by Suzanne Lieurance
Most writers put a lot of thought into how they begin a writing session.
They set up their space, make their coffee, find the right playlist. They have rituals for getting in. What they rarely think about is how they get out.
And that’s where a lot of momentum quietly dies.
The Problem With Just Stopping
When you close your document at the end of a session without leaving yourself any kind of marker, you’re setting up your next session to be harder than it needs to be.
You come back a day or two later and spend the first ten or fifteen minutes just figuring out where you are. What was I working on? Where was I going with this? What did I decide last time?
By the time you’ve reoriented yourself, your best writing energy is already spent.
That re-entry cost is one of the most underestimated obstacles in a writer’s life. It doesn’t feel like a big deal in the moment. But over weeks and months, it adds up to an enormous amount of lost momentum.
One Sentence That Changes Everything
There’s a habit that finishers use — quietly, consistently — that almost eliminates this problem.
Before they close their document at the end of every session, they write one line at the bottom of the page: Tomorrow I will…
Then they complete that sentence. Specifically. Not “work on chapter three” but “write the scene where Maya finds the letter” or “revise the opening paragraph of section two.”
Something concrete enough that when they come back, they don’t have to think. They just begin.
Why It Works
Resistance doesn’t usually live in the middle of a writing session. It lives at the beginning — in that moment when you sit down and face a blank decision about where to start.
When you’ve already made that decision, the resistance has nowhere to land.
You open the document, you read your note, and you start. The session has already begun before your brain has a chance to negotiate.
There’s something else happening too. When you write “Tomorrow I will…” you’re making a small promise to your future self. And writers who finish are, at their core, writers who keep showing up for themselves.
What to Write
Your next-step note doesn’t need to be elaborate. In fact, the simpler the better. It can be a specific scene or section to write. It can be a question to answer — “Figure out why Daniel leaves in chapter four.” It can be an editing task, a structural decision, or even just a reminder of where the energy was when you stopped.
The only rule is that it has to be specific enough to act on immediately. Vague notes — “continue the draft” or “keep writing” — don’t do the job. You need something that points you directly at the next move.
Try It After Your Next Session
You don’t need to overhaul anything to start using this habit. You just need to remember to do it before you close the document.
Set a reminder if you need to. Put a sticky note on your laptop. Do whatever it takes to make it automatic for the first week or two.
After that, it becomes second nature — and starting again stops feeling like climbing a hill.
It feels like walking through a door that’s already open.
That’s what one sentence can do.
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Struggling to stay consistent with your writing? A daily nudge might be all you need, and it’s free. Learn more here.
