Tell me if this sounds familiar. You’ve got your project, you’ve started working on it and you are finally feeling really good about the progress you are making. You have momentum and then something happens – your kid gets sick or maybe you get sick or maybe you’ve got a big family trip that comes at exactly the wrong time – that knocks you off track and it seems like you cannot get momentum to just finish your project.
Well, if that sounds like you, then you’re in the right place. We’re going to talk about how to build momentum in your writing project even when you feel like every time you get started, something knocks you off track.
First, if you relate to losing momentum to finish your book, you are not alone. Besides the issue of not knowing how to structure and write a book, losing momentum is the number one reason to consider getting help through coaching.
You’ve got the idea, you’ve got the vision, but the actual process of writing, there’s a disconnect. People say, “I just can’t get momentum. Every single time I start to make progress, something derails me, something happens.”
The thing that I want to acknowledge is that’s not your fault, and it’s also not the fault of the people that are having issues that are getting in your way. It’s not your kids’ fault they get sick. It’s not your fault if you get sick. You want to love that family vacation, and that is such an important part of our lives, but sometimes we wish it just came at another time.
The fact that these are no one’s fault does not make them any less demoralizing. It doesn’t make them any less frustrating. We are still trying to make progress and if stuff would just stop popping up and getting in our way, maybe we could finally get this book done. I always hear the frustration in folks voice when we have this conversation and I get it. I’ve been writing for a long time. I’ve written dozens, literally dozens of books, and I still sometimes will run up against a wall.
Let’s get behind the scenes of our brains and consider what’s going on in our psychology that’s keeping us from being able to do the things we want to do. I would say that this inability to build momentum is maybe the most psychological issue that you can have in writing.
Observation vs Limiting Belief
To break this down simply, I just want to ask one thing. When you say, “I just can’t build momentum, things keep knocking me off course,” is that an observation or is that a limiting belief? It could be both. It’s your experience and you get to decide, but think about it, when you say, “I just can’t get momentum,” is it an observation? Is it objective and distanced and something that you can point to the fact that you cannot build momentum or is it a limiting belief? Is it something that you’re telling yourself, a story you’re telling yourself over and over until it feels so true that you’re never going to break through it?
Usually, even if the first one’s true too, the second one is there under the surface, keeping people from becoming the published author that they desire.
Let’s dive in and just pick apart a little bit of each of those issues.
First, is this an actual objective observation? A lot of times when we look at the calendar, we can see that every single week something came up or every time I get started, I’ve got a big project at work. That would be an objective way to look at it. That’s going to have one solution that I’m going to give you in a second, but I first want you to consider if it is a limiting belief, even just a little bit? What if it is a story you are telling yourself that’s keeping you from reaching the goals that you want to hit? How can you know that? How can you identify that that’s what’s happening in your brain?
The simplest way to do that, in my experience, is to be concrete about it, follow that belief to its farthest point and see whether you can validate that using your calendar.
When you think of momentum, what does that mean for you? I think sometimes we build up this idea of momentum in our writing as this Holy Grail. This image of perfection that if you are going to write 500 words every single day and that chart is just going to tick up and tick up until you have a finished book, it’s going to be glorious. That is momentum.
That’s true by definition, but that’s not how it’s going to go. We know that, but it’s so enticing to think that someday we could reach that Holy Grail and it will be smooth sailing, the words will just fly onto the page.
We know that isn’t reality, right? What would momentum look like for you? Here’s where we start to make a plan to actually get where we’re trying to go. Would momentum look like writing every day? It’s a really tall order. People do that, but is that what momentum looks like for you? Maybe you would have a little bit more balance in your life, where you’re going to your job, you are spending time with the people that you care about, and you’re getting your writing done, all three of them in balance?
That sounds great. But that doesn’t look like 500 words a day no matter what. That looks like looking at our calendar, figuring out what is realistic for us, setting small achievable goals and then, and this is the key, being kind to ourselves if we don’t always reach all the way to where we want to.
Now, even if I set my little goal, even if I get almost up to that goal, but then my internal story is, “Oh, I knew it, I knew it. I can never get momentum.” We are just continually validating that negative limiting belief in our mind with every piece of evidence that we can find. We have to stop doing that. How do we solve this so you can feel that sense of forward motion that you want?
Solutions to Create Momentum
There are two ways we’ve got to look at this to find solutions. One, as an objective observation. The actual things that are knocking you off your course, and two, we have to look at it from this framework of a limiting belief. Our solution has to address both of those causes, otherwise, we are just putting a Band-Aid on the problem. Let’s talk about each of the solutions that you can take today that are going to help you move through this wall that you’re hitting.
Take Ownership
First, we’ve got to take ownership over momentum. Think about times when you have been resilient in the past, times when you faced a wall and you thought, “I am never going to get through this,” but you did? The first thing we’ve got to do is really take ownership of the fact that you can do this. You can. There may be things that pop up on your calendar, but I promise you, you can make steady progress. You just have to think about it a little bit differently. You’ve got to think about it imperfectly. Momentum is never going to be that straight line of 500 words a day until that book is finished. Momentum will always be imperfect.
Let’s say you set the goal that you wanted to write every day. Then the long weekend hits and now your kids are home and you can’t get anything done. That’s a real problem. That’s a real on the calendar problem. How are we going to embrace the imperfect version of that write everyday goal? We’re not going to sit at the computer. We’re not going to do it. We want to spend time with our family. Our kids need us. But we can try to find little pockets of the day where we can let the ideas percolate in our mind. That is just as important, that is just as much a part of writing as the actual typing is – you’re still thinking about it.
What I will tell you that if you are thinking about what you want to write in between your writing sessions, those writing sessions are going to be faster, they’re going to feel better to you and this is the best bonus, they’re going to be so much more efficient. You have thought about what you want to say, you’re not just sitting down and getting words on the page.
What if we embrace this idea that momentum can be imperfect? It does not have to be writing every day until that book is done. It can be thinking about and maintaining our relationship with the project as we move through the process, knowing that it is not going to look like a line graph going straight up into the sky. That’s how we deal with this objective observation issue.
Create a New Mantra
Second, we need a new mantra. Sometimes these mental scripts, these limiting beliefs, just need a mental reframe. Every time you catch yourself thinking, “I can’t make momentum,” instead tell yourself, “I am making steady progress.”
Even if it is just a little bit each week or a little bit each month, the focus has to be on the steady progress, not the momentum. I know we all want accountability, but accountability without kindness is just bullying. You are never going to bully yourself into momentum. Instead, you’re going to get in that spiral, “I can’t make momentum.” Well then something pops up, takes you off course, “See, can’t make momentum.” It’s going to build up and build up and build up, and you’re never going to break through it. We have to stop that cycle of thinking and embrace the fact that progress looks like all kinds of things.
It can look like leaving a little note in your phone, it can look like emailing yourself an idea that you had. Honestly, it can just look like taking a little pocket of your day maybe when you go for a walk or maybe when you’re cooking dinner to just think about that book. That can be steady progress too.
Writing Hacks for Little Wins
Sometimes a little boost is going to really help you get to where you want to go. Let me give you a few hacks that have been successful for the writers that I’ve worked with over the years and for myself.
Page & Podium Exercise 1
When you’re stuck or when you just don’t feel like writing, set a timer for 20 minutes and then sit down and write. Now, what you’re not going to do is think, “How can I say this in the most brilliant way.” You are just going to type. In fact, I have done this very successfully myself where I started typing, “I don’t want to write today.” But you know what, as I elaborated on that idea, I started to find a little bit of a groove. I think you will too.
I’ve seen this work over and over for clients, and you know what they always say, “When I got to the end of 20 minutes, I didn’t want to stop.” That’s the trick. You don’t have to stop. Shut the timer off or set it again or stop. That’s the first way you can give yourself a really quick win. Set that timer, get the words on the page and see where it takes you.
Page & Podium Exercise 2
Set a reminder on your phone to tell you to think about your book. This might be a writing reminder, but more often it’s going to be a thinking reminder. You can set a recurring appointment on your calendar so that it pops up whatever time of day works best for you, early morning, late night, middle of the day, whatever, that’s just going to say, “Hey, think about your book project.”
That is going to keep it so much closer in your mind and help you really maintain the relationship with the project. If you can set that reminder to just make sure that you are constantly checking in on your project, it’s going to make things so much better.
Page & Podium Exercise 3
Write by hand. There is a magical thing that happens when you write by hand. The science has shown us this, not only in terms of making progress on your project, but also, if you’re writing about personal stories, it can help you get so much clarity. The act of moving your hand helps your brain reprocess those experiences you’re writing about.
You’ve written stuff on the page and you’re going to have to type it up, but that’s so much easier. In fact, one day when you don’t feel like writing, you can type it up and you are still making progress.
Page & Podium Exercise 4
Take a piece of paper and literally just tape it over your computer screen. You cannot peek underneath it. Here’s what this does. You can’t see what you’re typing because it’s blocked. When you do that, you’re going to stop editing. I often find that people having trouble making momentum are perfectionists. Before they start writing their new stuff, they’re going back through and reading all their old stuff.
You’re never going to make steady progress that way because you’re just going to work on the same page or two. Tape paper over your screen and just write. It’ll be a little rawer than you normally would do, but you have to edit it anyway. You’re going to make progress and it’s going to feel really good to embrace it.
Remember that momentum is not this magic wand that’s going to help make your project so much easier. Instead, we’re going to reframe momentum, we’re going to think about making steady progress, and then we’re going to set ourselves up mentally and objectively to identify the real problems. If we’re getting off course because of objective issues, we can think about how we want to write in spite of those. If it’s that limiting belief, we’re going to short-circuit it. Instead of thinking about momentum, we’re going to think about steady progress and we’re going to allow that progress to be imperfect.
I hope you’ll let me know if any of these hacks worked for you or if you were able to think about things in a new way. I can’t wait to hear about your project. If I can help support you, help talk you through some of these mental blocks, I hope you’ll reach out.
Happy writing!
