I’ve been stuck for a while. I’ve been stuck on beginnings and finding it hard to finish. New ideas whispering to me, keeping me from finishing the Big One.
Today, let’s talk about finishing. Not because the draft might end up perfect (*coughs, it won’t), and not because every single piece of writing deserves publication. Some stories exist to teach us how to write the next one.
Not surprisingly unfinished novels teach us something, and it’s something to be aware of!!
They teach us to abandon ourselves the moment the excitement fades and uncertainty appears. Even short story writing can result in loss of momentum with my novel writing (I wrote a whole Substack about that - the dopamine hit of short form writing and you can find the link to that one at the bottom)
Back to finishing.
If you are writing fiction, one thing is almost certain - the moment our current story settles into itself, our brain will present a shiny new idea that feels fresher and more exciting - one that might possibly be the Big Thing. It will vie for our attention and want us to write it immediately.
I have been there many times.
Let’s be reassured: this doesn’t mean the current story is rubbish or even dead in the water. It doesn’t mean we’ve chosen the wrong project. More often than not it is just the way our brains work. We are creatives and guess what? The more creative work we regularly do, the more we are immersed in story-writing, the more ideas will appear to us.
Fact: there is no shortage of ideas.
Also Fact: There are more people working with ideas and toying with a novel than there are people who finish a novel.
There’s the uncomfortable truth.
I have a file on my computer and I’m tempted to rename it “Things That Interrupted My Current Manuscript” We can choose to let those new ideas live there, rest there, until we are ready to progress them. The ideas aren’t going anywhere. They are meaningless unless they are written up and finished. Because otherwise, they are just ideas.
They will wait for us.
Of course, if you are genuinely half way through your draft and you feel it is not working, if there is a fundamental problem with that project, then we can reassess. We thoughtfully examine it. However, that relies on a certain amount of awareness and working out whether it’s just an excuse to avoid the hard work and to start something shiny and new.
Everything All At Once
Here’s another trap I’ve fallen into with my earliest drafts and I’m sure I can’t be the only one - so let me know if this has happened to you. There is a temptation for an early writer to try to put absolutely everything into book one. Every theme, every philosophical thought, every beautiful sentence and personal wound, every idea you’ve ever had about love or grief. We can desperate to prove ourselves on the page.
Listen up.
We do not need our first novel to contain every truth we’ve ever known. We don’t need one novel character to carry everything. We don’t need to throw absolutely everything at our first novel with the fear it might be our only chance.
If we truly want a writing life there is so much more in front of us than one poem, one story, one novel. Trust there will be more. More characters and storylines to explore things you care deeply about.
Our characters must remain true to their journey and not veer off into everything because we as writers are desperate to express this.
It’s hard.
Doubts and Skills
Yet another area that prevents us from finishing is looking back on earlier chapters (or earlier work) and seeing how much better you have become. You may want to endlessly rewrite your stuff. This can be a particular issue if we are writing a novel over an extended period of time.
And whilst revising is necessary, constant rewriting and editing a draft may simply not be worth it if we want to finish (not everyone will be suited to this style, so feel free to ignore - but if this rings true, then listen up)
This was one of my hardest lessons. At some point you have to get comfortable with allowing yourself to write badly in order to finish (you can, and will, polish later).
My very first full novel draft happened during the huge early days of NaNoWriMo when everyone seemed to be feverishly typing their way towards the 50,000 deadline in a caffeine panic. I managed 57,500 and it felt miraculous. Ideas kept coming because I was touching in with my project on a daily basis (in between working, caring, travelling, illness, etc). The pitch for that book received so much enthusiasm online and I was convinced this was the one.
Then I reread it. Oh dear. The structure was almost non-existence. The narrative structure didn’t work as well as it could have and the pacing wandered. I didn’t yet understand how to shape a novel properly.
But here’s the important bit. I had finished. I had something to work with.
I learned more from that badly completed novel than from all the other abandoned beginnings sitting in a drawer.
I learned a lesson that was particular to me - that if I write over an extended period of time that the work will be patchy and harder to hold together, requiring a quicker period of structural edit and rewriting; whereas if I write a first draft more quickly, it may be lacking finesse but the story will be put down and I can go back and polish/rewrite where necessary. It was only through doing that I learned this. You will learn your own lessons particular to how YOU write.
I also continue to learn a lot about writing (and publishing) through reading current books. Active reading. Reading novels with a writer’s eye and noticing.
Have you read a book that you raced through. A book that wasn’t terribly literary or fancy, yet it held your attention, maybe even your heart? A sentence or a passage that made you stop and hold the book to your heart and gasp, saying “How did they do that?” I want that. And to achieve it, I have to finish. You do too.
If we learn something let it be that the first draft is not the final performance (no matter if you’re a plotter or a pantster).
Let us close our ears to the whispers that there’s no point continuing, ignore the voice that encourages us to endlessly edit and polish chapter three when chapter twelve does not even exist yet.
(you do know you can write yourself side notes as you write: come back to this later and lean into x.y.z)
Learning to properly revise and edit (not proof read) is a whole different skill and it is something you can do once you have the whole picture in front of you. Endlessly polishing the opening three chapters is a whole waste of time if you never reach the end - and even if you do, the opening may change/move. Ask how I know this? (no, don’t).
Let’s be clear about perfectionism - it leans into our fears.
Your book won’t exist because you wrote three stunning opening chapters and a decent synopsis. It will exist when you stay with the story long enough and committed enough to reach The End.
Let’s crumple up this bit of paper which says Not Good Enough and chuck it in the bin.
I wish someone had taken me by the shoulders years ago and said this plainly (so I am now saying it to you, with the greatest of respect):
Believe in yourself before expecting anyone else to
I know how it is to yearn for an agent or editor or someone to tell us we are on the right track, we are doing ok. So let it be me whispering - you are doing ok, you are on the right track. Just keep at it.
I’m not talking about being arrogant. Just enough to keep you going. To trust you don’t need to prove everything in one manuscript. Smart enough to finish the draft even when doubt arrives. Published writers, authors, are the ones who stayed. The ones who didn’t give up.
So if you are in the middle of something difficult right now, perhaps somewhere around 20,000 or 30,000 words and suddenly convinced you need a new, better idea, perhaps save that idea in your special folder and keep going anyway. Finish this. Don’t abandon yourself every time uncertainly appears. Learn from it. You never know what might happen next with this story, this manuscript. This thing you will finish ;)
So this is where I am ending and I realise it’s a messy one but that’s because I’m human and I often get derailed - not only in my fiction but also when I’m writing to you here on Substack. I’m only human!!
What has derailed you and stopped you from finishing? Have you learned something you can share with us here?
Happy writing to you this week - and do believe in yourself, with love from Jackie in the Little Writing Corner in Scotland x x x
A BONUS LINK FOR YOU:
A previous post which feels relevant to this “finishing” business too. You may enjoy reading about something else that stopped me from finishing my novel!!!
