Wherever You Are took me 15 years(!) to complete from initial idea to publication. I began writing just after my oldest daughter was born and finally held the printed book in my hands last April. Of course, I was working on other things. Not to mention raising a busy family. But I kept coming back to that first novel. I started it, I set it aside, I continued, I showed it around. I got feedback then got scared and stopped again. I had two sets of twins and didn’t write at all… And my poor story languished on my hard drive.
My second novel, this one for beginning readers, took me one year to write and G-d willing will be published this year. And I am working on making my completion time even lower. The biggest thing I learned from Wherever You Are is that you can’t publish if you don’t finish. So I put this post together to help all those like me that have trouble finishing what they start. Here are two tips to help you reach the end:
1. Start at the Start and write straight to The End.
Part of the reason why my first novel took so long was because of how I wrote it. The story expanded from a single climactic scene. I had started by writing the ending then I needed to fill in all the bits and pieces that got me there. But instead of writing an outline then following it to the scene I had already written, I wrote all the scenes I was excited about. I skipped or glossed over parts that would be more difficult.
The first time I gave up on it, I had so many disjointed scenes I had no idea how to turn it into the novel I envisioned.
Although Wherever You Are was the first novel I started, it’s not the first draft I completed. Way back in 2005 when I was first studying writing, I heard about NaNoWriMo. I decided that I needed to prove to myself I could write a novel before I would ever be able to finish Wherever You Are. So, I began a new novel with the first word. I pushed through November completing the 60,000-word draft the first week of December.
It was an amazing learning experience. Any time I wanted to skip over a scene, I set up a reward system for myself. (Write this scene and you get to write the next more exciting one.) And best of all, at the end I had a completed draft that I could edit with relative ease. I have never looked back. From then on, every project – even short pieces – starts at the beginning and moves forward through the story until I reach the end. Jumping around is for outlining and brainstorming not writing. Writing works best when it’s linear exactly like the reading experience.
2. Trust Yourself
The only person that can finish your draft is YOU. Don’t let anyone undermine your efforts to do so.
I had shown the first part of Wherever Your Are to an editor at a reputable publisher. She gave me comments and told me to keep going. I wrote part two then showed it to a writing friend asking for her opinion before I sent it off. My friend panned the story. “You’re not actually going to send this in, are you?” She asked me.
I was mortified. I knew it was rough, but I hadn’t imagined it was that bad. And the editor was expecting a rough draft. She was trying to help me, a first-time author, build confidence in myself so I could finish a meaningful story. But the damage was done.
Like so many writers, my self-esteem is not all that great. The seeds of doubt had been planted and I was ready to believe the story was a disaster. Who said I could write???
I shelved my story and hid behind being a mom and a dozen other things as a good excuse for never sending the draft in.
My editor never gave up on me. The Religious Women’s Writing community is pretty small. I kept seeing her. Everywhere. And she kept asking, “Where’s your novel?”
I blushed and gave excuses. But mostly, I avoided her. Until one day I went to a mini-writer’s conference and heard Johanna Hurwitz speak. When asked about writer’s groups, she stated she never shared her work with them. I was floored as were many others. We pushed for an explanation. “Well, one writer’s opinion is just one opinion and unless she’s going to publish it, what does it matter?”
It was a lightbulb moment for me. I had allowed fear and the opinion of one person shadow my own writer’s intuition. My editor was at the conference and being such a small program, there was no hiding. “Where’s your novel?” she asked.
It was the opening I needed. I found my latest draft and sent it the next day to her without even looking at it. I sent her the whole big mess and asked, “Will you publish it?”
The response was one line. “Finish it and we’ll publish it.”
So, I gave myself a month, went through the draft then I set it free.
Once I held the book in my hand, I couldn’t help wondering what my writing career would look like today had I not given into criticism ten years before. How many completed novels would I have on my shelf? I still ask for advice when I need it. But I take the advice with a heaping grain of salt. Any single writer knows no better than I do what works and what doesn’t.
So, go ahead and finish that draft. I give you permission. And don’t forget Jodi Piccault’s words:
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