The Real Reason You Can’t Finish Your Novel
And what you can do about it!
Wait, let me guess. You opened this post armed with your list of perfectly valid reasons why you started writing a novel but never finished it. Please do yourself a favor, take that list, rip it up, and stomp on it. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dive in.
With a New Year comes a new list of resolutions that, if you’re anything like me, you give up on by approximately February 3rd. How many years in a row have you proclaimed that this was the year you would finish your novel? Then life got in the way. There were bake sales, school drop-offs, deadlines at work, and a solid few months where you got really into Crossfit. Wait, Is that still a thing?
Before you know it, you’re ringing in another New Year filled with plot holes and abandoned protagonists waiting in literary limbo for you to kindly give their character that steamy romance scene you promised.
Whenever I tell people I finished the first draft of my novel in less than three months, they seem mildly impressed or maybe just amused that a stranger walked up to them on the street and shared that bit of information. But when I tell them the rest of it, the part where I was also raising two babies under two and wrote the entire novel during their naptime, for some reason, this compels people to tell me all the reasons they could never do such a thing. As if their 24-hour day somehow had fewer hours than mine.
Let’s just get the whole “you must have more free time on your hands” theory out of the way. Yes, I am a stay-at-home mom. No. That does NOT mean I have more free time. Today I had to decide between washing the baby puke out of my hair during my daughters’ short-lived nap or writing this article. As a result, I smell like rotten milk, but there are words on the page. Are you catching my drift? (Or a whiff of old cheese, perhaps?)
This leads me to the reason you clicked on this article. Whether it be for some much-needed enlightenment or perhaps a swift kick in the pants, I am happy to provide either.
Here are the real reasons your manuscript lay abandoned in a bottom drawer:
- You haven’t put enough time into an outline
Oh, but you’re a pantser! How’s that working out for you? A pantser is someone who doesn’t plan their novel out in advance but instead flies by the seat of their pants and writes without an outline. (Clever, no? No.)
I’m betting you have a list of your favorite authors who don’t write detailed outlines. This is the part where I have to remind you that they’re allowed to do whatever they want because they have finished novels to show for their methods.
There’s nothing wrong with being a pantser if you’re into making your writing life that much harder, but as a beginner who can’t finish a novel, creating a detailed outline is your best bet for ensuring your novel doesn’t end up in your unfinished manuscript graveyard.
2. You treat writing like a casual hobby and don’t make it a priority
There’s nothing wrong with treating writing as a hobby. I use it as a way to keep my brain from turning to the consistency of mashed potatoes from spending my day watching baby shows and explaining to my toddler for the hundredth time why Elmo can’t play in the litter box. However, if you’re serious about finishing your novel, you have to schedule a time to write just as you schedule time for other things that are important to you.
The longer you go in between writing sessions, the more momentum you lose, and the easier it is to forget you left your protagonist locked in a closet with a serial killer outside the door. Do you really want Nancy to be trapped surrounded by mom jeans for all eternity? If not, make a writing schedule and stick to it.
3. You haven’t learned the craft of novel writing yet
So, you don’t have a fancy MFA or any sort of writing background, but you want to dive in and write the story you were meant to tell? GO FOR IT! Writing a novel isn’t just for the ultra-educated. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know, and jumping right in is a great way to discover your strengths and weaknesses.
However, if you find yourself drowning in plot holes and weak characters, it might be time to take a creative writing class or use the wealth of information the internet has to broaden your knowledge of novel writing.
4. You give up once you hit the “murky middle”
Ah, the dreaded “murky middle.” It’s the midway point in your story where the burnout and doubt start to creep in, where you know what you want to happen but writing all the in-between stuff is daunting. At this point, a lot of new readers put down the pen.
Take comfort in knowing you’re not alone; it’s totally normal to struggle in the middle. This is where a detailed outline comes in handy to help pull you through to the other side.
The good news is first drafts are supposed to stink. The best thing you can do is keep writing and try not to worry about making it perfect. Trust me, there will be many, many revisions in your future.
5. You play the comparison game
Whenever I hand both my daughters their favorite toys, my two-year-old, without fail suddenly hates what she has and desperately needs the drool-covered teething ring I gave her little sister. Even if I give her the coveted Elsa doll she usually spends hours playing with, it’s not good enough because her sister has something she doesn’t.
Don’t be like my two-year-old. Looking up to other authors should help motivate you, not send you into a spiral of jealousy that pushes you into self-doubt. Whenever you find yourself comparing your progress to that of a seasoned author, remember that we all start with blank pages, but there’s no need to finish with them.
Now that you’re out of excuses, dust off those old, deserted stories and show them some love! And please, save Nancy from the serial killer outside of her closet before mom jeans go out of style again.