I just finished a novel about momentum: John Grisham’s The Confession. A young man in Texas is wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. With days left before the execution, the real killer sets out to save him — and the entire book becomes a race to see whether anyone can stop the momentum already carrying the correctional system toward an execution.
Grisham’s book is fiction, but the force behind it is real. And facts support that many innocent people have been executed.
Momentum applies just as much to the book sitting on your hard drive as it does to a death row countdown.
Momentum can be a wonderful thing.
When your book is moving forward, your writing feels easier. You finish the chapter you’ve been avoiding. Sitting down to write stops requiring a pep talk. Ideas for tomorrow’s pages show up while you’re still working on today’s. One good writing day leads naturally into the next. The content flows from your fingers. It is a beautiful thing.
But momentum has another side.
If you’re headed in the wrong direction, momentum can carry you farther from finishing your book before you even notice you’ve drifted off course.
The challenge isn’t simply building momentum. It’s building momentum that’s actually moving you toward a finished manuscript.
The Good Side of Momentum
Every writer has had days when the pages come easily.
- You finished a chapter ahead of schedule.
- You can see the outline of the chapters take shape.
- A beta reader told you a scene worked exactly as you hoped.
- You outlined tomorrow’s pages before closing your laptop tonight.
- You posted about your progress and your social media followers cheered you on.
None of those days happened by accident.
Action builds confidence, and confidence encourages more action. Soon, you’ve built a rhythm that keeps the manuscript moving.
Momentum also removes the mental tax of getting started. Instead of debating whether today is a writing day, you simply write, because it’s become part of your routine.
That’s one reason productive authors look so disciplined from the outside. What you’re really seeing is a habit that no longer requires willpower to activate.
The Dangerous Side of Momentum
Now consider the opposite.
Suppose you’ve said yes to every request that’s landed in your inbox — networking events, free webinars, guest posts, discovery calls, someone else’s project that “will only take an hour.”
At first, it feels productive.
- Your calendar is full.
- Your inbox never empties.
- You’re busy every single day.
From the outside, it looks like you’re building something. You feel like you are moving forward because you are acting.
But look closer.
- You’re spending your best writing hours answering other people’s requests.
- You keep telling yourself you’ll get back to the manuscript “next week.”
- The chapter you were excited about six months ago is still unfinished.
- You’ve stopped opening the document because it’s started to make you feel guilty instead of productive.
That’s momentum, too. It’s just carrying you away from the book instead of toward it. Being busy is not the same as making progress on your manuscript.
Ask Yourself an Important Question
Every few weeks, stop and ask yourself:
If I keep writing — or not writing — exactly the way I am today, where will my book be in six months?
That question has a way of surfacing habits you hadn’t noticed.
- Maybe you’ve been “researching” for months to avoid writing.
- Maybe you polish the same three chapters every time you sit down, instead of pushing forward into new material. Yes, I know how tempting that is to do.
- Maybe you’ve been waiting for a big, uninterrupted block of time that never actually shows up.
Momentum quietly turns today’s choices into tomorrow’s habits — the productive ones and the self-destructive ones alike. That’s why a regular check-in matters.
Small Changes Produce Remarkable Results
Momentum doesn’t require a dramatic overhaul.
A pilot flying across the country doesn’t make sharp turns. Small, steady corrections keep the plane on course. Your book works the same way.
- Write 500 words before you check email.
- Outline one chapter each week.
- Ask one reader for feedback each month.
- Revise one chapter at a time instead of the whole draft at once.
None of those actions feels dramatic on the day you do them. Taken together, they steadily move your manuscript from “someday” to “finished.”
James Clear makes a related point in Atomic Habits: tiny actions, repeated consistently, produce results that occasional bursts of effort never will. A system of small daily habits will get you further than waiting for the motivation to write for six hours straight.
Know When to Slow Down
There’s another lesson about momentum worth remembering: sometimes the smartest move is to slow down.
Part of what makes The Confession so tense is the question of whether anyone with the power to pause the execution will act in time — whether momentum toward the execution that some powerful people (think Police Chief and Governor) want can be stopped before it’s too late.
Writers face a much smaller version of that same stress.
- When you’re tempted to self-publish a draft before it’s ready, because you’re excited and momentum is telling you to keep moving — pause.
- When you’ve said yes to too many outside commitments, resist the pull to add just one more.
- When you need to make a big decision about your book (a title, a structure, a publishing path) give it real thought instead of reacting to whatever feels urgent that day.
Momentum should never replace your deliberate decision-making. Speed without direction just gets you lost faster.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Alice in Wonderland
Build Momentum That Serves the Book You Want to Write
Think about the authors you admire.
They didn’t finish their books because they occasionally worked in a frenzy. They finished because they showed up consistently. They pulled out their journal, they opened their laptop, or they dictated into the notes app of their phone.
- They kept writing, even on days it felt tedious.
- They kept revising instead of abandoning drafts that needed work.
- They asked for feedback and used it.
- They gave their work time to settle before considering it finished.
- They learned from chapters that didn’t work instead of getting discouraged by them.
Those repeated actions reinforced each other until finishing felt inevitable instead of impossible. That’s momentum, working in your favor.
The Bottom Line
Momentum is powerful, but it’s neutral. It doesn’t know whether it’s carrying you toward a finished book or away from one. That’s your responsibility to notice and direct it.
Take an honest look at your habits, your calendar, and the projects filling your time.
- If they’re moving your book forward, keep going.
- If they’re not, change direction now.
A small adjustment today can completely change where your manuscript stands three months from now. Build momentum on purpose, and let it carry you toward the book you actually will finish.
Pat Iyer MSN RN LNCC is a consultant, speaker, author, editor and book coach. She has written or edited 73 of her own books and worked with dozens of authors as an editor. Her most recent books include AI-Powered Video for LNCs book and workbook. She is the author of Blogging for Legal Nurse Consultants: Share Your Knowledge and Attract Clients
Pat is an Amazon international #1 bestselling author. Coaches, consultants, and speakers hire Pat to help release the knowledge inside them so that they can attract their ideal clients.
She delights in assisting people to share their expertise by writing. Pat serves international and national experts as an editor, book coach, and a medical and business writer.