Leave Me Wanting More: How To Rack Up A Writing Streak

I’ve been stacking up good writing days like moves in a combo lately. And, much like the relentless practice that led to mastering the triple-left-quarter-circle-punch-punch-throw-forward-dash moves from the fighting games of my youth, there is a trick to this as well. No, it’s not sore thumbs.* Unless you type only on your smartphone.** In which case, well done you.

My trick? I stop before I think I should.

If I’m writing, and especially if I’m writing a good bit***, I always end my writing day before I get to the end of that part. I pick a point somewhere near my day’s target word count and just…stop. I’ve even been known to stop in the middle of a sentence, just so I know exactly where to pick up the next day.

I could go on. Get to the end of the scene or the fight or the chapter. Most of the time it would only be another couple hundred words. Maybe a thousand. But then, when I returned the following day, before I started writing, I would have to decide what comes next. And I can waste my whole writing day making that kind of decision.

Or I can pick up in the middle of something that I know goes like this, and by the time I’ve gotten to the end of that I have a good flow going and have a pretty good idea of what comes next without agonizing over it.

And, half the time, it ends up being better than what I would have come up with if I wasted half the morning trying to figure out where to start.

TOO SLOW.

Starting is hard. Continuing, on the other hand, while not always easy, is definitely less hard. And while I may rack up a few less pages per day, I have far fewer days where I stare at the screen and get nothing. On the whole, stopping early puts me ahead of the game. Not to mention gives me time to catch up on the outrage du jour on Twitter.

Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. At least for me. You might be able to crap out an entire manuscript over a long weekend, and not have it sound rambling or contrived or amateurish at all. In which case, I salute you, and wish you many happy long weekends.

But I always like to leave myself wanting more.

*I still have a scar on one of my thumbs from an old Playstation blister.

**Which can be done. Peter V. Brett wrote the first volume of his very good series on a Blackberry while he was commuting to and from work. I think of that whenever I complain about finding time to write.

***i.e., the bit where something horrible is happening to someone.