Why You Can’t Commit to Completion
If you browse any writing blogs for long enough, you’ll notice a common theme among the posts. Blogs written by writers about their work will admit to having many unfinished projects, either lurking in their notebooks or on their hard drives, while blogs written for writers will caution against starting new projects before you finish existing ones. You’ll see post titles like “Are you cheating on your work in progress?” and so on. While you can find an element of amusement in it, flitting from project to project can really hamper your overall progress.
There are lots of reasons why a project might remain unfinished. Some of these may sound familiar to you – and if they do, how should you tackle it?
Reason One
I’m kind of bored with my old idea, and I figure if I’m bored with it, then readers would be too. My new idea is much more exciting!
I know this one well. If you spend long enough on a serial, or a novel, then chances are that eventually you’ll get sick of it. (I know some people who don’t because they’re so fully immersed in the story they’re telling, and they’re just lucky!) However, don’t use this as an excuse to start something new. It’s understandable that a new idea will seem exciting in comparison – it’s like driving the same reliable Volvo for years, that never breaks down and always gets you from A to B, and then coming across a Corvette. Resist the urge to start a new project, and simply take a little break from the existing one. Maybe read some non-fiction, or do some research that relates to your project. Coming back to it with fresh eyes can remind you just how exciting it was – and still can be.
Reason Two
I want to write down the new idea while it’s fresh in my mind, but that’s all I’m doing. Just writing an outline. I won’t start on it yet. Honest. Oh look, I just wrote a chapter…well, I’d better keep going while I’ve got some momentum…
As outlined above, resist the urge to start something new. By all means write the outline and make notes on as much as you can about your new idea, but put those notes away and go back to finish your existing project. If your new idea is good enough, it will still be there when you’ve finished, and the new project will have been marinating in your subconscious. When you finally get around to it, you’ll have so much more that you can give to it.
Reason Three
I’m scared. If I never finish writing it, or I never make all of the changes to the draft, then it’ll always have the potential to be amazing. If I do finish it, then it loses that potential and just becomes a ‘thing’ I’ve done. It might not live up to expectation.
I understand this one most of all – I almost don’t want to make the last set of changes to my current project because when I do, it becomes final, thus ‘fixed’ as it is. All the potential it currently has will be lost. However, by fixating on the potential, you lose far more than you gain, because once it is finished, you finally have a project you can share with others – and that you can send off on its merry way while you turn to a new project. The only real way to combat this line of thinking is to bite the bullet and just power through until you’re done.
Reason Four
I haven’t got the time to do all the stuff I want to do, so if I divide my time and do a little bit on each project, I’ll get more done.
I can see the logic behind this one. If you have five projects on the go, and you spend one hour every week on each one, then you’ll be one hour further ahead with each of them by the end of the week. The problem is, you’re dividing your focus, and you’re not giving each project the attention it deserves. As a result, it’ll probably take you longer to finish each project than it would if you focused on one at a time. Prioritise, and devote your available time to the biggest project, and keep going until you’re done. Then you can move onto the next project. Be glad you have so many things to pursue!
Reason Five
It started off okay, but then I got blocked. I can’t think of how to finish, so why waste my time on it any more? Might as well start something new instead. Maybe I can use parts of the unfinished project elsewhere.
If you’re truly stuck with a project, then sometimes putting it aside in favour of something new really is the only way to go. You might find there’s a place in the new project where your old material would really work, in which case you haven’t lost anything in abandoning the first one. Then again, if you’ve sunk time and effort into an idea, it seems a shame to put it one side. Try having a break from it for a couple of days, and see if anything new presents itself when you come back to it. Read a different kind of fiction, or watch a different kind of movie – sometimes coming back to it with a new perspective can ‘unlock’ the story. If you have writer friends, perhaps you can bounce ideas back and forth until a solution occurs. Just make sure you’ve given it your best shot to become ‘unblocked’.
Hopefully this advice will be useful – and I also highly recommend Dan Goodwin’s A Big Creative Yes blog. It’s aimed at all creative types, and gives a lot of good advice for stimulating frequent creativity.
Image courtesy of ilovememphis.
Icy is a die-hard Northerner in old London town. She can still remember the days when she wrote her first stories in crayon. These days she favours a laptop, and cranks out weekly flash fictions, web-based serials and even the odd novel, usually about telepathic parrots, superheroes, Cavalier ghosts, and her own peculiar brand of steampunk.
A writing project is perfect, as long as the writing hasn’t begun. When a novel exists in our minds only, it shines with excellence. The plot and the characters might only be vague notions, and the settings and pacing and dialogue not fully thought out, but the thing seems to have vast potential, a wondrous work of the imagination. Then, we begin the actual writing. And we see the words on the page, and realize the project may be less than perfect. And the more we write, the less perfect it becomes. This may be one of the reasons we fail to complete a project: to work on it is to lessen it, so it’s easy not to complete it.
Exactly – getting it down on paper is like trying to catch mist. It loses something in translation…although the best work recreates that essence for the reader when it’s translated back at the other end. That’s what makes it worth it!
You know, you’re talking about writing here, but the same thing applies to all creative work. I’m reading this article from the perspective of product design, and the same concepts apply!
One of the most helpful resources I’ve found lately is Scott Belsky’s Action Method, outlined in the book Making Ideas Happen. The basic premise is not all that complicated, but it helps you shift your thinking to be action-oriented. Even the most creative ideas will go nowhere unless you can organize them and follow through to completion. Writers, designers, artists, and engineers alike all face the same challenges in this area.
Thanks for sharing!
It’s nice to know that these “problems” are faced by creatives all over – not that it’s nice to have them in the first place, rather we can all share solutions! I just looked that book up online and it looks like it’s definitely worth a read!
You wrote this just for me, didn’t you??
Thank you. I guess I need to find a WIP and complete it.
Get cracking! There’s an amazing sense of satisfaction that comes with completion.
This is all great advice! Thank You!
And have to agree with David, this does all apply across the board in creative work.
“A [great project] is never finished, only abandoned.” – George Lucas
Hope it helps!
Great thoughts, Icy! This is one of those posts to hang on to and refer back to from time to time. Fantastic guideposts here.
I hope you find it useful!
Great post. A first draft is the clay you mold your masterpiece from. At first, it won’t be as shiny and beautiful as you imagined, but if you don’t stay with it, it will never be more than clay.
I have to disagree, though, that people who don’t get sick of their work are lucky. These people maintain their energy by constantly looking at the work from new angles, learning more about their characters, adding new layers and greater complexity. I like asking what-if questions: What if he first kissed in her scene 2 rather than scene 4? What would happen then? Even if I don’t change the manuscript as a result, just seeing how the characters would react in this different situation creates new energy for me.
Thank you so much! Finishing a project is one of the hardest things for me (although a part of me just doesn’t want projects to end because I feel sad about) but I just completed my first book and I do have this awesome sense of accomplishment!
It’s amazing when you finally get something finished! It’s a good motivator for the next project.
projects that you had a fire for will haunt you if they remain unfinished, especially if you sunk a lot of energy and time into. this alone can be worth the effort to push for the finish line. perfect is the enemy of good, and also the enemy of needing to call something completed. ‘is that the best you can do’…’yes, yes it is’. this takes some real intestinal fortitude.