Last week welliewalks posted to the guestbook on my website that she hadn\u2019t been able to post directly on the blog, so I asked you all, and the problem seems to be more widespread than just one person, although not universal. The trouble isn\u2019t with us, says David, my high-tech husband, so we can\u2019t fix it. If you can\u2019t get through, just post your comment on the guestbook (following the link on the right to the website) and I\u2019ll approve it there and move it to the blog. I love to hear from you!<\/p>\n
On March 29, 2011, Erica wrote, Okay, so I was wondering, I always have tons of different story ideas (like notebooks full of them) but I can never finish them. At this point I have one short story done and one picture book rough draft for my English class. I can think in my head of almost exactly how I want it to end but I can never get it out on paper. My mom thinks that it’s because if I finish something then I will feel the need to do something with it and she thinks that it’s because I’m afraid people won’t like it. Whatever the reason I don’t know how to fix it. Help?<\/i><\/p>\n
Many are afflicted with unfinished-itis, and the reasons vary, so here are some possibilities:<\/p>\n
Erica\u2019s mother suggested one. Finishing is the first step toward exposing your work to criticism and even rejection in the sometimes cold, cruel publishing world. Your fingers may curl into fists at the prospect, and fists can\u2019t type.<\/p>\n
A solution to this may be to find friends, relatives, teachers, librarians, a critique group, to show your stories to even before they\u2019re finished. Encouragement may push you to completion. The writers in particular may have useful ideas about where to go next in your tale. Showing at an early stage can reduce the fear of criticism, if not wipe it out entirely. You\u2019re in an early stage. Naturally your story needs work. Helpful advice is welcome.<\/p>\n
And just a word about un<\/i>helpful advice and un<\/i>helpful criticism. See it for what it is, unhelpful, useless, irrelevant. If somebody reads what you\u2019ve got and says something like, “<\/i>I hope you have other talents, dear,” ignore and do not show your writing to this person again. To yourself you can say, Yeah, and how many books have you written, Mister or Missus?<\/i><\/p>\n
Unhelpful advice can masquerade as the helpful sort and sometimes it\u2019s hard to tell one from the other. Someone might say, “You should try to make your prose more lyrical.” Press for specifics. “What do you mean?” you ask. “Where in my story is lyricism needed?” If your critic can explain, then this may be useful, but if she says, “That\u2019s just what I think,” put it in the unhelpful category.<\/p>\n
You may be someone who needs a deadline. If you\u2019re not writing a piece that\u2019s due in school and no publisher is clamoring for your work, you may not feel the urgency, and when another idea comes along, you may jump ship. So set a deadline. If you need to, enlist a friend to help you stick to your writing. Whether you meet the deadline or not, you\u2019ll get more done, and you can always set a new deadline. I think this is why NaNoWriMo is so terrific. It pushes you. Even if you don\u2019t make the word count, you\u2019ve written a lot.<\/p>\n
You may not have found the right story, the one that finishes itself. If you keep writing, you\u2019ll get there.<\/p>\n
The plodding nature of writing gets to you. You start resisting writing the details. Your story is magical, thrilling. Why do you have to mention that your main character\u2019s feet hurt or that her best friend has a dab of catsup on her chin? And why can\u2019t you just tell the reader that the friend is loyal and also illogical? Why do you also have to demonstrate it? You want to put in the broad strokes, the essence of your story, and be done with it. Eventually you get so sick of the details that you give up and start something shiny and new. Or you write down ideas, which don\u2019t have to be detailed at all.<\/p>\n
The remedy here is to limit the task. Write a scene. Don\u2019t think about how many scenes remain. After you\u2019ve written one, write another, little dotted lines along the road of your narrative.<\/p>\n
If you despise writing the scenes and can\u2019t bring yourself to complete any of them, but you adore coming up with ideas and planning out stories, you may be more of a storyteller than a novelist. Or graphic novels may be the right form for you.
\n
\nYou don\u2019t want the characters you love to suffer, so you get stuck. I suspect this is afflicting me now in the second mystery. I love Elodie, and I have to make some awful things happen to her, so I\u2019m progressing at the speed of an inchworm. Since I\u2019m facing this myself, it\u2019s hard to know what the solution is. In my case it\u2019s probably just inching along, and possibly that will work for you, too. Pat yourself heartily on the back at the end of each completed page.<\/p>\n
Or jump right in and bring the dreadful event about. Then write up to it, if you\u2019re not at that point in your story. If you don\u2019t even know what the tragedy will be yet, write a scene in which your main endures misery, which may not be the misery you eventually use. See how he responds. Decide what helps him pull through if he does pull through. Then, when you get to the actual crisis you\u2019ll have prepared yourself. I think I’m going to try this as soon as I finish wrtiting this post!<\/p>\n
You haven\u2019t explored any of your ideas sufficiently to know which ones are keepers. Pick three of your ideas or your petered-out drafts. In notes ask yourself questions. What lit you up when you started? What turned you off? What will it take to bring back the spark? (No negativity allowed.) How can you define your main character so you want to have a long-term relationship with her? What fascinates you about her? Ask yourself about setting, plot, other characters. Quit note-writing and move over to the story when you find yourself eager to start.<\/p>\n
What I\u2019m suggesting are just ideas, which may not work for you. The most important thing is to keep writing, whether you finish something next month or three years from now.<\/p>\n
These prompts need some setting up:<\/p>\n
Right now I\u2019m riding home from New York on a commuter train, a wonderful place for observation. Most of the seats face the backs of the seats ahead, like in an airplane, but some, the less desirable ones, where I am, face the fronts of the seats ahead without good legroom between. I\u2019m in an aisle seat. There\u2019s a middle seat and a window seat next to me, across from me the same. When I sat down at Grand Central where the train originates, the only other occupant of our six-seat grouping was a man in the window seat facing me, who had placed his briefcase on the seat facing him, a little piggishly, I think, but it’s not interfering with my comfort so I don’t care.<\/p>\n
After a few minutes a woman sits across from me and we arrange our legs so they don\u2019t touch. She puts her huge purse on the seat between her and the man, also a little piggishly. Then a woman comes along and wants to sit in the other window seat, the one next to me, with one empty seat between us. She asks if the briefcase is mine and I say no. The man across from her says it\u2019s his and doesn\u2019t move it or offer to move it. How selfish! The woman doesn\u2019t ask him to move it either and rides awkwardly on the (slightly) raised area between the window seat and the middle seat next to me. How meek! I resist the temptation to tell the man to be a gentleman and the woman to grow a spine.<\/p>\n
(Of course they may each have had reasonable reasons for their behavior.) So here come the prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Write a scene from the childhood of each passenger that suggests how they became their future adult selves.<\/p>\n
\u2022 He is King Oogu the Terrible, ruler of the kingdom of Ploog (or more serious names), and she is a member of a rebel group plotting to overthrow him. Write a scene. How will her meekness play out? How will his selfishness?<\/p>\n
\u2022 He is Oogu, dictator of a small republic. She is a diplomat given the task of reforming him. Write a scene.<\/p>\n
\u2022 As young people, they oppose each other on their school debating team. Pick a debate topic you know something about. Write a debate with him winning; then rewrite it with her winning.<\/p>\n
\u2022 They’re in high school. He asks her to the junior prom. Write what happens.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Both are fleeing the devastation caused by Queen Ooga the Awful. He\u2019s the son of a peasant, she the daughter of a scholar. Circumstances throw them together, both in danger. They will survive only if they cooperate. Write a scene.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Invent any other situations you like for these two.<\/p>\n
Have fun and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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