you’ve got momentum, the ideas will just keep coming.

When you keep the promises you’ve made to yourself — and your readers — you’ll gain a feeling of accomplishment, and the momentum you feel will continue to grow.