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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44095
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44095
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **One at a time.**

It isn't laziness. That's just a word people throw out when work doesn't get done and in many cases, including yours, it's meaningless. You've done a lot of work, you're just not finishing it.

**Set up a source of external pressure.**

I had a novel in my head for **_10 years_** before I did anything about it. I did some research and wrote an outline but then went 10 years before writing a single word of prose.

Then I joined a writer's group. Something I'd been wanting to do for years then it finally worked out. I get to present every 2 months. My first presentation was the outline, which I worked on to flesh it out. I was so nervous that the structure wasn't working or the idea was bad, and so on. My spouse was the only person who knew the story and he loved it, which helped, but wasn't enough.

I started writing. And writing. And writing. It's been 9 months and I'm more than halfway through the novel, working on chapter 20 (with 4 others written as well). I know I will finish it. I know it will be published (my dreams are a large publisher, my reality might be a small publisher or self-publishing, but it _will_ happen).

All it took was making a promise to a handful of strangers that I would pull my weight.

**Set deadlines.**

I'm someone who thrives on deadlines. If anyone ever asks me to do something, the best way to make sure it happens is to set a date it must happen by. Daily fake-deadlines don't do it for me ("write 1000 words a day" or whatever). It has to be a real deadline, for other people, with a concrete finish.

Obviously I don't know you and can't get inside your head, but I'm going to guess that deadlines work for you too. Join (or form!) a critique group for bloggers that meets (online is fine) once a month to discuss each others' posts and the requirement is at least 2 posts a month (the consequences for failing don't have to be dire, just disappointing the other members is enough). You might post yours the day before the meeting, but that still counts. Or find some other compelling way to make your posts not internal goals but external deadlines.

Do the same with your novellas.

**Invest other people in your creative output and write for them.**

Sure, write for yourself, blah blah blah, but that isn't working. Doesn't work for me either. Write for the 5 members of your critique group. Write for the readers of the local organization's newsletter you've promised articles to. Take a class and write for your teacher. Whatever works.

Once you feel comfortable releasing "imperfect" work and focusing on just getting it done, you may not need the externals as much. Or maybe you always will. Doesn't matter, so long as you find a way to make it happen.

Original score: 22