Keep Moving- It's Science!

I passed my one year anniversary of my first publication last month, so obviously this makes me a great authority on the writing process. I will tell you this, once that first book came out I had a really hard time writing a second one. I couldn't find the time, and when I did I wasn't feeling inspired. It still feels like I tore that one out of me, wrenched it from my mind and somehow formed words on the page, but it took an eternity. I never want that to happen again so I am imparting some advice from another area of my life to keep myself on track.

There is one phrase that gets repeated over and over during my roller derby practices- Keep your feet moving.

You can hear girls shouting it to each other, urging each other on as we're doing endless sprints around the track. It gets yelled at me more than once each practice, by more than one teammate. And in turn I will encourage other girls the same way.

It's the law of motion- an object in motion will remain in motion until stopped by some other force (I'm paraphrasing here). So if you are so tired that you are just coasting on your skates, the friction of your wheels on the track will eventually slow you down, until you stop.

I have found the same to be true for writing. A little over a year in, I am still pretty new to this writing game. I try to fit in time around my full time job and all the other things I have going on. I have noticed though that if I completely stop writing for a few days, then it takes me longer to get back to it. Even if I just open my newest work in progress and edit the last chapter I wrote, it stays fresher in my mind for when I do have the time to sit down and write.

If I know I will have thirty minutes before work the next morning, I will try to re-read what I have written so far the night before, so I can get right to it.

Keep your feet moving.

You don't want to coast, because then you end up slowing down. And the last thing you want to do on those last few laps is work harder to pick your speed back up.

Keep your feet moving, your jello legs will thank you later.