How To: Actually Write and Finish Your Book. 3 Steps to Guide You Through

Writing a book is one of those things that's designed to impress everyone. You say it, and you almost have to allow two extra seconds for it to land and for the impressed looks to land on you. It's the rule, I think because intuitively everyone understands that writing is hard. And writing consistently for as long as is required to complete a manuscript is very hard. But here's a shaky truth- it's not that hard. I'll repeat, writing a book is not that hard. It simply requires consistency and discipline. If you keep putting 1000 words on a page every day, in a hundred days you'll have a 100,000-word novel. So writing a book is just a matter of not giving up on writing that book. Now writing a good book...that's a completely different story. THAT is difficult and not a single person alive can really tell you how to do it. Either you can or you can't and such is the unfairness of art.

But for today, we're focusing on the simpler goal of novel completion. The absolutely necessary, confidence-building accomplishment that every writer needs before they can set their sights on the more elusive, grandiose goal of writing a good novel. This is a guide on how to get your butt in the chair and keep your butt in said chair to write. Day after day, even as you start to lose all hope somewhere in the middle of your novel; even as you start to ask yourself why on earth you ever thought writing was a good use of your time (or anyone's time) in the first place; even as your plot seems to unravel in front of your very eyes; and even as you weep into the keyboard. The time will come when you feel like giving up, and this will likely happen more than once. This post is to be an ever-present pep-talk to get you through the self-doubt and guide you to the promise of the next page. Essentially, this is a 'how not to stop before you get to the end' guide.

I've boiled this down to two questions. Why is it difficult to get through the first manuscript and what part exactly is difficult? So, why is it difficult? Well, because it's boring. At some point, this amazing story that you love and were so excited to start just loses its appeal and you find yourself feeling like you're facing an insurmountable obstacle. This is normal. You're not a fraud. You simply can't see the wood for the trees because you are in the middle of a very dense forest. Second, which part is difficult? The middle. To be fair, every part of your book has the potential to be extremely difficult, but there is something almost otherworldly about the specific difficulty of the middle. There's a term called 'the saggy middle' for a reason. The beginning is bright and exciting because you're pumped about starting your novel and you're still energized by all the possibilities of perfection that lie ahead. The ending is great because you can feel yourself drawing towards the close and just the idea of completion is enough to give you a much needed second (or third or fiftieth) wind to power through. So the problem lies in the middle, because all that awaits you in the middle is despair. So, here's how you get through it in three easy steps:

1. Adjust your daily word count to maintain your sanity.

Sometimes, you just can't write more and this happens often during the middle, so give yourself a break. Don't create space between yourself and your writing (bad idea because then you have to fight the inertia to get back into it again), rather, if you must, reduce the amount of writing you expect of yourself on a daily basis. If in the beginning of your drafting process, you were consistently putting down at least 2,500 words, try go down to 1,500 just while writing feels like your mortal enemy. It's an instant boost that at least at the beginning will make the task ahead feel more doable, and help to get you through the worst of it. Remember, the most important thing is to just keep writing.

2. Allow for some terrible writing.

Just accept that you are about to do some of your worst ever writing. Atrocious. And it's okay. Fight the urge to edit the truly bad parts (there will be truly bad parts that almost hurt you to see show up on the page) because going backward will break your momentum and what you need to preserve more than anything right now is momentum. When you write what you feel is a truly terrible paragraph/ page/ chapter, just repeat these words to yourself as many times as you need to hear them: 'This is only my first draft. Nobody but me will ever see it. I will fix it when I edit.' These words are the reason most, if not all, of the books we love ever made it past the first draft stage to eventually become the gorgeous, polished works we adore. So give yourself grace, bad writing can be fixed, but incomplete novels cannot.

3. Seriously, keep going.

At this point you may have realized that the advice I have to share is rather repetitive, and that's because there is no hack. Words don't write themselves and to complete your manuscript you're just going to have to write them. So write them. Squeeze them out at all cost. One sentence after the other, just keep going. Just. keep. going. Take naps if you have to, call a friend if you have to. Drink if you must, just continue to put words on a page and drive your story forward. There is a point in every story where every writer thinks 'this is shit...this is definitely shit'. It might be, but keep writing anyway. Just. keep. writing.

And then, somehow, you'll find yourself on the other side of the slump, no longer in a saggy section of word vomit but on the once again firm ground of your story. You'll pick up the scent of where you were trying to go all along, and you will realize with the fullness of your being that the end is in sight. You're in the home stretch now and that simple truth alone will carry you the rest of the way. Then, at the end of your first draft, you'll not only have a completed manuscript, but also the solid, proven knowledge that you know how to get through the pits of drafting. You've survived the middle (or whatever section proved challenging for you) and if you did it once you can do it again. This may seem small, but just knowing that will make each successive drafting process that much easier. You now have experience to draw from. You can write and complete a novel. You are impressive. Now go celebrate, go feel extremely proud of yourself. Go tell other people and allow for pauses long enough so that they too, can feel adequately proud of you. You did it.

At this point, you probably never want to see your manuscript again and this is rather perfect because the best thing you can do now is put distance between yourself and it. Take AT LEAST a few weeks, I suggest a month, away from your work so that when you finally come back, you can have the fresh eyes and objectivity needed to successfully carry out the next step: Editing.

Neil Gaiman said, "the process of writing your second draft is the process of making it seem like you knew what you were doing all along." Amen. All the magic happens during editing. But that's a post for another time.

If you're in the drafting trenches I hope this post helps you. If you're considering writing a book but are unclear about where to even start, then I have something for you. I've created a Free 7 Day Workbook to help new and aspiring authors move their book idea from their head to the page by guiding them through the plotting process. In a detailed and thoughtful way, I guide you through avoiding some of the mistakes I made as well as provide methodologies for developing your plot. In the end, you'll have a fleshed out book idea and detailed plot and you'll be ready to confidently start drafting. You can sign up for the Free Workbook here.

Either way, that I'll see you on the other side.

Best of luck,

Noni