Momentum Swings: How to Overcome Waning Desire to Write

I’d be lying if I titled this post “4 steps to prevent waning momentum” or “7 ways to overcome writer’s malaise.” I won’t send you those articles.

Know why?

I do not believe in them. Nor do I subscribe to the step-by-step model that covers over our ache and pretends a system will solve it.

But I did send you a title called “Momentum swings” because, well, it does.

Any writer you meet who’s been writing for longer than a few months will tell you that they do not always want to write. That project that’s looming over their head? You know, the one they were so inspired to start six months, a year, two years ago?

It very well may be buried in a sea of other Google docs like “Monthly Financial Record” or “Kids’ Exam Schedule.” And let me be frank: These are the really organized writers feet-draggers among us. The rest of us are hanging on by a half-written paragraph on a napkin or an email they sent to themselves a month (8 months?) ago with shards of a novel.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, momentum in writing life wanes. It bounces up and down like one of those mega-sized rubber balls sold in the middle aisle of the grocery store. Our momentum, therefore, is unreliable.

That’s why you’ll see so many posts about developing a writing routine on how-to blogs for writers.

You may have noticed that my subhead here is “How to overcome waning desire to write,” and I’m sorry to disappoint you if a Rx was what you had in mind. I was absent that day at the writing doctor’s office.

But what I do have is one takeaway. Keep changing your writing routine until it works for you.

That’s it. (That’s it?!! you may be screaming.)

But I’m here to say that we get stuck in all areas of life, writing included, and we are like sheep gone astray — let’s just say we keep trying the same solutions and wonder why they aren’t working.

For example, at the start of the school year, I set up for myself a mandatory two-hour timeslot to write on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And you know how long that worked? About a week.

But it’s taken me until now, just a week before Christmas, to realize that my routine needs to change. Too many interruptions, not enough support at home during those two-hour timeslots, and well, lack of motivation at that time of day all add up to “never really worked.”

So I’ve spoken to my people and we’re (yes, “we’re”) going to try a new tactic. (Anyone with a family who says they write alone isn’t telling you the whole truth. It takes a committee to get that book written, hour by hour, and sometimes frozen chicken nuggets are involved.)

I’m going to aim for one longer chunk of writing each week and then throw an hour or two in if I find time during the week. Guess what “if” implies? That it may not (probably won’t) happen every week. That crack time, as Emily P. Freeman calls it, shows up more some weeks than others.

But knowing that I’ve set aside a chunk of time every week to write helps me with that lagging momentum. It’s my only time, and it will afford me the discipline I need even on the day(s) I’m not feeling it.

So what is your writing routine, and tell me, is it working for you?