TECH: Endings (3 of 4)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 7 April 2010

Writers Digest, August 2007, pages 83 and 84 have an article by Colleen Thompson about endings. With a sidebar by her, and a short piece by James Scott Bell about endings. And there's even an exercise about endings! So... dawdling on to part three... the sidebar!

Let's see. The sidebar talks about convincing yourself to finish. Writers stall out. Maybe it's embarrassment, failure, success, or just plain not knowing what to do next, but plenty of writers polish their early chapters or do other things instead of finishing. But...try these.

1. List the worst possible outcomes of actually finishing. Putting down your fears often helps us see whether they are realistic or not.
2. Describe the positive emotions and feelings that you expect to achieve when you complete the project. Put that list where you can see it often.
3. Break the big task into small stages. Writing 100,000 words is impossible! But writing a 1000 words, or even 2000 words? Not so hard. Or focus on the proposal -- three chapters and a synopsis. That's not so scary. Then take the synopsis and make a list of the key scenes. Do one scene at a time. Writing one scene isn't very scary.
4. Goal setting. Even if you don't have an editor imposed deadline, create one. Set some objectives, divide your project into monthly goals and then weekly targets, and make your own deadlines. Keep track of your targets and your actuals -- celebrate your successes, and don't let your occasional misses stop you -- just pick them up and keep going.

Okay? "Writers who allow fear and procrastination to derail their dreams become frustrated and unhappy. But there's another term to describe those who work each day to overcome the challenges of getting to The End. We call these brave souls authors."