There have been a lot of smart people who have walked this earth. I haven’t had the chance to meet most of them in person, but thankfully I’ve been able to learn about them and benefit from their unique ideas.
One particularly smart and influential individual came up with a few laws regarding motion. You may have heard of him. Isaac Newton I believe was his name. The first law of motion states:
“An object at rest stays at rest, or an object in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by an external force.”
Like this ball. Don’t be like the ball. You’ll never score a goal just sitting there.
What he’s saying is this. If you aren’t working on your writing right now, you’re going to remain in the same situation. Two months from now, maybe a year, you’ll look back and realize you still haven’t written anything. But, if you allow this blog (external force) to help you start writing, you can create enough momentum that you can keep writing.
This is one of the reasons I’ve had trouble jumping back into one of my stories. When I started my writing group we got the object moving (me and my writing). It was moving great too. Every week I saw more and more progress, words were forming, page after page was being written, and my writing was getting better. When my writing group went on a break, all that momentum began to slow down till it died. But here I am, getting the object moving again.
As I was thinking about this concept of motion and momentum I came across a simple article giving 3 Strategies to Build Momentum in Life and Find Success.
He gives three simple ways to build momentum, but I want to add something. Ride along. There are literally thousands of other people doing exactly what you want to be doing. Find some, get to know them, and if you need to, ride the wave of their momentum to get yourself started.
I guarantee if you are riding along with them long enough you won’t be satisfied to just be an observer. You’ll feel the urge to be a participant. Give in to that feeling and start building up your own momentum.
My friend and fellow writer Garrett has been a huge motivation for me these last several weeks. As a teacher he gets summers off, but instead of coasting through it till school started, he set a goal to write 10,000 words a week. It wasn’t just some random goal, he made a plan to set aside 2-3 hours a day 5 days a week.
Yesterday he hit the 100,000 word milestone on his WIP. Such an awesome accomplishment, and every day I hear about his progress, gets me pumped to write.
To help you get started this week, here’s a writing prompt for you. Keep it simple, for writing prompts I usually keep it to about a page. If you jump on board, share your story with me!
Continue the Story
I had been warned they would be coming. I had been told, time and time again, that on this day they would arrive.
If you aren’t feeling this one, here are some other writing prompt ideas for you.