Moving Forward With Small, Achievable Goals

I finished my book in July and started editing in August. I was doing well for a while, then I went on a three-week trip to Ecuador. And when I got home, I found I'd lost my writing momentum. I had already partially re-outlined my plot, resolving some plot issues I'd been concerned about and making my plot more cohesive. But upon returning, I didn't remember where my outline was going--and the notes I'd left on my first draft seemed incomprehensible.

So what do you do when you've lost momentum? Make it easy to get started again. I lost momentum for over three weeks because fixing my novel seemed like such an impossible task. I had this enormous binder full of notes and a half-written outline and I had no idea what I'd been doing before I left. It all seemed like a tangled mess--and I worried about not being able to retrace my train of thought. I was overwhelmed.

I got started on my outline again by redirecting my mental attention. Instead of telling myself I had to sit down and untie the gordian knot of my novel, I told myself I'd just reread the new outline I'd written. That's all. It took thirty minutes. Just that simple re-read reminded me of my direction and got me inspired.

Now I'm finished reworking my outline and will be tackling the rewrite this month. Is it going to be easy? No. But I make sure not to let myself know that. Every day, I sit down with the idea of doing something small and achievable. Five pages here, a thousand words there--it's all coming together. It's easy to get discouraged and sidetracked when you're always looking at the big picture. But remember you don't have to rewrite the entire novel in one sitting--you just have to rework one scene at a time. With small, regular efforts toward a larger goal, you're sure to get your novel edited.