Writing a novel – a writer’s journal part 12 – momentum

Writing when the words flow

I just love it when the words flow quickly. There is a real delight in creating a new story and there is little struggle to get the words up there on the computer screen (or in my notebook when I am writing poetry-I rarely compose poetry on the screen).

During the last two months I’ve been through some testing times regarding my children’s novel. At first I was distracted by the requirements to finish my course work for my Master of Arts degree. That’s out of the way now thankfully. Now I can fully focus on the novel-or so I thought.

Well, that’s when life took a nasty turn. I landed up in hospital, a few days later my wife also spent time in hospital and then I was bedridden for nine days with influenza. Many weeks later I am still feeling the after effects of that. It is only in the last week that I’ve got back on track with the novel.

One of the interesting things about writing is that the more you do the quicker you get at it. If I try to do a half hour here and an hour there I lose momentum and I seem not to make much progress. When I stick at it for two or three hours every day over a week it creates its own momentum. The story often takes over and I go along for an exhilarating ride with the characters and the plot. Many times I find that when the momentum is there the story almost writes itself. That’s how I’ve felt in recent days and I get this tingly feeling and can’t wait to get back to the writing. I want to know what is going to happen next! (Sure-I do have an overall plan of the plot; it’s the nitty-gritty of each scene that needs to be written.)

An interesting by-product of this method of writing is that the creative momentum frequently develops new ideas from the subconscious mind. When the creative mind is active the subconscious mind is still at work in the background, thinking up character developments and unexpected twists in the plot. This all goes to enhance the story.

I firmly believe that if a story grabs you like this-that you as the writer can’t wait to see what happens next-then your readers will want to also keep turning the pages.

Good writing