The most important skill any writer can learn is how to finish what you start. There are always so many moments when I am tempted to throw in the towel on the particular book I’m working on, when I’m struggling wit the beginning, or I can’t find my way across an enormous plot hole, for example. Or when a shinier, apparently better idea suddenly pops up just when I’m finding my current project a bit difficult. But learning to finish writing what I’ve start has taught me more about writing than almost anything else has.
Note, when I say ‘finish’, I mean sticking with your current project until you’ve written the draft, not finishing as in editing and polishing the book to perfection. Not every book you write is going to be publishable. That’s just the way writing is.
One of the biggest things I learned from finishing the books I wrote was how stories are structured. You can get a lot of the theory from reading books on the craft, but nothing teaches you better than getting hands on with a plot in progress. How are you going to learn about writing the middle of a book if you never get further than the beginning? How are you going to learn how to wrap up the ending in a satisfying way, if you never actually write that far? Only by writing the entire book can you know what a story looks like as you construct it on the page.
It also taught me how to get through the sections of a book that I struggle with. There is always going to be a part of the book that you really struggle with writing. For me, it’s beginnings. I hate writing the opening of a book and having to set everything up. Once I’m a good 10k or so through, and the adventure is really getting going, I feel more comfortable and can settle in. But without pushing through that opening, I’d never get to write the bits that I really like. And because I’ve made myself write so many beginnings, I’ve learned how to get myself through them, whether or not they’re my favourite.
Learning to finish what I start also taught me endurance. Writing an entire novel is not a quick process. If you want to write a novel then you pledging yourself for months and months of work. You’ll be spending hours and hours in the chair, brainstorming plot fixes, piece together fragments of ideas, and pouring out those words onto the page. It’s taught me to keep pressing on, writing even when the going is tough and the book isn’t quite as exciting as it was when I started. It teaches you to hold onto your vision rather than giving up when the book isn’t turning out quite the way you imagined it would..
It teaches you to be resourceful. Instead of giving up when your plot isn’t working properly, you brainstorm around the problem. Maybe you talk to some other writers for advice, or you read a book on the craft to find something to help you. But you keep looking until you find something that works, because you know you need to find some way of getting past it in order to be able to move onto the next part of your book. It teaches you to consider other ideas, and forces you to be disciplined, instead of giving up and moving on to something else shinier, that looks easier and more fun to write.
Learning to finish what you start is the most important skill you can learn as a writer. Whether the book you end up with at the end is something that you’ll want to take all the way to publication, or whether you’re happy to leave it in your files, every book you write teaches you something else about writing. And learning to finish your books will give you the tools and skill you need to grow as a writer. I have learned more from finishing my drafts that I have from almost anything else. The more you write, the easier it gets. The more books you finish, the better you get at writing them. Even the worst first draft teaches you valuable things about writing, and a finished draft will teach you more about writing than you might expect.
