Finishing what you started
Some hard-won advice on being able to write 'The End'
Hello everyone,
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Here’s a truth - every good writer has lost confidence in a piece of writing, run out of steam in the middle, or struggled to find suitable endings. Every. Single. One. And this applies across all forms, whether you are writing very short flash fiction stories right through to big old doorstop-sized novels.
Here’s another truth - part of wrestling with the text to get it to a ‘finished’ state is actually about wrestling with yourself – your lack of confidence, your uneven self-belief, your perfectionism, your risk aversion, your ability to put something aside for later and never look at it again, the way you compare yourself to others, your nagging self-criticism. The way you overthink it some much you can never write ’The End’, or the way you avoid thinking about it too much before writing ’The End’.
This is not really about writing craft. It’s about addressing some of the non-writing stuff, our brains and attitudes, the huge number of ways we can find to self-sabotage, which can make developing and finishing stories more difficult. It’s about that folder of unfinished work on your computer or in a drawer. It’s about that rut you can get into where you make a lot of story starts, but very few finishes, and tell yourself you’ll come back to them some day.
Not all of what follows may apply to you, but I’m pretty sure some of it will, because none of us escape the uncertainty and the struggle (because that’s part of being a writer who can improve and who cares about their work).
Below are half a dozen of the issues I have faced personally when it comes to giving a story its best chance of being finished and published, as well being ones that often recur when talking to other writers or those who take my courses.
They all have suggested tasks with them, which you might find useful for your future writing sessions. And please feel free to leave comments or suggestions of your own!
Being unsure is okay!
Make peace with the fact that feeling unsure is the default state for all good writers. Being in a bit of a pickle is the sandbox we play in.
And here is the kicker. If you accept this simple truth, then you have to accept that struggling to develop or finish work is NOT down to whatever self-sabotaging, self-critical crap you come up with, but is just part of the creative process and one that you need to push through more often than not. Uncertainty and doubt are part of the story development engine, not a dead end.
Suggested task: It might be worth printing the above information out and putting it somewhere visible near your writing spot, so you can be reminded of it regularly.
Endurance is as important as talent.
Arguably, endurance is even more important than talent. Successful writers are those that overcome the doubts and difficulties and press on. However, that doesn’t mean that staying with a piece of writing is simply a dull process of picking at its many tight knots. Instead train your brain to see developing and finishing a piece as exciting, interesting work, where you can explore possibilities and take risks. If you think of editing and trying to write good endings as the tricky bit after the initial fun of writing a draft, then it will be tedious.
Suggestion: Next time you produce a piece of writing that starts well but then runs out of steam, or fizzles out into an unsatisfactory ending, don’t simply shelve it or put it aside for future editing, instead spend a few minutes writing some keywords or phrases that summon up the feeling and mood of the piece or the narrative voice, or some descriptive words about the setting, or some detail of the scene or characters that haven’t made it into the story, or some possible ways it could develop. What this does is give you a foothold into the story when you revisit it. It helps you access the story and its potential development quicker, which makes it easier to stick with the process of rewriting and editing.
Stop worrying about taking the ‘wrong’ direction with a story.
That thing where you have an idea for how to develop it, but don’t because it might not be what you first thought of, or might create potential fresh writing dilemmas, or some other self-censoring excuse. There is no right direction and sometimes you have to go up a few cul-de-sacs (remember number one in this list) to find an ending with resonance, which might not be the one you expect.
Suggested task: See item 2 above!
There is not, nor ever will be, a perfect place and time to write.
But you can improve your ‘Writing Hygiene’. Now, I don’t mean scrubbing your keyboard with an anti-bacterial wet wipe or hand washing your favourite writing sweater. I mean something similar to sleep hygiene, which is about creating a conducive atmosphere so you can fall asleep quicker. So consider what you can do to improve your writing hygiene. Can you put a planner up so other members of your household know when not to disturb you? Can you go for a short walk beforehand to get you in the mood? Can you do any research you might need beforehand, so you don’t go down a Google search rabbit-hole?
Suggested task: Write a brief description of your perfect writing place and time. Where you imagine you would be most productive. Then create a list of achievable things you can do to get a little closer to that fantasy. Create a ritual that will get you in the mood.
Ask if there’s a tension between satisfaction with your work and how vulnerable you are prepared to be?
Sometimes, we start a story which is very personal to us, but it runs out of steam or goes awry because we’re not prepared for the level of vulnerability it requires to delve inside ourselves to develop and end the story. My advice, from personal experience, is not to think of it as exposing your life on the page, which seems daunting, but more like accessing personal experience to create art. Now that’s a pretty noble pursuit, and one that might allow you to be braver and bolder.
Suggested Task: Do a timed session where you ignore self-censorship for 10-30 minutes and write into your vulnerability. You are not doing this with the aim of anyone else reading it, this is about the process of leaning into your personal experience.
Sometimes things just don’t work out…and that’s normal.
You might be able to finish a piece of writing and make it satisfactory, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark. Learn acceptance, that this is okay. This doesn’t mean these stories are a waste of time, any time you finish a story or a flash fiction or a longer piece of writing you will know more than when you started. I always try to remember that most writing can be improved, but not everything can be made exceptional.
Suggested Task: Firstly, give yourself a pat on the back for taking it as far as you can. Secondly, find something in the story that you are pleased with, some element of it, for example a bit of dialogue, a description, a setting, some element of diction or syntax that pleases you. Thirdly, honour your story by making a note of that aspect or element of the story you like. Finally, give yourself the fun task of incorporating it in some form into a story you are working on, or a new story.
Great advice!
Thanks for all your wonderful posts Ken.