Working on Finishing Things

When I started this blog, it came with this idea that I needed to at least “finish something.” That is to say, that’s probably not something you’ll find if you go through my opening posts, but it definitely was something that was going through my head at the time of this blog’s conception two and a half years ago. And, given that it’s a popular piece of advice for writers just starting off, I imagine it’s a popular need. But I’d like to interrogate why I needed to be told that in the first place, because I definitely did, and I think it’d be fun to talk about.

Some of it probably stems from how I start writing something in the first place. Generally, I start with a vague idea that either has a few opening lines attached or some set-piece that takes place near the middle or the end of the story. In the first case, well, it’s probably obvious to see why I stop there. The easy lines run out, and eventually, the whole thing just gets moved to the scrap pile to be used later (I have occasionally found uses for such things, at least). Pushing through there is largely a question of motivation and sometimes I just don’t have enough. I suppose that’s why another piece of advice is to just not tell people what you’re working on, because that can trick your brain into thinking that it’s already finished, which cuts down on the motivation juice.

Other times, the “set piece” times, I think that’s a problem of too much planning, or, at least, too much time spent idealizing just how cool the scene might be even though it’s thousands of words away. If I do manage to get to that scene eventually, the characters have inevitably changed in some way from how I initially imagined them, and I can’t help but feel like the scene is stilted because of that. I think I’ve talked about this part before, like with how I still think of something I’ve written as all the things I’ve cut in addition to what’s on the page, and how of course someone else reading the same thing wouldn’t see any of that.

But, at the same time, there are exceptions to this that I can’t define either. Like, sometimes I just… do well enough the first time around that I’m happy with that scene and I’m not sure why that might be. I could see it being related to chronological distance, maybe? Sometimes the idea for the scene will come up close enough to when I actually write it, or, better yet, I’ll have the idea as I’m getting to that point that I can just… start writing it. Maybe, in that case, it’s my insistence on writing things literally from start to finish that gets me in trouble; I have the interesting bits in my head but I can’t add them in yet (outside of some vague planning document) because even I haven’t gotten that far.

I have started to change this? With shorter works, mostly, or with shorter chunks of works. I don’t think I’m at the point where I can move around a planned outline with ease, but it is something I’m still working on. And I think that’s good? I sure hope it is.

-F