I give a lot of advice on this blog. Most of it, like most good advice, is based on failure. I’ve messed up a lot, so I know what I’m talking about.
Let’s say you’re a few chapters into your story, or maybe even 75 or 100 pages… and you’re just not feeling it. At all. What’s more, you have this new idea for a story. It is so much better than the stupid, lifeless thing you are working on! What should you do?
You should finish your story.
Okay, hear me out.
It’s actually fine to toggle between a few projects. It’s okay to set something aside to marinate, begin a new thing, and come back to your first thing.
But if you’ve never finished anything? Finish. You can study and read up and write all you want, but there are things that you can only learn by finishing a story.
Don’t be like I used to be, and write 100 pages of a bunch of novels and then abandon them. Yeah, I told you this advice was rooted in failure.
If you don’t finish things often, or you haven’t finished anything lately? Again, finish. You need to know you can do it, and not just once or even twice.
The old adage, Finished is better than good, is an adage for a reason.
I’ll give you an example. I will admit to not being a fan of E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey. (I’ll pause while she dries her tears on one of the thousand dollar bills she uses for Kleenex.) In general, I tend to appreciate popular things, but there are several reasons why I dislike this book, and the mild kink is not one of them. I didn’t read the other two books in the trilogy.
But here’s the thing. She did finish a damn trilogy. Have I finished a trilogy? No, I have not. So I have to respect that effort, and I have to give myself a chance for some success — by actually finishing what I start.
If you keep on chasing after one beautiful story concept after another, it can make you like a person who’s terrible at committed relationships. You can’t stop wondering if something better is out there.
Sometimes stories are excruciating for most of the first draft. Soulless, cheesy, cliched, or all of the above. Maybe you think there are a thousand stories like it. Maybe you realize there are no stories like it, and you wonder if it will have a tiny audience. You might tell yourself: This story is awful. Why the hell did I even start it?
Trust the instinct that led you to the story in the first place. Don’t overthink things. Just see it through. As you plug away, you’ll encounter new insights into the characters and new plot points. It will get better as you go along.
The thing you don’t like about the first draft isn’t your story. It’s just your writing. If you start a new story, you’ll have the same problem.
But if you hang in there and take it to completion, your writing will become better and better all the time.
Anyway, nobody wants to buy your unfinished book. Editors don’t want it. Agents don’t want to represent it (unless you are already a bit famous, in which case, will you write a gushing quote for the cover of my next novel?). Readers do not want to read it.
So finish the thing you’re on. You’re going to be so proud of yourself.
Reblogged this on Words Can Inspire the World.
I just did this — forced myself to finish a book during NaNo, even though I wasn’t feeling it. By the time I got to the end I didn’t hate it anymore, but it will still need a LOT of work before anyone else can look at it!
Jayden, confession time — a couple of years ago I finished and revised a Victorian novel… and then realized that it just wasn’t working. I couldn’t figure out how to even fix it, and it broke my heart.
THIS PAST WEEK, out of nowhere!, I suddenly realized how to fix it! I’m so excited!
Your NaNo novel is probably not as in dire straits as this book was, but don’t be surprised if suddenly you get a flash of insight that makes it even better! 🙂 Congratulations on finishing it!
Exactly what I needed to hear/read today.
Aw, I’m glad 🙂
when I read over an anniversary edition of Terry Brook’s Shannara books, I was struck by one of his stories. The second book he wrote in his career took him YEARS and almost didn’t get finished and when it was done, Lester Del Ray said it was awful and made him fix it, which took him more years. Brooks said it was one of his favorite books because he learned to write when he wrote it. Humbling story—good advice here, girl.
Kris I’m so glad you shared that! I read those books as a kid and just loved them (I sometimes think about re-reading them.) I never would have guessed that about the second book. It’s really an inspiring story!
Sound advice, I think. I applied this idea once and wound up with a 90,000 word klunker that remained unfinished. However, my Sci Fi work all falls within one ‘universe,’ so I have since been able to lift the (already developed) characters and some plot elements and weave them into something newer that has more punch.
Ohh, that’s interesting! I have yet to use an unfinished or unrevised novel in that way, but I have thought about it! I bet the characters have more depth because you spent more time with them!
My mantra this year and I’m working on it. 😀
🙂 That’s awesome!
Great suggestions Bryn (as ever!). It reminds me of the advice C.S. Lewis offered to an American schoolgirl who wrote to him:
“When you give up a bit of work, don’t throw it away. Put it in a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the re-writing of things begun and abandoned years earlier.”
So if you have abandoned works, pull them out and re-read them. As Bryn said, something made you want to write them in the first place. Perhaps you can re-ignite that spark with a new experience that will give your characters a voice and purpose that will see them through to the finish line.
Of course, that opens a whole new can of worms, but one can of worms at a time, I always say.
Oh my gosh, PJ, YES. See my note to Jayden above… I could not agree more.
Good advice – as always – and an entertaining and encouraging post too. It’s definitely worth persevering with a story and seeing it through.
Aw thanks Anne. Thanks for reading. Hope you have a great weekend!
Yes! So much this.
It’s a lesson I struggle with, even after 4 years. Because I’m so bogged down now, I’m at a happy medium. If something comes to me, I write it down and file it away, but I always go back to my current project.
With your helpful posts, 2016 is the year I finish a damn book. ?
Yeah! You’re going to do it and it’s going to be awesome. 🙂
Thank you! I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m working with the assumption I won’t be publication ready, but (hopefully) at least 2nd draft!
No ifs, ands, or buts – the novel will be complete in one draft version or another.
Great advice. Letting go of my romantic view of writing has been essential for me. Some days feel like a slog. Today, for example! 😉
I know what just you mean E.J. … I started out in poetry, which I would usually write in quick bursts of inspiration. I had to learn how to slog through! Thanks for the kind words.
Great post, Bryn. This made me laugh (with you, because I GET it): “Most of it, like most good advice, is based on failure.” I haven’t finished my novel yet–writing fan fiction is how I prove to myself that I CAN finish something, and once I posted more than ten stories and a-hundred-thousand words, I knew I could finish my novel, too. But I’m not feeling my current story anymore; it’s taking me more than a month, instead of the usual two weeks, and this post is just what I needed to gear me up to tackle another chapter this weekend. Thank you!
Thanks Kathryn! Sending you good writing vibes. 🙂
When I hit a gate in my story, I open it by writing about my problem in my morning pages. I write by hand using a pilot ball point pen in blue ink, which I can only buy online. I call it my magic wand. Eventually the gate always opens.
I love your magic wand pen!
This is great! Love it.
Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
“The thing you don’t like about the first draft isn’t your story. It’s just your writing.” I love this.
Hating my current WIP, but I’m going to power through to the bitter end. *lol*
Well, I’m mostly speaking for myself there, haha! I hope you have a breakthrough soon and love your WIP <3
*Maniacal laugh* It’s done, done! Today I posted the last two chapters of Heal My Heart, so anyone can read the whole thing online. Yesterday I wrote more than 4,000 words toward the sequel. Thanks, Bryn, you and our fellow readers and writers keep me going! http://archiveofourown.org/works/5728576/chapters/13199938
Yay, congratulations! And wow — that’s a lot of work on the sequel already!
I came to this post two years late, but enjoyed it greatly. Fortunately I learned the slogging lesson early on. Didn’t like it, never quite mastered it, but I did finally know my enemy/friend. It was 1965, I was 22, and was selling door-to-door in rural Michigan. Occasionally I’d have a hundred dollar day (the Fuller Brush man’s holy grail back then), but mostly I floundered. Most frustrating was seeing the other salesmen – guys I considered hacks – bringing in $40-$50 day after day. Compared to my results, they were all succeeding, or at least earning a steady income. That’s when I realized that “the secret of brilliant success is slow stupid plodding.”
Of course it’s not really the “secret” of success, but it is one big-a$$ major ingredient. And now, more than five decades later, I still find I need to review that lesson from time to time.
Thanks Bryn for the great reminder.
Whoops – mistype on the URL – sorry
Love this post! Simple truth and encouragement.
Aw thank you for the kind words, Carol! Glad you liked it. 🙂
This gave me some encouragement thanks 🙂 I have a hard time finishing my last chapter. It’s stupid I know, it’s the last chapter, I can see the finish line but urg I can’t seem to get it right! He already confessed, their misunderstandings have been cleared, they made up, they had a heated sexy night in a rented room and now… Now I need to write the following morning, the return home and tie the last loose ends and I just feel like it’s boring… And to make matters worse I haven’t touched the story in more than a year… or any story for that matter :S I feel like I have lost my writing style in that year and it bugs me to no end! Buuut your posts are of great help guiding me through those hardships and headaches, thank you 😀
Hi Myriam! You know, endings are tough. And I know what it’s like to pick up a story you haven’t looked at in a while. Sometimes it takes some time to get back into the groove! I’m sure you will, though, and I hope you have great luck with it!