Writing Momentum vs Wasted Time

Something a lot of writers don’t talk about, so a lot of non-writers don’t understand, is the momentum around writing.  I’ve spoken previously about breaking theinertia, but I wanted to revisit the topic since it’s such an important part of writing.

As most of you know, I’ve begin writing a new novel, but I haven’t been near as consistent at it as I’d have liked to have been in actually creating content.  I know that if I’d simply written 100 words a day, rather than waiting for a stretch where I could get at least 500-100 words, I’d be much further along.  However, it’s more difficult than it seems.

Although there is obviously a greater investment in time when writing 1000 words than when writing just 100, but, in a way, it’s harder to write just 100 words.  The reason is because, and most writers will recognize this, it takes about 50-100 words to find your writing groove, so it’s easy to keep going.  However, setting a goal of only 100 makes the writing choppy.  It also sets an artificial barrier that inhibits good writing, because you tend to “watch the clock,” retarding the ideas and words you are looking for.  That can create a lot of wasted time as you look back at your choppy writing and scrap loads of stuff that could have been avoided if you’d simply spent an extra 20 minutes working your effort into something more productive.

The balance is finding enough time to get something on paper so you can progress rather than waiting for the ideal time.  I’m not real sure where that balance lies, and I’ve bene doing this for more than 12 years now.  Maybe I’ll find it by the time I retire.