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Your book isn’t going to write itself, but it’d be nice if it did sometimes.
Losing momentum when you’re writing a book sucks. It’s happened to every author at some point or another, including me.
Writing momentum may get interrupted by distractions, responsibilities, stress, or writer’s block. It may seem like no matter what you do, that next pivotal scene or epic chapter just isn’t coming. Fortunately, there are ways to get back writing momentum fast for your book.
I’ve compiled 8 fast and effective ways to do it so that you can back to writing your literary masterpiece.
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1. Take a Brisk Walk
If I had to recommend just one of these fast hacks to get your writing momentum back, taking a brisk walk would be it.
Besides the tremendous amount of health benefits, did you know that walking can boost creativity? According to a study done in 2014 at Stanford University, creative thinking improves while walking and shortly thereafter.
This definitely holds true for me. Some of my best ideas have come while I was walking around the house or a park nearby. Not to mention, I was becoming way too sedentary for my liking, so I became completely sold on walking more.
Give walking a try. I’m sure you’ll grow to enjoy it as I did.
While you’re at it, why not get paid to walk? This is not too good to be true! Let me tell you about something I wish I knew about years ago.
There’s this free mobile phone app called Sweatcoin which records each step you take. Each step you take is converted into a Sweatcoin. These Sweatcoins are redeemable for cash or gifts! Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? You can download it here.
Now if a passive income stream opportunity, a boost in creativity, and health benefits, don’t get you walking, I don’t know what will!
2. Review Your Story and Its Outline
An effective way to get writing momentum back for your book is to simply reread what you’ve written already.
Sometimes writer’s block stymies writing momentum (more on this later) and you want to be prepared.
This is what you can do. Simply re-read chapters and scenes that relate to the part of the story you’re stuck on. You’ll be surprised by how often this leads to new ideas.
While reviewing your book, you may get the urge to edit. This is okay, but don’t overedit or you could get too distracted. If you decide to go the editing route, I recommend using a free grammar checker like Grammarly. Thinking of it like having an extra set of eyes looking over your writing with you.
Another thing you can do is review the outline for your book. Specifically, the outline should be in canonical order and contain the plot, setting, characters, themes, etc. If you don’t have an outline you should make one! It’s great for keeping your story organized and consistent.
3. Establish a Writing Ritual
I’d argue that one of the most important factors for getting back writing momentum for your book is having a “writing ritual.”
What is a writing ritual?
It’s simply an action taken to get yourself into a particular state-of-being before you begin writing. The kind of state you want is one that makes you feel like you’re the best writer you can be.
To create a writing ritual, think about the #1 reason for why you write. Then, visualize yourself experiencing end result for your book (Ex. New York Times Bestseller, making enough money to quit your job, changing the world for the better, etc). Lock in this state-of-being. After you have locked in this state, pair this feeling with a physical act. This act can be anything you want: folding your hands, snapping your fingers, hugging yourself, etc. Do this every time, (and I really mean every time) right before you begin writing.
You will find that by doing this, not only will you be able to keep writing momentum longer but the quality of your writing will go up over time.
4. Eliminate Distracting Websites, Apps, and Games
When you have writing momentum you want to sustain it for as long as possible. One of the best ways to do that is to eliminate distracting websites and games.
According to this study, the average person wastes 21.8 hours a week on non-essential activities!
Imagine having that time added back to your day to write? Fortunately, you can.
Since 2018, I’ve been using a website and app blocker called Freedom to say good-bye to pesky time thieves. Doing so has not only put massive time back in my day to write, but I’ve been able to break a few of my worst habits (watching YouTube videos and desktop games). Just on the habit-breaking alone, it’s paid for itself many times over. By clicking my special link here, you can use it free for seven sessions.
5. Briefly Stop Thinking About Your Writing
Stop thinking about my writing? I know this sounds counterproductive but it works.
When your mind gets overloaded, the flow of creativity stops and thus writing momentum comes to a halt. Think of it as a computer lagging because it’s running too many programs. That’s what’s happening here.
When you have lost writing momentum and feel stuck, take a brief pause from anywhere between 30 minutes to overnight. What a brief pause does is allow your mind to catch up and defragment. Then, it becomes easier for creativity to flow and writing momentum to resume once more.
6. Read About the Experiences of Successful Authors
If you know of a writer(s) who inspires you, read about their experiences. Learn about what made them persist. Learn about why they wrote what they wrote.
For example, J.K. Rowling has been an inspiration for me because of all the hardships she faced such as poverty, divorce, and depression to name a few before her breakthrough success with Harry Potter. She not only overcame her circumstances but maintained a positive tenacity while doing so.
Don’t know any or many successful authors? Here’s a good list of authors to check out.
7. Backup Your Written Work
One of the most unthinkable things imaginable for us writers is if our written work gets lost or deleted. This has happened to me a few times before…nearly 20,000 words and crucial updates to my book outline down the drain. Microsoft Word’s autosave didn’t work for some strange reason.
I definitely learned my lesson. My data is now backed up 100% of the time.
So, this is what you can do to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.
Get in the habit of e-mailing your written work to your own e-mail. That way it’s definitely backed up and you have a record of your written work for copyright reasons.
Alternatively, you can type your book on Google Docs and save it to Google Drive which gives you 15GB of cloud storage for free.
8. Clear Your Schedule of Major Responsibilities and Obligations
Without a clear schedule, you can and will lose writing momentum at some point.
You want to make sure there isn’t anything substantial that will kill your writing momentum once you do regain it.
As an example, imagine you’re a college student. There are several assignments that are due within the coming days. You should finish your assignments or at least get them to a manageable level before you begin writing. If you don’t, they’ll linger in your mind like a bad odor.
I recommend using a planner to keep your responsibilities, obligations, and other tasks organized. I use Google Calendar for this, and it works great.
Bonus Hack: End Writer’s Block
Writer’s Block is a leading killer of writing momentum. It’s something that I’ve seen many authors struggle with, including myself many years ago. Fortunately, writer’s block is a thing of the past for me. For this reason, I’ve created a simple strategy to help anyone end writer’s block. Here is a link to the full article.
All you have to do is implement the habits and techniques that make up this strategy. Before you know it, Writer’s block will be a thing of the past.
Conclusion
Books may not write themselves, but you can regain your writing momentum to do it yourself. Here are 8 fast hacks to get back writing momentum for your book:
1. Take a Brisk Walk
2. Review Your Story and Its Outline
3. Establish a Writing Ritual
4. Eliminate Distracting Websites, Apps, and Games
5. Briefly Stop Thinking About Your Writing
6. Read About the Experiences of Successful Authors
7. Backup Your Written Work
8. Clear Your Schedule of Major Responsibilities and Obligations
Bonus: End Writer’s Block
Don’t wait! Start implementing 1 or 2 of these hacks and get your writing momentum back now!
Which of the 8 fast hacks will you try first? Write your answer or any question you may have in the comments section below.
-Gregory Venvonis, Author of Fluctsonas and Creator of Luster Lexicon
