Good morning world!
It’s Monday morning. I know, it was only Monday last week and here is it again.
This month’s post is on stopping.
STOP!
Whatever it is that’s stopping you at the moment, stop doing that. Wait, does that make sense? Probably not, moving on…
One of my favourite kick up the arse authors is Chuck Wendig. Somehow he manages to say everything I want to say, but ten times better and with more swear words. One of his classics is 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing. I’m not going to read all twenty-five things out. Go read it! That’s what it’s there for.
But let me quote this one
2. STOP STOPPING
Momentum is everything. Cut the brake lines. Careen wildly and unsteadily toward your goal. I hate to bludgeon you about the head and neck with a hammer forged in the volcanic fires of Mount Obvious, but the only way you can finish something is by not stopping. That story isn’t going to unfuck itself.
Let me give the benefit of my experience on stopping. I am a master at stopping. If they were giving out degrees I’d have a PhD and a box of chocolates. I am that good at stopping.
Stop Stopping! Wait, Chuck said that.
I’m going to talk about writing, but obviously you could apply this to anything.
Stopping is easy. Starting again, not so much. Imagining being a cyclist going up a hill. It’s hard work, but if you keep pedalling like fury you’re going to… to… almost… at the top of hill. But if some beep beep (any expletives will do) pulls out in front of you and you have to stop, it’s bloody hard to get going again. Then you climb off your bike and walk to the top.
Ask any author about the number of WIPs that languish forlornly on their computer, still at chapter 2… just as they were a year ago, and the year before that. Plot bunnies spring into your head and then the plot runs out and you don’t put the work in to finish it.
If you quit at chapter 2, those characters are not going to be realised, that fantastic plot is not going to be finished. You will never have the joy of writing The End. Come on, you have to do that. Then you can get it published, and that’s a whole new ‘stop stopping’.
Why are you stopping? Is it one of Chuck’s list? Then kick it into touch and get going. Write 20 minutes a day, a hundred words a day, whatever it takes to get momentum going again.
Just do it, whatever it is, and stop stopping. Because in your head *taps forehead*, isn’t on screen or on paper. Stop finding excuses to quit, but more to the point, stop stopping.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to take my own advice.
I needed to hear this today.Thank you and I wish you to have a productive week! 🙂
And a productive week for you too.