by Cathy Fyock, Contributing Editor
Newton’s First Law of Motion states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion, unless something applies force to them.
It’s just as applicable to writing as it is to physics.
In the first place, it requires great force—willpower, motivation, time and energy—to begin writing when you are not writing already.
In the second place, other forces will be acting upon you and slowing you down once you start; family, career, responsibilities, and basic needs will do the same thing to you that friction and gravity do to a moving car.
But in the third place (and here’s the good news), it feels easier and easier to finish parts of a project if you’ve been finishing them at a certain consistent rate.
You have to burn a fair amount of gasoline to get a car up to 70mph, and aside from continuing to give the engine gas, you’ll need to brake and steer properly if the car is to continue forward at that rate.
But, if you’re able to do 70mph the whole way there, you’ll get there in less time and with less fuel.
It might require your constant attention, but even then, it feels less like hard work and more like a habit of awareness.
Same with writing.
On second thought, forget cars and highways; you don’t have to go at the speed of a souped-up Corvette.
Think back to the tortoise and the hare.
Not only should you not think like the hare, who in his arrogance puts off starting to race, but you (and all of us) should learn something from the tortoise.
It took him all day to reach the finish line, sure, but he had momentum.
He kept going at a consistent rate, and he got where he wanted to go, didn’t he?
When I tell you to write, write, write, I do not mean to imply hurry.
I do mean that you should be consistent in your work habits and persistent in your spirit.
I do mean that it doesn’t matter what you write, but it matters that you write.
I do mean that, through the long night of drafting, you dance with every worthy thought, like so many masked suitors at a black-and-white ball.
As Anne Lamott put it in her fabulous book Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, “Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”
Here are some ideas for creating momentum in your writing.
Start with the easy stuff first.
Don’t start with chapter 1.
Don’t start with the first sentence of your blog.
Just start.
If you have a vision for some part of your book or blog, start there.
In writing a book, the hardest chapters to write are invariably the first and last chapters.
Why?
The first chapter sets out the premise for your book, and the last chapter summarizes what you’ve said and issues a call to action.
Until you’ve developed all the pieces, you won’t have a clear idea as to the basics and the summary.
So start in the middle.
Similarly, when writing blog posts, don’t fret over your powerful and attention-grabbing beginning sentence.
Just start.
You can jazz up the beginning later.
Or, you may find that in paragraph two you already have the opening line.
Dance in and out of your outline.
If you’ve created a solid outline for your book/blog, then you can pick the part of your outline that you see most clearly and begin there.
When you run out of steam working on a section, jump to another part of the outline that you see clearly.
See, you’re making progress.
And that progress gives you a hit of the natural feel-good brain chemical of dopamine, which rallies you to write something more.
Watch for road blocks that slow you down.
Can’t find the right word?
Draw a line or mark that in red and move on.
Can’t recall that great statistic you read that you want to include in this chapter?
Mark it and move on.
When you’re writing, write.
Save research and editing for another time.
They are distractions from your writing and get in the way of your momentum.
Keep going even when you think it’s crap.
I can clearly recall the time when I was writing, and “The Bitch” kept saying to me, “This is crap! This is crap!”
Thank goodness I ignored that voice and kept on writing.
When I came back to my writing, it was NOT crap.
Yes, it needed to be edited, but then everything I write needs to be edited.
Keep a word count tally.
There is something enormously gratifying about seeing the word count add up for your blog or book.
Each day you write, tally the total number of words you were able to add to your project.
As you see the word count growing, you’ll get a bit more dopamine and feel that much more inspired to continue on the journey.
By focusing on creating momentum, you’ll find that the journey isn’t quite so arduous, and that you are, in fact, making great progress toward your goal!
About Cathy Fyock
Cathy Fyock is The Business Book Strategist, and works with professionals and thought leaders who want to write a book as a business development strategy. She is the author of On Your Mark: From First Word to First Draft in Six Weeks and Blog2Book: Repurposing Content to Discover the Book You’ve Already Written. She can be reached at [email protected].
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