Fighting Inertia

I love writing. I really, truly do. I love to put down words on paper - or in this case, computer screen.

I love to change words, manipulate them, find the perfect one. I love the feeling of my fingers on the keyboard, typing away when I'm really into the story and time seems to melt away as I write, and write, and write.

I love writing.

So, I don't understand why it's so HARD TO DO sometimes. Why is it that when it's time to write, I suddenly have to clean my house? Or clear out the inbox in my email that I haven't touched for 2 years? Or take the dog for a walk?

Why in the world is it so dang hard to get started?

I wish I had the answer to this question. I don't. Sorry. I just know that starting is hard for me. Once I get past the initial "What am I going to work on today?" hump, I'm usually good to go. For example, right now I'm booking away on this blog post pretty well. But, I visited about 10 different websites before I actually started writing. Why is that?

Now that I'm in the flow of writing, all is good. I don't know why there is this inertia that keeps me from writing. I don't know what causes it. All I know is that it exists.

If you've cleaned up and organized, and are ready to get down to the business of writing, then I want to encourage you to just get started. I think that helps me. Just tell yourself to do one sentence. Then, push for just one paragraph. Maybe you can do one half page? Now a page? Now maybe 500 words? Now, maybe an entire chapter?

These are the trick questions I have to use on myself to get me going. They help, though, which is why I use them.

Another trick I've heard about for getting in the writing mood is to spend about 5 minutes writing on something other than the project you're working on. You can free write, journal, or write a blog post...whatever. All you need is to get your fingers ready to start typing, and get your brain moving a little bit so that when you quit your warm-up routine, you're ready to get going on your main manuscript, and can blow inertia right out of the water.

Okay. This blog post is now done. I shall go write.