Momentum

School started this week. I spent the first two weeks of 2019 building a writing habit that (I hoped) would withstand the overwhelming tide that is a new semester. And it mostly did--there were a couple of days that I didn't quite hit my goal of working for 90 minutes first thing each morning (before my brain is full of mush and too many emails), but I absolutely did actually work on something each morning, and that's huge.

And I unexpectedly saw some dividends: I finished a draft of my Dorothy Jordan chapter and sent it to my fabulous writing group, I got my Introduction back from my good friend and editor and started on her comments, and I sat down with the revised Sarah Siddons chapter and got to see that it's closer to finished than I thought. I also

have (mostly) completed copy edits on an article that's due out in May.

This may not sound that surprising when I mention I've been working for a bit each day, but it's honestly shocking to me. I think I conceive of my writing as this endlessly expanding spiral that I have very little control over. I assume the longer I look at something or work on it, the larger and more unwieldy it grows. And I'm not going to lie: I think that usually is the case, ESPECIALLY when I let my fear of sharing get hold of me. So as much as finishing a draft or addressing comments might be a win, it's even more of win that I actually put something out there so I could get out of my own way.

I don't know about you, but I'm highly motivated by filling out pips in my planner...I was definitely that kid with a chore chart.

If momentum is a product of mass and velocity (that's right, I totally took physics), then I figure my velocity is working each day, while mass is the amount of time I spend writing. As long as I do a bit of both, I can move forward productively, but ultimately, it's velocity that will make the larger difference. Sometimes I spend an entire day writing and then do nothing with it for a month. No velocity, no momentum, no progress. Just a heavy mass of writing that I can only vaguely remember doing. Not. ideal.

So, to keep the momentum going, I'm trying to anticipate the things that will get in the way.

1) From last week, I learned that any early/mid-morning commitment will pretty much guarantee I don't get in 90 minutes of morning writing. In some cases I can get up a bit earlier, but in other cases, it's just not going to happen. So I'll try to schedule alternative time later in the day. And when that's not possible, I'll just get as much in as I can, try to keep the habit of sitting down and thinking about my writing first thing.

2) Holy cow that's a lot of grading. I have a class of 20 amazing graduate students, and they turn in written work each Wednesday that results in about 60-100 pages of grading each week (which I'm aiming to do by Thursday evening, when I have class). Before my sabbatical, I was pretty in the groove with this, but I completely forgot how much time I need to devote to it this week.

I'm running short on time, so just a quick rundown of the week to come: I'm going to again "visit" each of the chapters in the manuscript (with the exception of Jordan, since I just sent that off), while finishing the copy edits, and continuing with the Intro and Siddons' chapter.

If you're working on writing of your own, feel free to join me in this big picture challenge, and tell me how you keep your momentum going!