more momentum, less resistance

This from Chi Running coach Ryan Miller at a recent workshop I attended. It has become my running mantra. Stop fighting the road, says Miller. Instead, let it rush beneath you. (And try to avoid having it smack you square in the face, says me.)

As it is for running, so for writing. Stop fighting the page. Stop fighting the ideas. Let the words come without criticism and let them grace the page as it rushes beneath you.

Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Words long and short, dancing across a white background, fingers flying effortlessly across the keyboard. Birds singing. Right. So let's talk substance.

Momentum, to me, is what you build up when you really get engaged with a story. You know you've got momentum when every magazine you pick up has something in it that's somehow related to your book. Every radio show mentions something you need to go look up or jot down. You've got it when little comments made by friends, bartenders, even the woman at the post office, seem to feed your stream of ideas.

But to keep momentum, these connections need to move. Otherwise, you just end up with mess, like a giant knotted ball of yarn. You've got to tug on them, tie them together, take them apart, wind them up.

And to do this, you need time.

While pondering my new mantra — more momentum, less resistance — during a recent race down in Hyannis, MA on a snowy, yucky day, and using it to fight my urge to finish with the 10K crowd rather than the half-marathon crowd and get a jump on the clam chowder I knew was cooking up at the finish line, it occurred to me that I am an endurance person. I am not a sprinter. I'm too slow and I don't like expending lots of energy all at once. I like to get inside of something and stay there. At the end of the long haul, I like to be done with it until next time.

This ephiphany made me realize that my recent approach to writing fiction was destined for failure. I've tried on and off for the past several months to write for an hour a day. I start off strong, hitting 5, sometimes 6 days a week for the first week or two. By week three, I don't write a word. By week 5, I feel so far from my ideas that they hardly seem worth having.

Momentum? Zero. Resistance? Full on.

So for the past two weeks I've tried a new approach. I dedicate one full day per week to fiction. I've written over 5000 words, re-read the first third of Story by Robert McKee (an amazing book on writing), written a press release for The Blind Pig and had it reviewed by a friend, and have a plan to send it out this coming week.

Not only have these two days been productive, I feel engaged and I feel as if my next writing day is tugging at me, pulling me towards it. The road isn't exactly rushing beneath me yet, but I think I'm starting to get some momentum and I'm starting to let go of some of the resistance.