Why Can’t I Finish Anything I Write?
I heard this from a writer the other day, and she’s not the only one. She thinks she’s lazy, unmotivated, or worse – not a “real” writer. I’ve heard all this before. I’ve even felt it at times.
The truth is, of course, that we do need to finish projects. Having a bunch of unfinished manuscripts cluttering up the hard drive also means they are cluttering up our minds. We feel bogged down by all the half-told stories. Every time we start a new project there’s a new flush of enthusiasm – maybe this is the magic story that will work! But this soon gives way to the whisper of “maybe not this one, either.”
There are many reasons why you can’t finish. And there are many ways to help yourself out of that vicious cycle. Understand that you are not alone, you are not weak, you are not a “bad writer” or a bad person.
Some of the reasons writers struggle to finish projects include:
Fear. Fear underlies a lot of writer’s block. Fear of judgement, fear of failure, fear that your work is worthless and no one will read it; fear that people will read it and hate it. Fear of finishing, and not knowing if you have another story in you. Fear paralyzes us from wanting to write anything. REMEDY: This boils down to: “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” There’s no way around it. Fear in its many guises will dog us in any creative work. You have to learn to ignore it and just keep going. Fear of any kind triggers our amygdala – the most ancient part of the brain that evolved to alert us to mortal danger. It doesn’t know that finishing a book doesn’t fall into the same category as “entering a bear’s den.” It’s not something you get over, it’s something you live with. Understanding that can help you make peace with it and move on.
Getting bogged down and not knowing what’s next. This boils down to not knowing how to create a story. Whether you’re a panster or a plotter, you’re going to come to a crossroads at many points of the story. Should this happen, or that? How do I know what’s right for the story? REMEDY: There’s actually several things you can do for this. One, learn how story structure works. There are a number of methods to help with this. I’ve written several posts about story structure that might help: Let’s Talk About Story Structure: The Basics; The Hero/Heroine’s Journey; Cause-and-Effect Structure: Story Genius and the Inside Outline; and Save the Cat and Story Grid: Structure in Beats. Two, don’t be afraid to play with your writing. Sometimes the best ideas come when you mind map, take a walk, think of the ten most outrageous things that could happen... if you’ve written yourself into a corner, go back to the last place the story had real juice, and choose a new adventure.
It’s hard. Once the first flash of inspiration is over, so is the easy part. Now you’ve gotta dig deep, and figure out how to make the whole thing work. Unless you’re writing something cookie-cutter fashion, or just throwing anything on the page and you don’t care what comes out, it’s hard. You need knowledge and skill, and lots of sweat equity. REMEDY: Acknowledge that something can be hard, and also enjoyable. Sometimes it will flow and feel easy; other times it will be like humping rocks uphill. You have to commit to spending the time to write, and show up, regardless of whether it’s an easy day or a hard day. You’ll never know if you don’t put in the time.
Boredom. This especially hits in the messy middle, but it can also hit during the long slog of revision. You’re sick of the story, the characters – why did you want to write this anyway? REMEDY: Again, play is crucial. Dig into a character’s backstory, or interview a character. Make a map of the story world (even if it’s not a fantasy). Think of 20 bizarre things that could happen in the story. Freewrite on how boring the story is and how dumb it is and how much it sucks. It’s odd, but I guarantee it will pop you out of your boredom – you may even get a flash of inspiration! Walk away from your story. Take the time to do some visual art, dance, sculpt – anything that allows your brain a refresh.
It’s not the right story, or it’s not ready yet. Maybe you jumped in without letting the story marinate in your brain long enough. Maybe your vision for the story doesn’t match your skill level yet. Maybe you’d like to write it, but there’s another story calling to you more strongly. (This can be tricky – it's easy to get seduced by the shiny new story idea, which leads to more stories never being finished.) REMEDY: If you jumped in too early, you might have to put the story aside and let the unconscious work its magic, and come back to it later. Sometimes you realize the story is DOA, and you have to bury it and move on. Sometimes working on the other sparkling story idea that’s really pulling you in is the right move. Listen to your gut and heart to help decide what to do.
Too many ideas. You can churn out cool ideas all day long. You love your ideas. You want to create stories from all of them. So you start one, then another one, then another one... and pretty soon you’re overwhelmed. You try to go back to a story, but you can’t remember what it was about, and you’re not sure you have the spark for it anymore. REMEDY: Ideas – we love ideas! But at some point we have to commit to finishing something. Some writers like to work on different manuscripts at the same time. They get stuck on one, then move to the other, and go back and forth, and they actually do finish. If that’s you, great! But for many, getting stuck on one and moving to another is a recipe for never getting back to the first one. Writers sometimes feel like constraint is the death of creativity, but in fact creativity blossoms when we buckle down and focus. Don‘t worry, you won’t run out of ideas while you’re focusing on Project #1. You may need to go between Idea-Generating Mode and Focused Finisher Mode to feel happy, and that’s okay. Just as long as you finish something.
Lack of “motivation.” I put this in quotes, because we go on and on about motivation as though it was the most important thing. It’s not. If we only write when we’re motivated, or when we feel inspired, we’re not going to write much. REMEDY: We think we need to feel motivated to write, when in fact we need to write on a regular basis in order to maintain our motivation. A routine – a set time and place for writing – actually helps our brains know that “now is the time to write.” We get into gear much more quickly because we’re prepared to work. Routine isn’t the death of creativity either. It frees us to concentrate on our writing, not on figuring out when we’re going to write, or trying to psych ourselves up to write.
Lack of time, space, etc. This is perfectionist thinking at its finest. We think that if only we had the perfect amount of time and energy, or the perfect writing space, we’d write like mad. We’d finish projects because all of our stars are aligned and the perfect circumstances have arisen for optimal work. How often does that happen? Rarely. REMEDY: The fact is, we have the time, energy, and space that we have. We can do what we can to change it, but inevitably we’re going to have some constraints we don’t like. And even if we did have the perfect conditions, we’d probably find some other excuse for not writing. You have to prioritize writing however you can. But you do have to prioritize it – time, energy, and a writing space are not going to magically appear. Don’t waste time on excuses; spend that energy on figuring out what is possible for you at this point in your life.
We all struggle to finish writing projects sometimes, for any of the reasons above, or maybe others I haven’t mentioned. It’s normal. Understanding what is behind the struggle is the first step toward finishing. Sooner or later, we have to overcome our fears, our excuses, our lack of craft knowledge, or whatever holds us back. We commit to sitting down and doing the work. And then – we finish.
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