Can’t Finish Your Article?

Do you know what you’re talking about?

I have a dozen words to encourage myself to finish an article.

Since restarting my writing practice on Medium, I’ve needed them all.

Perseverance. Motivation. Gumption. Stick-to-it-iveness.

And yet, after flogging myself with all the good words the other day, I still couldn’t finish my article.

My topic was self-editing, my wheelhouse. It’s how I make my living.

Should be easy-peasy, right? I started out with two, maybe three sentences. I wrote them, polished them, and then I ran into a wall.

A very familiar position for me as regarding my Medium work of late.

After staring at my computer screen for awhile and coming up with bupkis, I did what got me into my writing hole in the first place. I wandered into the kitchen for a snack, scrolled the internet, and without realizing it, had made a mental U-turn away from writing.

I’d reached that point in the piece where the words stopped flowing, and I just gave up trying to tease them out.

That loop turned on that convinced me I couldn’t write anymore. It was too hard, I was too old, too bored, too female, too something.

Then, this being day four or so of my self-starting writing challenge––and not way back in the pandemic when I let my writing discipline go the way of eight-track tapes––something changed.

Stop right there, I said to myself. I’d committed to writing daily for 30 days, and quitting was no longer an option.

I realized that for whatever reason, this topic wasn’t working for me. Instead of wasting any more time on it, I scouted around in my brain for another idea, finished that article, and kept myself on track for my challenge.

Whew. After I hit publish, I felt like I’d dodged a bullet. Beaten the old procrastination devils nipping at my fingers.

I had foiled them, right? No more quitting when it got hard. I was flexing new muscles, blah blah blah.

What’s so hard about getting back on the horse, I told myself?

Except I was pumping myself up for all the wrong reasons.

I thought I was battling procrastination that day. Not that I’m not capable of staring out the window and calling it working on my novel.

But a few days later, I saw my real problem. It wasn’t laziness, procrastination, or some other dirty name for not having the goods to write.

I got stuck on that piece because I ran out of material and also I had run into a bit of hubris.

I’d chosen a title about self-editing that, like writing itself, is a tree with many branches.

I assumed because I knew a few things about editing, and self-editing in particular, I could, at the drop of a hat, wax eloquent about it for several thousand words.

Then it hit me. Why I had stopped writing. Why I couldn’t write. It had nothing to do with procrastination.

I had pinned myself into a corner with a clever title that actually left me little room to move after those first few sentences.

I simply didn’t know what I was talking about.

Or maybe I’d said all I had to say on the subject. Either way, I’d started out imagining that I could take my idea to grand heights and realized I’d put myself on a short leash.

Sure, I can say a lot about writing. Don’t get me started.

But not about the topic I’d picked. Not after my few very cogent points.

Without realizing it, I did the smart thing and moved on to another idea.

I was committed to writing every day and stuck to my plan.

Further thinking about that post led me to a more helpful insight.

Leaving a post unfinished because you can’t think of the next thing to say opens the door to negative thinking.

You can’t hack it. You’re not a real writer. You know the drill. The beginning of Imposter Syndrome.

But what if you just don’t know enough to finish your piece? Suppose you just stick it in Drafts and wait for a better title, or do more research, or make it part of another article?

Doesn’t that feel better? Allow you the headspace to move onto a topic you know inside out? If nothing comes to you, make one up. Write about how to alphabetize your grocery list.

Okay, it may seem lame to you, but many readers just starting out with their first apartment don’t have a clue.

The point is to write something. Don’t give the doubt in your head a foothold. If you’re stuck, fine. Nothing to be ashamed of. Just push it aside and write something easy until you get your groove back.

We don’t know everything, even though we may think we have a good piece because we come up with a catchy title or a killer first line.

Nine ways to kill a cat and all that. Just don’t give up.

Saying you can’t do it, thinking you’re in the grip of procrastination when it’s just a bad idea and you need another one is part of the game.

Move on.

Writing an article about alphabetizing your salad list feels way better than flogging yourself because you didn’t finish your article about how to outwit the swings in cryptocurrency when you don’t even know what crypto is.

And while I don’t know anything about cryptocurrency, I do know something about naming a thing what it is.

Takeaway.

Running into walls is part of the writing game. When it happens, consider that you may not know enough about your subject for the words to flow. Switch gears and write something else. And don’t call yourself a quitter when you just need more information.

Writing is hard as it is. Don’t make it harder by calling yourself names.

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit fiction and non-fiction for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. Thank you for reading, and stay safe.