3 Steps to Rev Up Your Writing Momentum

NaNo Prep season is coming to an end; November is just around the corner! We’ve asked writers to share their best tips on how to write the first draft of a novel and have fun doing it. Today, author Melanie Sumner shares how to anticipate and prepare against a writing stall:

Here’s one possible scenario when November arrives: Your novel starts with a vroom! You’re cruising along, and then… the darn thing dies on you. Is this normal? Absolutely. Here’s what you can do to rev it back up.

First, congratulate yourself.

You’ll have started a novel, something many people having been meaning to do for a long time. With words on a page or screen, you’ll have hurdled the most difficult obstacle—the blank space. Energy creates energy, so anything you’ll have written will feed your progress…

I believe that we stop writing because we get bored. No matter what else is happening in your life, if you are into the story, it will sing along in your head, getting in the way of everything else until you scribble it down. To rekindle your initial excitement, look for the “vein” in your story. You do this the way a nurse does when she’s poking around your arm with a needle, trying to draw blood. Who is your favorite character? Which character makes you angry? Can you find a conversation that got so heated you forgot to add tag lines? Do you remember an hour when you forgot you were writing? Find that spot and write from it.

But what about my outline? 

I love outlines—mostly as excuses not to write. When I start adding complex graphics, I know I’m in trouble. For now, tell your outline to take a nap. 

Grab that juicy vein in your story (if you haven’t found it, ask a friend to look), and write five hundred words about it, preferably without stopping. Make the blood flow! 

Yes, this is messy. When your inner critics call a board meeting, put them to bed with your outline. Don’t worry if this offends them — it will — but you’ll call them back for the revision. For now, you are in revolt. Write down something you don’t dare write. Write it on the wall, in blood-red permanent marker.

All revved up but still short on today’s word count? It’s time to sweat. 

This is like when you’re tired, and your trainer tells you to do fifty more push ups. Do whatever is necessary — break that fifty into five sets of ten; promise yourself an ice cream cone afterwards; whine your head off. Just do it. 

Now you have the power because something about your story is hot. Make it even hotter.

Melanie Sumner is the author of the novels, How to Write a Novel , The Ghost of Milagro Creek , and The School of Beauty and Charm as well as a short story collection, Polite Society . She has received the Whiting Writers’ Award and a fellowship from The National Endowment for the Arts. Find her on Twitter at: @sumnermelanie

Top photo by Flickr user cheerytomato.