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Inertia in physics is the quality of an object to resist any change in motion or direction and that property is directly related to the object’s mass. High mass items require more force to start, stop, or change their motion. Momentum is the quality of a moving object and is determined by both the object’s mass and by the object’s velocity.  A low mass item moving at high speed may very well have more momentum than a much heavier object that is moving much much slower.

How do these concepts of physics apply to the esoteric and decidedly far less physical activity of my writing?

To me, projects, be they short stories or novels, seem to possess qualities very much like inertia and momentum. The idea, the character, the plot, and the themes of the piece can all exist in that void that I call my brain, but until I overcome the inertia at my keyboard, it does not move from the fog of imagination to the concrete existence of words, sentences, paragraphs in a document.

Once that inertia is overcome and the words flow out of my mind and onto the page, then the project acquires its own version of momentum. It doesn’t want to stop but it wants to continue moving forward, gathering speed as it hurtles towards its conclusion. This is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that once I have passed some ineffable point the project becomes self-sustaining and the probability of it crashing and burning before the tale is told shrinks with each passing word and page. A curse in two manners, 1) I cannot work on more than one project at a time. Even a little short story can overturn a novel in progress by stealing all the momentum for itself and 2) if anything seriously disrupts the process, like a derailed locomotive the project crashes and can be very very difficult to get back onto its track and moving again.

The latter is what I am dealing with at the moment. The week I spent out of commission while I dealt with a case of RSV, get your vaccinations I sincerely believe mine kept me out of the hospital, has killed all the momentum of the novel I was working on. Now, with so much more crafted about it you might think that it would be easier to get the thing moving again but reality seems to operate in the opposite. It feels harder to get the thing rolling down the track but I am determined to do so. I am determined that before 2026 is done I will have my Cascade mountain folk horror drafted.