I wrote a missive about how we struggle to start our stories. It is also the case that some of us struggle to finish our stories. We fear that it will never be good enough so we never stop, others don’t have a plan or a destination for their writing so they don’t actually know when or where to stop their story. Sometimes life gets in the way and it’s hard to get back into your work. What solutions are there to help you finish your work?
What are the reasons we might not finish our writing?
There are many reasons we don’t finish our writing. Intimidation of the word count, too many ideas so we bunny hop from one to the other, boredom, life getting in the way. Some of these reasons can make us feel guilty or ashamed that we can’t finish, like a failure, which snowballs into other areas of your life, or prevent you from ever trying again.
This is bad. Creative writing, art, should not be so onerous that it becomes a stressor and you stop.
Let’s look at some reasons why people stop writing and creating.
Perfectionism.
We want our writing to be as awesome as we imagine it in our heads, the inner movie we can project into our imagination. We have this fear that what we write is never going to compare to the perfect vision we have in our heads.
We will edit and rewrite, tidying up minor things, or rewriting whole sections that don’t work, ad nauseum. When do we stop? When do we feel it is ‘good enough’?
I feel this perfectionism is driven by reading our favourite authors and knowing that they’re great writers, so good they got published! Of course we’re not going to be as good as our favourite authors. However, we are going to be as good as us, we are going to be good in a different way from our favourite authors.
You don’t want to be like your favourite authors, you want to be as good as you.
I have told writers I have worked with to get ‘good enough’. Good enough is, funnily enough, good enough. You can get feedback from your peers, from professional beta readers and editors. Follow the feedback, but don’t fall down the trap of- they don’t like it. Of course they don’t, it’s obvious that my writing is bad.
This is not true.
I was told by a few of my beta reading friends that they were being strict and harsh with the feedback because they know I am a good writer, the story I was telling was great, and they wanted to see the best version possible. Good feedback from them.
Setting the bar too high
Have you written something that you felt was absolutely awesome? The mood, the vibe, the feel, it was so on point that you just sat and looked and thought- that is fantastic.
Then you had to continue writing, and it feels like you can’t get back to that same height of awesome?
Or, you did write a story, and released it unto the world, and the world LOVED it! Now you have to equal or better that effort, and how could you?
There are examples out there of a book that was so good the author couldn’t write another, or movies that were fantastic, so sequels were ordered, and they didn’t live up to the original. We’ve seen it, we have opinions about it, and then we don’t want to be those people.
The solution to this dilemma is to write more. That doesn’t make a total amount of sense, but hear me out. All the writing you did before led to this piece of literary gold. The only way you’re going to get more gold is by writing more. The author who said this currently escapes me, but they said that writing hundreds of stories, in all of that work, you will find gold. The more you write, the better you will get and the more often you will strike gold.
Fear of failure.
This fear could be further up the list, but here it is. Some people don’t start because of this fear, others don’t finish for the same reason. If you finish a story, that you have invested a lot of time and effort and imagination in, and it tanks, what is the point? It is an indictment against you as a creative person, so if I don’t actually finish, no one can judge me.
What do I do now?
When you’ve finished writing your story, what will you do then? Some people are so enamoured by the work they are writing, they never want to leave it.
I have seen this road block before and I am baffled by it. I have told people- finish this story and then write another one, in the same world! You don’t have to leave the world or the characters once you’ve finished that book. Just look at the Wheel of Time books as an example.
Once I’ve written a novel, I rest. It takes a lot of effort to write all those words, so I rest the brain for a while. I never thing- now what, because after I’ve rested I either have something else to write, or I get to polish up what I have done. It’s good to get back into a writing project and go through the same anxious twitchy things again!
Life gets in the way.
Sometimes this happens. A job becomes stressful, a new baby or a new pet arrives, moving house or other such big life event gets in the way of your writing. It has happened to me, I get it.
You then lose momentum, you don’t feel like getting back behind the monitor and start writing again. It’s been so long, you’ve lost the vibe of what you were doing, you don’t remember where you were, you’ve just lost that feeling.
When you’re work out and exercise, and stop working out, it takes just 3-5 days for you to lose fitness. Writing is using your writing muscles, and not writing weakens those muscles, and it takes more effort to get back into it.
I have talked to friends who had life get in the way, and I asked them if life has got out of the way yet? If so, then get back into writing, even if it a small amount, get back into it.
How do we begin to finish our writing?
The first step is:
Stop looking at the mistakes.
We’re all going to make mistakes. Grammar and spelling errors can easily miss three rounds of edits and make it to final publishing. I should know. They exist and they can be fixed in post, or edits.
Don’t focus on what you’re doing wrong. Rule #2 of Written Off Writing is you’re not allowed to say anything negative about yourself or your writing. This idea slots right in there. You are doing more things RIGHT than wrong. You’re just so focused on being perfect you think it isn’t good enough. Ask someone whose opinion you care about and they’ll tell you that your writing is better than you think.
How do you eat an elephant?
Bite by bite. If the project feels too huge, then we may become intimidated and feel too much pressure to finish. Break it down into smaller, easier-to-chew tasks.
- 200 words a day.
- Write 2 days a week
- Write the next scene
- Write to the next destination.
Slowly, all these little bits will add up to one massive bite.
Find an accountability partner.
Someone you trust, someone who can keep you accountable and moving along your road to success. Keeping each other accountable can motivate you and have you finishing projects.
Tell others about your project
This is a more casual way of being accountable. These other people may ask you now and then what you’re doing. We have this need for social accountability, to show we’re doing something, and hopefully, this can keep you motivated, or get you back into the project if you’ve let it sit idle.
Commit
Take some whimsy away from the joy of creating and set aside time in your diary, and turn up. Make an appointment, invite someone else so they know you’ve booked yourself a meeting to write and create. You would be surprised how motivating it is to book time, putting it aside to write.
Recruit others to this writing time as well, so it is a writing group. It worked for me!
Try to understand WHY you are not finishing.
I’ve put this tip last so it sticks in your mind. This is about introspection, understanding what it is that stops you from writing “the end”.
What is stopping you, and why is it stopping you? I would not be surprised if this line of questioning has you going down some interesting rabbit holes and giving you some tremendous personal growth.
If something is stopping you from writing and creating, what else is it stopping you from doing?
All the experts and authors say that to improve your writing, you need to make it a habit and write every day. These same people are able to write and finish things like it’s that easy.
It does get easier. Plan your writing out so you have a destination in mind. Trust that what you’re writing is better than not writing at all. Understand that you can fix poor writing with the help of other people.
Make sure you’re enjoying what you write so it helps you to finish it. You don’t want your writing to be a chore. Understand what it is that is blocking you, and work to shift it so you can write, create and flow with the creative energy,
You CAN do it. You CAN write something awesome and finished. You can be brave and let others read your work.
Post Script.
This article was inspired by my friend Alison, who is a great writer and storyteller, but keeps not finishing something. Last week she used our writing time to work on her story. It is coming along nicely, and more things keep popping into it, which is possibly sabotaging her efforts to finish, but she has this determination now to finish. We will be connecting online to body double and get something finished.
But this article is also close to my heart. If you find me on Amazon, you’ll see two novels published, way back in the early 20teens. But where is the third?
I dragged my feet for literal YEARS, not finishing the story. I would participate in NaNoWriMo, but not finish that one book. I can’t release any other novels until this one is done, it is an albatross around my neck.
The good news is I finished the first draft, and I am halfway through the rewrite.
But it got me thinking- why? Why was I so reluctant to finish it? And for me, the biggest obstacle was having something finished and complete, which people can then judge me on. There was also a hint of- but then what? But mostly it was about if I finish, then I can be judged.
I worked through that, got over it, built a bridge, and then finished the first draft at a hefty 130,000 words. A lot needs to be cut, which I am doing, but my hope is to get the third and final book in my Girl From out of Town series done. And then take a table at the Clunes Book Festival, 2026.
The articles I write here come from my heart, from my experience. I get the trickiness of trying to find a place to start, and I share how I get over it. I’m
not just writing these pieces to tick off the ‘one item of content a month’ to feed the SEO machine. These are also my experiences, and I want to help you.
Don’t be afraid to finish what you started, to receive the accolades of your fans, and then get onto the next thing. The world needs more art, more words, more books, more creativity. It’s up to us to provide it.
