Momentum
Oh boy! My novel FINALLY picked up some speed today. It’s been going in that direction for the last two days but today was truly the first day this month that I felt as if I could just keep going, as if I couldn’t type fast enough to get the words down. In fact, I wasn’t surprised when I got to the end of the chapter I was writing that the word count was 3,163 (to be exact) words more than yesterday.
It’s momentum. What a great feeling! An exhilarating sled run after a long hard slog up the hill. It’s gratifying after all the work put in so far—the feeling of having to paste myself into the chair and duct tape myself to the desk, all the draggy days, the suppressed doubts (because they never actually Go Away, do they?), and the endless setting up of characters until you are quite certain that it’s going to be a book about nothing whatsoever except six single characters milling around in search of something to do!
At this point, however, my main characters have finally come together into a situation that not only brings up aspects of what has happened in the last two novels set in this world, but also sets up new mysteries and, later on, when it’s time, a resolution. No. I don’t know exactly what that will be, but I CAN tell now (as opposed to three days ago) that I’m on the right path to discover it. And so are my characters. How nice to be on the same page as one’s characters. 
If you’re not there yet, keep going! You’ll find that momentum sooner or later as well. It’s worth it!
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