How do I finish my projects?

One thing I'm surprised no-one seems to have mentioned is the architect-gardener distinction.

I get the impression your current writing style is that of the gardener, meaning you see what happens and react to it as you go. This is sometimes called writing by the seat of your pants (and such writers pantsers), but I think the pantser-plotter terminology is simplistic and unfair. George R R Martin coined "gardener" and considers it his approach, whereas an architect plans the plot and then writes it. You can see why this might help you.

In my experience as someone who's finished a few novels (none as yet published), both approaches can work depending on the author and story, what happens in practice may be somewhere in the middle, and if you've only tried one you should experiment with the other. A better idea for an ending is just one benefit such switching may bring.

posted about 7 years ago

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J.G.‭

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Here is an idea.

First, I warn you I am a 'discovery' writer, and it sounds to me like you should be too, but your write yourself into corners.

A discovery writer (like Stephen King) begins with characters and some initial situation (for him often a catastrophic supernatural situation; in The Dome, a whole town and some surrounding area is covered by an impenetrable clear dome, it cannot be tunneled under or broken through, and they must figure out what happens next. A bunch of characters are there, a promiscuous high school girl and her stalker, a thoroughly corrupt mayor, a hit man passing through, etc.

Then the discovery writer picks some scenes; confrontations and problems to deal with, and starts writing, with a focus on how the actions change the characters, and then eventually, as King himself says, the story has to come out somewhere. He says his formula is the same every time: Develop a likable and realistic character (hero), then put her (or him) "in the cooker."

So there isn't plotting, exactly. Just that the hero cannot battle forever, he learns things, there is escalation until they win or lose.

So perhaps when you change your idea, you are not escalating, or letting the character learn enough to overcome the villain.

My suggestion would be what I do: Before you begin your story, have some kind of rough idea of what you think is one possible ending. Write a page, a few hundred words, on how this winds up. Maybe not exactly how a prisoner escapes, but that she DOES escape. Maybe not exactly how the villain is killed, but something about how the hero gained the upper hand and killed him.

Not too much detail, just a sketch or guide to the ending that is NOT novel-style writing, it is a note on what to write, and definitely not so much work that you cannot discard it.

Now, when you get a new idea as the story develops, you need to do some work before you start writing it. Does your original ending still work? If it doesn't, think about your new idea, and what you have already written, and come up with a NEW sketch for your ending. BEFORE you start writing on the new idea. Again, just one page of notes on the end game and how it will work.

Do that every time you take off in a new direction, and you won't write yourself into a corner, you will always have an idea of how to end the story.

If you cannot come up with a plausible ending, do not start on the new idea! It is a dead end, or more literally, a dead ending. Always work with a live ending, your writing on the fly will automatically guide you to it.

When you are done with your first draft and HAVE an ending, then you can go back to the beginning and rewrite anything inconsistent with this ending, or move information reveals around, and make it appear as if you knew the whole story all along.

posted about 7 years ago

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Amadeus‭

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I have no idea if I understood you right. I hope I have. If I haven't, I apologize. English is my second language as well :).

I was -or I hope I was, that is- the same as you. I start with an idea and halfway through, get a new one stuck in my head and have to stop with my first idea to start the second. Because it would bug me if I didn't write it.

Then I sat down and thought quietly why I never finished any of those ideas. And for me, the answer was- I got bored of the first idea. Then I started to notice why it bored me. I had too much info dump, I kept repeating stuff, I had characters not doing anything just sitting and talking, etc.

So, I made myself focus on one project. It wasn't easy, but I ended a story. Around 35,000 words. Short, true, but at least had a beginning, a middle and an end. And with that story I realized what I was doing wrong and from then on, I tried to stop making the same mistakes.

So, after all this nonsense chattering, my points are:

Don't let other ideas get in the way. Write them on a notebook, just a short description, but don't start any of them. Close the notebook and don't look at them again. Finish the novel you're writing first.

Don't think that the work you've done so far is useless, because it's not. Look at it and learn from it. Find the reason why you're not finishing it.

So, this is me and how I am/used to be the same. Don't know if it's helpful to you or not.

posted about 7 years ago

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A.T. Catmus‭

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