Finishing What You Begin
By Kat Jaske
Over my years as a writer I have come across a few common problems for novelists or aspiring novelists. One common malaise is that enemy known as “writer’s block” or simply being unable to concoct ideas. A second is the inverse––an excess of ideas that manifests itself with the problem of starting one story, then getting distracted by another intriguing idea and starting a totally new project. Though I have seen numerous works devoted to how to get ideas, I have seen relatively little on the second; therefore, let’s look at how to conquer the problem of idea overload.
As I’ve found that object lessons are often effective, I bring in my own first real encounter with idea overload to illustrate some ways to combat the problem. About the time that I hit middle school, I had already developed the burning desire to tell stories—my own, my own way—and wanted to complete a novel. So as I explored my stories in middle school and high school, I would promptly get rolling with one good idea only to be distracted by another interesting idea for a story that I then felt compelled to immediately start telling. All of which left me with lots of beginnings, but no progress in actually completing the coveted novel. It came to me that this problem of idea distraction was a real problem that I had to conquer if I truly was ever going to complete the novel. Then, I made a discovery. . . . If a writer wishes to finish a project he or she has started, mind games of various varieties must be played.
My epiphany made me go back to a short story I had actually managed to complete when I was nine years old. My intention had always been for it to be a novel, so I took a step and expanded it some by the time I finished middle school. Although I had the solid outline and was able to get further than I previously had, it still wasn’t enough to make the transition to a novel. Again, this roadblock forced me to go back to the drawing board and try to come up with other solutions to resolve the distraction dilemma.
After a few years, I finally decided to establish some deadline pressure coupled with accountability. Since my high school required a senior thesis project, I selected the project of a finished novel for my thesis and thereby put myself under deadline and grade pressure to finally complete the thing. I also had other people read behind me to help edit, giving me yet another prod to not only proceed with the story, but to actually finish it. The end result of this pressure was that the novel was completed and before the required deadline.
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From this experience I have learned several valuable lessons about completing a project that are still applicable even years and several novels later. They all boil down to the principle stated earlier: sometimes you as a writer have to play mind games with yourself in order to accomplish your goals. Maybe it’s setting yourself under deadline pressure, whether it be for a competition, a publisher, or an editor. Maybe it’s having a reader anxiously reading behind you, wanting to know the ending, that spurs you to complete the task. Maybe it is simply a question of rigorous scheduling. You might have to set aside a specific time of day and a specific amount of time where the only project you are allowed to work on is that novel and nothing else. Perhaps you should decide not to allow yourself to read that special book, see that movie, or play that game until you have written a set number of pages of your novel. It might even take a combination of these techniques.
Unfortunately, as with many problems, there does not seem to be one easy panacea. It seems to involve trial followed by error and more trials and more errors as well as a true desire to arrive at your end goal. You must be willing to put your work on the line and expose it to criticism even before you might feel it is in a “perfect” format that you are proud of. The bottom line is to find what works for you, what motivates you to accomplish the task, and then implement those measures to achieve the result.
But a word or warning, no matter how accomplished you may be as a writer or a motivator, you may have to switch up and vary your techniques in order to realize the desired outcome. Still the good news is that many of the ideas suggested to combat idea overload are also useful in combating writer’s block as well. Happy writing. Go finish your story.
Please visit Kat's webstite at www.ForHonor.com
for more on Kat's books.
Thanks for the article Kat... J. Wolf
