I've been noticing as I go that if I take a break for more than a day or two, I seem to lose track of the writing style I'd been using, and have to go back and read a good chunk of what I'd written up to that point to get back on it. Particularly this occurred to me this morning, as I spent about an hour adjusting the last few pages I'd written, inserting paragraphs, tightening up transitions between paragraphs, changing some of the language around, because I noticed there was a sudden change in flow between those pages and the pages previous.

I think I read somewhere that, when he would start a project, Franz Kafka liked to do it all in one go. Basically just locking himself down in his chair by his typewriter and not moving until it was all done. I guess I can see that being a useful strategy; if you take too long a break you might forget what it was you were originally going for and have to relearn it before you can proceed, and that wastes a lot of time.

I don't suppose anyone else has this issue? I feel like getting sudden dramatic swings in style while putting together a rough draft is okay, but then in the editing phase, do folks feel like they spend a lot of time re-reading finished parts of the work to keep the rest of it consistent? Although I suppose in some forms of writing this wouldn't usually present much of an issue, e.g. poetry (since I imagine the editing process there could usually be done in a day or two anyway... though I suppose I could be wrong about that).