The Sheilawisz's Guide: How to Finish your Stories.

[Leif GS Notae]

So if I write 25000 words in a day (which I can, I've done it without a problem) and I finish a story, will that put food on my plate? No. Writing a story and "WRITING A STORY" are two different things.

You can write an amazing amount of backstory that is very fluff like and builds a world you can write a story from, but if you don't know the structure of a story (the golden country, inciting incident, 3+ acts, etc), you're screaming in the wind and no one can hear you.

It isn't the ACT of finishing, it is the ability to understand HOW to finish that will make you a better writer.

I disagree that it's like shooting five hole all the time. You learn from each shot you take and you use that knowledge to find the goalies weakness. If you only take one shot, you cant learn as much. Without enough information, how do you know if you should change your approach or not? The five hole may be that particular goalies great weakness.

And this is where your analysis of my analysis of the original quote is a bit wanky. You can shoot all you want at that goalie and try to score a goal. Without research, study, and feedback from your "teammates", you are never going to find out that his stick side is his weak spot and if someone is screening his glove hand, he'll give up a goal every time. You might not think there is a formula for writing a great novel, but I assure you there is.

I'm not sure I'm understanding you here, so correct me if I'm responding to something you didn't say.

Fluid writing comes with practice and practice develops control over ones writing. Control means a writer will be able to do things on purpose instead hoping a piece of writing turns out because they were in the zone that day. Writing requires many different skills and a subset of those skills is acquired by finishing stories good, bad and everything in between.

I'd even go as far as to say finishing a bad and uninspiring story is more helpful than finishing a good one. If an author knows what they wrote is bad that's a lessoned learned. If they can figure out what's wrong with the story and can figure out how to fix it, that's two lessons learned. And all this acquired experience can be applied to the next story.

From personal experience, I've finished my share of terrible stories. But because I finished them, I had lots to work with when I went back. And I worked them into something better, dare I say even good. You mentioned people should outline, well, a terribly written story can be considered an outline, and for some authors, that's the way they work, first terrible draft is the outline.

You misunderstood what I was saying, but that is all right. Fluid isn't the ability to change whatever you want in the story, it is the ability to weather the storm and watch the river flood the area you didn't expect it to. It is the ability to let your story go because it isn't ready, or just isn't interesting.

My example would be from this thread this morning. I commented here, told an independent editor who wants to read everything I am writing for this WIP that I was putting it on the backshelf only to have inspiration from stepping away and admitting defeat, which leads to a greater purpose and focus because I am not carrying the cross of "finishing"; THAT is fluid. That is Zen Writing.

Your work is like a sandcastle beset to the waves. When the ocean tears it down and destroys MOST of it, you can rebuild what was important and make a better castle. Eventually, after many losses, you build the best castle you can and the tide recedes.

That is your novel. You let life, the universe, and everything flow through you without dictating you WILL finish.

Am I openly discouraging people with my words? Perhaps. If you can accept that you will have to step away and assess that there are many manuscripts in the closets of the greatest writers in the world, you can accept that there are times your story is okay to walk away from.

 

[Leif GS Notae]

@Leif: I think that as writers, like anything else in life, we get better with experience- The first novel that a writer gets to finish cannot be expected to be immediately a highest quality novel, but the importance of finishing the first book is still there. Like Terry says, it's the first step to take because otherwise you have nothing.

I wanted to give my advice here because all of this is what works well for me, and I hope that it can work to help others too... However, we all are different in the way that we write and each of us, after all, has to find the way that works best for writing our own stories.

When you say outlining, you mean having in mind a clear idea of what the novel is supposed to be? I call that having the Structure of the novel and I usually write it down in paper, but I want to talk about that tomorrow =)

So, I want this to be clear: You are saying that it is up to the writer to write their story, and yet finishing is the best part. I think there is a disconnect here (and my apologies if I sound cutting, I had a terrible bit of news today).

I'll tell you this, I didn't finish my first four WIPs. I knew they weren't interesting, and I knew they taught me more than just "finishing". Two of them were NaNoWriMo projects, slated for over 200K words, but when I got to the 80K level, they weren't salvageable for more than the attempt, rounding out the world I had in mind, and some structure that i could alter to my heart's content.

However, I have taken some of my fiction to freelance editors. I have the notes here that tell me I need to keep going with these themes. I didn't have that knowledge or awareness before. I took the risk (artistic and monetary) to let editors tell me what I needed to do. I bought and consumed books on structures, formulas, themes, characters, and more.

Will my book conquer the world? We'll see. The aspect here is seeing what you are weak in, admitting where you fall short, learning more about it, conquering that, and incorporating it into your writing. Finishing is great and all, but it isn't important.

Self awareness, understanding, and growth are far more important.

Also: By outlining, I'm not saying you have to be locked into a story where you can't change things. I know many people (including myself) that use mile markers or milestones that will account for WHERE the story will go.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Leif, we all are different and so different writing strategies work for every one of us. What you talk about may not work at all for other writers, and with this thread I am just hoping that my advice can work for others like it works for me, and help them to finish and enjoy the stories that they started to write.

You talk about editors and you seem to aim to publish your works and be famous for it, I hope you will attain this goal- In the other hand, I talk about storytelling because I think of myself as a storyteller first, and a writer second... I am not talking in this thread about what editors and publishers want, this is just about finishing what you start and be happy with it =)

Thanks to Phil's thread I realized just how many of our fellow MS writers have never finished their stories, and I want to help them to actually finish their stuff- whether they want to publish it or keep it to themselves, that is up to them and I cannot give advice about that.

 

[Penpilot]

So if I write 25000 words in a day (which I can, I've done it without a problem) and I finish a story, will that put food on my plate? No. Writing a story and "WRITING A STORY" are two different things.

I think you're misunderstanding things. Finishing a story is just that finishing a story, a first draft. Nobody is claiming that finishing a story is the be all end all after which money falls from the heavens. Finishing a story is just the first step. I've said this before, editing is where all the heavy work is done, but if you don't have any raw material, there's nothing to lift.

You can write an amazing amount of backstory that is very fluff like and builds a world you can write a story from, but if you don't know the structure of a story (the golden country, inciting incident, 3+ acts, etc), you're screaming in the wind and no one can hear you.

It isn't the ACT of finishing, it is the ability to understand HOW to finish that will make you a better writer.

I totally agree that knowing structure is important. I outline, so to me, it's incredibly important. But I'm unsure of what you're trying to get at here in relation to the topic of this thread. I do agree knowing structure helps you understand how to finish. Is that what you're saying?

And this is where your analysis of my analysis of the original quote is a bit wanky. You can shoot all you want at that goalie and try to score a goal. Without research, study, and feedback from your "teammates", you are never going to find out that his stick side is his weak spot and if someone is screening his glove hand, he'll give up a goal every time.

You've just affirmed my point which was each shot taken gives you data/feedback. Whether it's from team mates or from your own observations doesn't matter. It's all valuable and helps you achieve, no pun intended, your goal.

You might not think there is a formula for writing a great novel, but I assure you there is.

I'm not sure where the topic of formula came in here. I don't recall it being mentioned in any of the previous post. Although I do believe there's is a standard structure for a novel.

You misunderstood what I was saying, but that is all right. Fluid isn't the ability to change whatever you want in the story, it is the ability to weather the storm and watch the river flood the area you didn't expect it to. It is the ability to let your story go because it isn't ready, or just isn't interesting.

That's fine, but if you're continually fluid moving from one story to the next without finishing anything, what does that get you?

My example would be from this thread this morning. I commented here, told an independent editor who wants to read everything I am writing for this WIP that I was putting it on the backshelf only to have inspiration from stepping away and admitting defeat, which leads to a greater purpose and focus because I am not carrying the cross of "finishing"; THAT is fluid. That is Zen Writing.

Nobody is saying there's anything wrong with stepping away for some perspective or even giving up on a story, but if that's all a writer ever ever does, what's the value in that? Does a writer really learning anything except to start and give up?

Your work is like a sandcastle beset to the waves. When the ocean tears it down and destroys MOST of it, you can rebuild what was important and make a better castle. Eventually, after many losses, you build the best castle you can and the tide recedes.

Sure this is true of the editing process but not of the finishing a first draft process.

That is your novel. You let life, the universe, and everything flow through you without dictating you WILL finish.

I wonder what an editor with a deadline and an impatient boss would say if an author said that to them.

Am I openly discouraging people with my words? Perhaps. If you can accept that you will have to step away and assess that there are many manuscripts in the closets of the greatest writers in the world, you can accept that there are times your story is okay to walk away from.

Nobody is saying you can't walk away. They're saying it's not ok if that's all you do.

 

[Philip Overby]

I agree with Penpilot in that you have to at least finish something (meaning a first draft at the very least) in order to even consider editing or publishing or any other goal. I think Sheilawisz's suggestions for finishing are all pretty solid.

All writers need different motivations. Some may have dreams to become published. Some may just like to show their friends. Or others just for fun.

Of course there are times when you may have to step away. But that shouldn't be with every single thing you work on. They should be few and far between. I think if you have enough passion to finish the project, you should stick with it and see it through to the end. Then if you send it out into the world and it's rejected, "thems the bricks," as they say.

Baby steps. That's what I'm trying to take. So now I have a project I'm passionate about now I want to finish. Will it get published? Who knows. But I'll be a better writer for having finished what I start.

 

[Sheilawisz]

About the Structure sheets of your Novel:

Counting with a structure to have a better idea of what your finished story will be like is a great tool, but you need also to remember that it's a guide, just something to facilitate your way up to the end.

As many of us know, our characters sometimes behave in ways that we did not anticipate and unexpected things can take place in the course of your story- This happens because a novel is, in certain aspects, a living creature... Maybe you will have to change things a little in your Structure as you keep advancing, this has happened to me but I always try to take the story to the end that I imagined for it in the first place =)

Do not take the Structure sheets as a steel-solid example of what your novel will be in the end, it's just your guide to find the best climbing route up the mountain...

Tomorrow, I want to talk about what to do first with your finished novel!!

 

[Christopher Wright]

I'm going to flat-out disagree with you Lief. The ACT of finishing is one of the most important things a writer has to learn to do.

If you want your story to be good, you do in fact have to do all the other stuff. But if you can't finish what you start, all that other stuff is worthless.

It is better to finish a novel--or at the very least, a first draft--that is absolute crap than to have a half-finished masterpiece sitting on your desk.

Finishing a novel HURTS. It's a marathon, it requires endurance, and until you know what it feels like, trying to move forward inch by inch is scary and discouraging and a lot of people give up. Your perception is warped in the middle of your first draft--you will inevitably decide one day that the entire novel is crap, that you have no talent whatsoever, and that the entire thing was a bad idea. "Better to shelve it and try something else!" You'll say. "Live and learn! I won't make these mistakes next time!"

But your perceptions are being colored by the fact that at some point your novel will lose that shine and sparkle of it being new, it will no longer seem fresh, and the churn of trying to inch the plot forward, page after page, will start to make you a little crazy. When you're at that point you can no longer objectively judge your work, because you're perceiving it *as* work, and you resent it juuuuuuuuuust a little bit, and dissatisfaction mounts, and you don't see the end yet, and...

Even Neil freaking Gaiman talks about this.

The thing to do is to push yourself through it, look at what you have on the other end, and figure out what needs fixing. Maybe it's not fixable, maybe at that point you do need to discard it, but if you've gained nothing else out of that experience, you've learned how to finish that marathon, and you'll know what to expect the next time.

 

[Sheilawisz]

What happens after you finish your first novel: If you have never finished the story that you started to write, when you finish you will get to experience a deep satisfaction and a feeling of wild success and joy that I really have no way to describe to you exactly... I am sure that it's different for each of us, but still, you can be sure that you will love that feeling =)

When you have had this satisfaction, and you realize that you can finish a book, you will gain more confidence in your own writing and storytelling skills- You will probably want to start another book, and soon you will realize that the task of finishing a novel (which seemed impossible to you) gets easier and easier as you become a more experienced writer.

What to do with your first finished novel: The most immediate and greatest satisfaction is to read your own creation!! Believe me, to sit down and read a Fantasy story and know that it was you who wrote all of that is a great reward for all the effort and hard work that it costed you to finish the novel =)

Then, you must keep in mind that your novel is like a living creature: You can start to edit it a little, change some details here and there, polish it and, in a few words, help it to become a better creature... it will evolve with time, and it may take months or even years before you can be sure that it has become exactly what you wanted it to be.

That's why I think that we should not be in a rush to publish- first, give your creatures time to evolve =)

I hope that my Guide will help at least some of you to finish your story... Good Luck!!

 

[Jabrosky]

I find that it's easier to finish a story if you have at least some mental idea of what's going to happen all the way to the end. You don't necessarily have to write down a detailed outline of the whole thing, but few things kill a story like not knowing what's going to happen next.

 

[Phin Scardaw]

I'm happy to announce that since I joined Mythic Scribes in mid-March I have finished an entire book entitled The Elfan Song.

I'm getting better; I'm getting faster. I'm riding the line between planning and pantsing and the results are always surprising and rather pleasing.

For all of you struggling to finish your first novel, or can't seem to keep from starting too many to conceive of completing any, I say this: Push on, Write on! There is nothing like creation, and it is an act that is never fully achieved until the end is written.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Thank you Phin, and congratulations for finishing your book The Elfan Song =)

You are right, there is nothing like creation... also, finishing your first book gives you more confidence as a writer and a storyteller: You get better and faster, like you have said, and the reward that you get in the end is worth every day of effort to finish your story and then enjoy reading it.

I have been writing in Queen Eternal these days, aiming to finish my Joan of England trilogy this year =)

 

[Penpilot]

For all of you struggling to finish your first novel, or can't seem to keep from starting too many to conceive of completing any, I say this: Push on, Write on! There is nothing like creation, and it is an act that is never fully achieved until the end is written.

Nothing like getting to the end, is there? There's something about putting that last period in place or typing THE END. You sit back for just a moment and think I did it. I wanted to write this story and It's done. It doesn't matter if there's still a lot of work to be done in terms of drafts because you've kept a promise to yourself. All the pain was worth it.

Congrats. Take a breath. Enjoy.

Then bring on the pain again. Level 2 this time.

 

[Phin Scardaw]

Nothing like getting to the end, is there? There's something about putting that last period in place or typing THE END. You sit back for just a moment and think I did it. I wanted to write this story and It's done. It doesn't matter if there's still a lot of work to be done in terms of drafts because you've kept a promise to yourself. All the pain was worth it.

Congrats. Take a breath. Enjoy.

Then bring on the pain again. Level 2 this time.

I think that making the promise to yourself is essential, and keeping it is what gives you confidence in yourself.

For me, it's not just that I wanted to write the story - I also want to read the story. Writing the first draft is like reading another author's work: it's full of surprises and moments of glory or difficulty.

But yes, the revisions will take probably more time and effort than the initial draft, and there are much fewer joys and surprises to be found in that most tedious process... I think I'll take a break for a bit before jumping into that. I've created a cover image for the book, however; I hope I can get permission to use the image of the two wasps. I also hope that it's obvious they are fighting, not mating.

http://mythicscribes.com/gallery/member-galleries/p151-the-elfan-song-cover.html