Are you struggling with an unfinished writing project?
Ask yourself this: Have you developed the one skill you must have to succeed as a writer?
To find out, look at the following list, and see if any of these statements sound familiar:
- I’ve been working on this book for years, but I haven’t finished it yet.
- I wanted to get a new website up, but I haven’t had time.
- How do you manage to blog regularly? I never seem to be able to do it.
- I have so many ideas for books, I never know which one to pursue.
- I know that I need to market my books, but I don’t know how to fit it into my busy life.
- I’m stuck on my novel and I can’t figure out how to complete it.
All of these statements signal the lack of one critical skill: finishing a project.
You know how to come up with ideas. You know how to be creative and how to tap into your imagination. You can get started and how to work on a project. But when it comes to finishing?
You struggle.
It’s time to fix that, because until you learn the skill of finishing—and it is a skill—you’re unlikely to be able to build a successful writing career.
Unfinished Writing Projects Do Nothing for a Writer’s Career
Writes author and editor Josh Spector:
“The ability to finish is the most important skill any creator, entrepreneur, or artist can develop, and it’s often what separates those who succeed from those who don’t.”
This is particularly true of writers. Unfinished books, websites, guest posts, and more may seem like untapped potential just waiting to be released, but in truth, they mean nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
An unfinished project, whatever it is, does nothing for your career. You can’t submit it, promote it, or sell it. You can’t use it to gain newsletter subscribers or to attract more readers to your work.
But it’s even more serious than that. A writer needs not one or two books, but many finished, published, and distributed on the market. The more books, the better the chances of developing a solid readership—and a solid income.
According to a survey by Written Word Media, the most successful writers in terms of earnings—those earning $100,000 per year or more—had published an average of about 30 books each. Even emerging authors earning less than $500 a month had an average of 7 books out.
Writers Must Develop the Skill and Habit of Finishing
It’s not only finished books a successful author needs, though that’s usually the most important. Those living the dream are also regularly starting and finishing many other related projects and events.
These may include new websites (or website updates), blogs and guest posts, book launches, reports and worksheets to entice newsletter subscribers, online and in-person workshops, book-reading events, and more.
Over and over again, a successful writer has to use his or her imagination to come up with new ideas, then follow through to plan those ideas, overcome any challenges, and persevere all the way to the finish line.
In essence, she has to develop the skill and the habit of finishing. Sure, we all had to learn to finish our homework and our chores growing up, but that’s completely different than finishing a creative project of our own design. That requires an entirely different set of skills that include:
- Knowing how to choose quality projects to invest in.
- Knowing how to plan out those projects.
- Knowing how to create a workable schedule to create steady progress on the project.
- Knowing how to motivate yourself to keep going when the going gets tough.
- Knowing how to overcome the inevitable challenges that show up during any project.
- Knowing how to defeat any personal demons that threaten to derail your progress.
- Knowing how to push through to the finish line no matter what.
Once the writer learns these skills, she must then put them into practice over and over again. As with any habit, it takes time to develop. Once a writer has gone through the process several times, she can be said to have developed that habit, and after that, the sky is the limit.
Overcoming Your Unfinished Writing Project Opens Doors in Your Career
For years, I didn’t know how to finish my books. I started novel after novel, and when I got about halfway through, I would get stuck. Believing my idea was no good, I would abandon that novel and start over with a new one.
I spun my wheels repeating this pattern until I finally realized the real problem—I didn’t know how to finish my creative projects. Once I figured out how to do that, I was able to develop the habit of finishing, and my writing career took off.
I encourage other writers who may be stuck in a similar pattern to realize the real issue. It’s not that your ideas aren’t any good, or that you’re not a good writer. It’s not that you lack creative imagination, or that you’re not smart enough. You simply haven’t developed the right skills yet, and that’s good news.
Because anyone can learn how to finish. Once you know what the problem is, you can focus on finding the solution. After that, nothing can stop you.
I have finished my novel after nearly 7 years in the making. It’s too long and now needs severe pruning (or editing).I feel stuck as I don’t like to delete all the words and chapters I labored over. It might be good to give it to the professional editor to take it on, but the costs are too high. Your push to completion is what I needed. It may be painful, but the fact is I need to get out my red pen.
First, congrats on finishing the novel! Every finish is a reason to celebrate. :O) As to the editing phase, I find it helps to set it aside for a couple weeks. Then when I go back the parts that need to be trimmed are easy to spot and not so painful to eradicate. Good luck!