How to finish is about becoming aware of your story’s flow is just the beginning. Now you need a few more tweaks to polish your process habits.
Schedule your writing habit.
I find that developing a daily habit is better for me than scheduling my time. I do recommend having ‘office hours’ in the day, but I choose to focus more on the habit of getting the work done instead of adhering to a set time schedule how to finish. If allotting your day on a time schedule works for you, go for it. For me it’s all about building a habit and time is not quite as relevant.
Either way you need to control your calendar so that you get work done. For me I set down due dates on a calendar and I also make annotations for completing a day’s given projects as I go through the day. That way I don’t miss what is coming up or due on one hand. On the other hand I can get reinforcement for habit runs.
Start your how to finish habit
Now it’s time to figure out what habits to build. Start with some basic questions: What habit do you want? When do you want to write?
Get specific as possible. Days and times are a must here.How long will you write? Do you have fall back times? What production levels will you use? Days done, pages, words, chapters by the week, etc… Find what you can reasonably produce.
Take the time to look at what works for you to build the habit and keep it. Hint: a good habit that sticks is better than over ambitious effort that burns out. Learning how to habit is learning how to finish.
Be sure to cover the entire publication process from draft to final edit and publication. As Seth Godin points out, you must ship it to finish it. Do not wus out when you reach publication time. You need a time line for all of this. Timelines keep us on track, work more efficiently and coordinate those steps where others come, like an editor, beta reader edits, book and cover design, your release and marketing plans, etc… into the process to help us finish.
Even if you self publish and do everything through Gumroads and or Amazon, you still need to put these people into your game plan.
Stay realistic
How to finish starts when setting up your schedule. Take time and stay realistic with your goals and timelines. Look at what your commitments are like right now. You might not be in a position to get a book written in 45 days because you don’t have enough time per day and this is your first rodeo.
That does not mean you cannot write the book but be ready to change thing up as you progress. If you can only work half the hours of an ideal deadline, well then move the deadline. If the daily word count is too low or the work takes you longer per day, then change your work out line, work schedule or due dates.
In the end writing is a big time lesson in humility. Take heed and learn from the harder lessons. Change things and make new goals as needed. That will help you make your targets while you build confidence and skill. Both of which will improve each other so that in the future you will run more smoothly and become more productive.
Being honest with yourself in the process when things are not working, figuring out things in a logical manner and setting realistic goals that you can achieve is the recipe for shipping, building a library of published works and staying motivated. Even if you find ways to write faster, you still need to set reasonable goals. Unrealistic and unchanged goals will only demoralize you and leave with zero books.
How to finish comes with accountability
One thing all writers should consider is having a critique partner/group. Getting together with fellow writers to go over the week’s work for everyone in the group is a great way to ensure you get your work done and get some early feedback to end problems before they become problems. It’s also a good way to get ideas for how to deal with your process issues, find fixes for setbacks and stay on track.
Start a blog
Talking about your upcoming work is a great way to build a writing platform to market your book. The conversation also will give you a need to meet, specifically public expectations for a finished work, on time. Deadlines you can not move are your friend and the key for how to finish your work. We all need motivation and deadlines are a great one to build that habit.
Setup a reminder
A physical outline or mood board hung where you can see it where you write or a profile sketch on your phone’s background is a great reminder.
The trick for accountability is to remind ourselves about our project every day. That keeps the mind working on solutions.
Get out of the belly of the beast
No first draft is perfect. The secret sauce is to get the first draft done fast. That only happens when we write instead of edit. We act first then reflect. As Steven Pressfield says, “Don’t worry about quality. Act, don’t reflect. Momentum is everything. Get to THE END as if the devil himself were breathing down your neck and poking you in the butt with his pitchfork. Believe me he is. … Don’t stop. Don’t look down. Don’t think.”
Skip the burnout
You know that feeling that your writing is trash? You think nothing you write is important, no one cares about your subject, or you are stuck in writer’s block. That is an illusionary trap, sometimes referred to as writer’s rut. Many writers walk away from projects because of this rut.
Never stop writing cure.
True the current work in progress may be draining your joy way like giant leach, but it has nothing to do with you or your writing. It is the project itself. You are just stuck. That’s all and there is a solution. Switch what you are writing on, but do not stop writing.
Try a different kind of work like a poem, a blog post or a short story. Even a side gig working for another writer’s blog is a good change up. The critical step is to set a time to return to the book. You want time for the mind to figure things out but not so much that you cannot get back into the work. Take a breather but set a specific time to get back in the saddle.
Asimov was famous for switching projects when he got stuck. That’s why he had so many typewriters. Each one was a separate project in process.
The Answer for How to Finish is Within
The answer we are looking for is that we are finished with a work when it rings true with our human soul. That’ is why it’s part of the mastery path.
Photo by Katelyn Greer on Unsplash
