Being an author is, at times, the easiest thing I’ve ever done, and, at other times, the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

For me, the hardest part of being a writer is momentum. Maintaining the momentum to see a project through from start to finish. I would hazard a guess that this is a common problem for most creative professionals, no matter the field.

Especially since most artists are expected to do all the work upfront with no guarantee of a payoff in the end. This makes it difficult to prioritize these projects over traditional jobs and everything else going on in our lives.

It’s the reason we have things like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), to give authors tools, structure, and encouragement so they can write a book. To give them deadlines and a community of people holding them accountable.

Now, personally, I’ve never actually done NaNoWriMo. I have, however, used National Poetry Month to motivate myself to write 30 Poems in 30 days. I’ve done this for four years in a row, and I love it. And over the years I’ve found a few other tricks to help keep myself motivated and maintain momentum with writing.  

So here are my five strategies to maintain momentum in a creative project!

1. Deadlines

It’s easier to get something done, if you have a due date in mind. This probably sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often I need to remind myself to do this. Set deadlines. It’s incredibly difficult to stick to a deadline when there’s no actual repercussion if you don’t. So maybe early on, you can use things like NaNoWriMo, or ask a creator friend to hold you accountable to your deadline. But over time, I think you can build up your own sense of accountability. You don’t want to let yourself down, right? Because ultimately, that’s who you’re doing this for. You don’t owe anyone else anything.

One caveat to this, is that I need to get better at setting realistic deadlines. I always put way too much pressure on myself to accomplish a billion things by a certain deadline, and then I beat myself up every day I don’t make “enough” progress until I realize the deadline was bonkers to begin with. Then I have to go through a whole song and dance of conniving myself it’s okay to extend my deadline, or set a new deadline. It’s ridiculous. (I’m currently in the middle of this process at the moment. So, this is me, putting it in writing: it’s okay for me to set reasonable deadlines and not expect myself to be a machine.)

2. Track Progress

There’s a reason apps like Duolingo track your daily progress and give you small challenges to complete every day (I’m on a 132-day streak right now!). Because it’s good for our brains to see our growth and progress. It’s great positive reinforcement to measure our improvement, but it also stings when we see the days we didn’t progress as much. So, as an author, this can be as simple as tracking word count every day, or setting the goal to write one chapter every day, and then ticking them off a list.

For me, it’s word count.

I feel motivated by watching the word count tick upwards. It definitely bums me out when I don’t write as much on a given writing day, but progress is progress, no matter how small. Some days I’ll write thousands of words, and some days I may struggle to write a few hundred. But as long as I see that number counter tick upwards a bit, it helps me remain committed.

3. Schedule

I’ve talked about this before, but schedules are my number one tool for maintaining momentum and motivation. I set myself a weekly schedule that blocks in all the things I need to do each week. I set aside chunks of time for my creative projects, and I lock them in the same way I would any other work commitment. Then I don’t have to “find the time” to be creative. The time is already allocated, all I have to do is sit down and do it. I can also use this schedule to be unapologetic about boundaries. “No, I can’t have a meeting tomorrow morning, because that’s my writing time.”  

4. Disable Your Inner Critic

We all have an inner critic who wants to see us fail. That annoying voice telling us there’s no point, or that what we’re doing isn’t good enough. Ugh. That voice is the absolute worst voice to listen to during the initial creation phase. Whenever my inner critic rears her ugly head, I have to fight pretty hard to shut her up. I have to remind myself that the goal is not to create something perfect (yet). The goal is just to get a first draft done. And for that first draft, I have absolutely no need for an inner critic. She can just shut her face and wait until I tell her she can come out. It’s easier said than done. But I think this goes back to section 2: Tracking Progress. In the initial creation phase, it’s not about the big picture. It’s about each day’s small goal. It’s about having fun in the moment with today’s writing session and just ticking the box to mark my progress.

Now, I will say, after many years I have developed an appreciation for that inner critic—at the right time. I think it is important to train that voice to give ourselves constructive criticism so we continue to improve and we don’t accept our projects when they reach the “okay” stage, rather we push for them to get to the “good” or “great” stage. My inner critic is a great editor. She’s exacting and unemotional, she can hack and slash away the crap and hone in on the higher quality idea.

But she needs to wait her turn.   

5. Procrastinate Well

Now this one might seem like a weird one but hear me out. We’ve all heard writers making the jokes about how the only time they clean the house is when they should be writing, or how a new idea will come to them when they’re supposed to be finishing the one they’re working on now.  

I’ve noticed a trend here for myself. Whenever my brain wants to procrastinate, I ask myself why? What is it about the current project that isn’t exciting to me right now? Often, I discover the reason is actually more important than I think it is. Sometimes it’s a symptom of my brain wanting to do more world building or character development because something about the story I’ve created isn’t resonating for me, it isn’t drawing me back in. This means I should take some time to do this work instead of forcing myself to keep writing. So, I might dive into some research, which could look like anything from Wikipedia diving all the way to reading or watching tv—I know right? I can justify this type of procrastination as long as it’s related to my project (i.e., if I’m writing a dystopian musical, maybe I should listen to some musicals or read a dystopia).

Other times, this urge to procrastinate is a symptom of fatigue and burnout and I need to learn how to listen to my stupid body. I suffer from creative burnout fairly regularly and I can’t and shouldn’t try to push through this. Usually, I just need to give myself space to rediscover my excitement for the project. The best way I know how to do this is by using something I call “creative rest”. For me, creative rest, is working on a creative project that isn’t priority number one right now. This could be something as simple as cooking a new recipe, or it could be writing a blog post (like I’m doing right now), or—even better—plotting a completely different novel.

It does me the world of good to get caught up in a new idea for a while. I let myself go as far as I can until my energy wanes a bit. This loosens up some tension in my brain and re-ignites my excitement about being a writer. And bonus, I actually did some work for a future project, which is not a waste of time at all!

Conclusion

These are just five strategies I use to keep myself committed and maintain momentum. When I lose momentum it’s usually because of one of four reasons:

I don’t have a clear end goal — So I set a deadline!I get bogged down in the size of the project — So I focus on tracking small progress!I can’t find the time — so I stick to a schedule!My inner critic is discouraging me — So I tell her to shut it!I’m getting distracted — so I ask myself why!

Every once in a while, I lose momentum completely and end up shelving a project for later. But for the most part, these five strategies keep me going. What are the reasons you lose momentum? Do you have any strategies you recommend to keep going?