So, I read books. Why? Because (A) I love to read. (B) Good writers are good readers. There you have it. And so, reading today, I picked up Roald Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World at the Walla Walla Public Library. Dahl's humorous prose is indisputably masterful. Few authors are such a consistent joy to experience book after book.


Author Roald Dahl doing what he does best (in his writer's shed)
In the back of Danny, there's an interview with Dahl that was conducted in 1988, two years before his death. The bit I want to share is below. The reason I'm sharing it now is because of something I've been wrestling with recently as an author. I'm at the 3/4 part of a new, speculative YA novel. In retrospect, this has always been the hardest part of a story for me, whether novel or screenplay. Though I've written and revised a story beat sheet for the book, it's still been tough. The last week has been like a word grudge match. False starts and stops. Or on a few days, not starting at all. Yikes!

However, after reading the interview, I found the following reminder helpful and did exactly that. 

Tomorrow morning, when I pick up the pen again (or in this case, keyboard), I know where to begin: an exciting part I stopped at today just as it was going well. So without further delay, what Dahl said, with a nod to Hemingway.


HOW DO YOU KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING WHEN YOU ARE WRITING A NOVEL?

One of the vital things for a writer who’s writing a book, which is a lengthy project and is going to take about a year, is how to keep the momentum going. It is the same with a young person writing an essay. They have got to write for four or five or six pages. But when you are writing it for a year, you go away and you have to come back. I never come back to a blank page. I always finish about halfway through. To be confronted with a blank page is not very nice. But Hemingway, a great American writer, taught me the first trick when you are doing a long book, which is, he simply said in his own words, “When you are going good, stop writing.” And that means that if everything’s going well and you know exactly where the end of the chapter’s going to go and you know just what the people are going to do, you don’t go on writing and writing until you come to the end of it, because when you do, then you say, well, where am I going to go next? And you get up and you walk away and you don’t want to come back because you don’t know where you want to go. But if you stop when you are going good, as Hemingway said… then you know what you are going to say next. You make yourself stop, put your pencil down and everything, and you walk away. And you can’t wait to get back because you know what you want to say net and that’s lovely and you have to try and do that. Every time, every day all the way through the year. If you stop when you are stuck, then you are in trouble!


Though "quitting while you're ahead" may seem counterproductive, it's actually not. You save time instead of wasting it. So whether you're a professional author or beginning writer, it's good to either be reminded of the above sage wisdom, or learn it. 
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