I have to thank Laura Montgomery for this concept: the idea of just sitting down and writing 10 words before breakfast. Why 10 words? Because I can manage that, when I can’t manage 1, 000 or possibly even 100.
Starting the first step makes the impossible become merely improbable, and overcomes the inertia of a brain at rest doing its best to remain at rest.
On a non-writing front, I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to go swimming again, now that I think I have the exercise-induced asthma stabilized. But, you know, that involves way too many other steps, including getting a swim suit that fits, and I hate clothes shopping, so I hadn’t started that. For a month.
She got out of her chair, dug in her closet, and handed me a bag of various-sized swim suits. “Try these on at home, so you have a good idea before you go shopping.”
I spent a couple hours avoiding that (and doing other chores), but once I started trying the first one on, it wasn’t 15 minutes later before I had a swimsuit ordered and on the way. Break the back of the inertia.
Similarly, at one point the same friend, and two others, needed to write. They had deadlines coming up, but so much was going on in their lives. I kinda took one up on a comment she made, picked a day we had free, and asked her if she could reserve a room at the local library. Next thing you know, there are 4 of us doing writing sprints for 15 minute stretches.
(Okay, I did sprints until I ran out of chapter, and then I was distractable as a squirrel with espresso beans, because my head was empty of story. They did more sprints until one finished a story, one got a whole bunch of overdue editing done, and the third broke a logjam by writing on something unrelated to the stubborn WIP.)
What do you do to overcome inertia?
Mad Genius Club 
9 responses to “Breakfast Words”
One thing that works for me is alternating between reading and writing–read a couple of chapters in a book, then write a paragraph or two, rinse and repeat. Usually only get between 150-200 words an hour out of it, but I can keep going for a long time.
Read something completely unrelated, OR go walk on the treadmill at the gym. Walking in the wild doesn’t do it, because there are too many things to look at and look out for. At the gym, I can listen to music and let my hind brain churn out ideas and plot-movers.
Pile on the guilt-tripping until I plant fingers on keyboard.
I resemble that remark…🤦♂️
Post my progress EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Midnight bearing down on me is incentive.
Well, today in keeping with Sarah’s short-story post yesterday, instead of staring at the end of my book that I can’t finish, I ripped out half a short story to advertise Book 2, which I’m still holding fire on.
At my stage of the game, beating myself up to go work is just stupid. I’m already as beat-up as I’m going to get. Guilt? I laugh at guilt. Schedules? Same.
So a change is as good as a rest, as they say. Do something, anything else. Cutting the lawn is a good one for me. Roaring around reaping the blades of green in 8 foot swaths is therapeutic.
But if all you’re doing is anything other than that thing you’re ‘supposed’ to be doing, and its been going on for a while, it might be worth having a hard look at the reasons you’re supposed to be doing it. Just my opinion, I claim no special wisdom on the subject.
Flip to the next thing on the writing list…
Ugh! A room in a local library… It wouldn’t work for me, next thing I know, I’m with three new books checked out (my local library limit) and I’m reading a fourth instead of doing homework. That’s how it worked when I went to study to the library, I had to go to a library with no fiction works, or better yet, a study room with no books.
One thing that sometimes works for me is designating certain songs on my playlist as “writing songs.” I tell myself, “Okay, you can play on the internet during the other songs, but as soon as something by The Longest Johns (for example) comes on, you must write, and you can’t stop writing until the end of the song.” I’ll goof off before the first one, and sometimes even between the first and the second, but it usually doesn’t take much longer than that before I’m in a rhythm, and I don’t want to stop and goof off.