Is It Just Me?
Not to toot my own horn here, but… I am really, really good at starting new creative projects.
A premise, an image, even a cool-sounding word or phrase can lure me into starting project #4,682 or #4,683. For whatever reason, beginnings come easily to me, ideas ripe with possibility and promise. They can lead anywhere and become anything, and for someone like me, it’s intoxicating.
Finishing a project is a different story entirely. Until I did some serious deep cleaning, my office and my basement were littered with half-finished (or let’s be honest, more like 10% finished) handwritten stories, book projects, and well-intentioned crafts. I get halfway (or… again, like 10% of the way) through a project I’m originally super passionate about, only to get distracted by a shiny new project or a fun new activity.
Let’s just say I’m… less gifted at finishing projects than starting them. Maybe you’re the same way — or maybe you get stuck with the beginning and following through is the easy part for you.
Either way, until this week’s episode, I never really thought about why.
Getting Scared & Getting Stuck
Several months ago, I bought (and read!) Jon Acuff’s book Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done. I really like Jon Acuff and thought, well, if someone’s going to teach me how to finish what I start, it might as well be someone I don’t hate, and who I might actually listen to.
Why was I reading up on how to finish things? Because I was in the midst of writing Episode 113 (the Season One finale) of Girl In Space (my ongoing sci-fi audio drama), and I was paralyzed with fear and indecision. I was having difficulty wrapping up the episode. I was stuck.
And as I thought about it more and more, and talked with friends and creative mentors, I began to realize that the thought of ending Season One of Girl In Space meant something to me, beyond what I had assumed. It also carried with it a ton of uncertainties, such as:
- Finishing Season One of Girl In Space meant ending something that had given my life joy and meaning since I had started working on it back in early 2017.
- I wasn’t sure what it would be like to not have this project in my life every day, and I wasn’t sure what would come next.
- I wasn’t 100% sure what I should wrap up or solve, and what I should leave hanging for Season Two.
- I was feeling pressure from fans to do something with one character, and do something else with another, and I was afraid the fans would react poorly if I didn’t do as they wished.
- I was feeling pressure from myself to hurry up and get Episode 113 done already! I had released my last episode in December 2018 and holy crap it was July 2019 already!
- Episode 113 had taken me over seven months to write already, and I was afraid that the final version wouldn’t be “seven months good”. I was facing a sunk cost bias, and I was terrified of letting listeners down.
- I had expectations of what a finale should be, and what I was creating wasn’t living up to those expectations.
- I was scared of bad reviews and criticism. Even though I know I shouldn’t be, because my work is not for everyone.
In short… I was afraid.
Moving Past The Fear
Jon Acuff’s book, Finish, which I mentioned earlier, is based on the premise that when it comes to finishing something, our biggest obstacle isn’t laziness — it’s perfectionism, which is rooted in fear. Fear that our actions will underperform our expectations. Fear that no one will like what we’ve created when it’s done. And tons more.
The book offers all sorts of practical suggestions that I talk about in today’s episode, but the one that really got me was asking: “What am I getting out of not finishing?”
Because I was getting something from not finishing Episode 113 of Girl In Space. I got to stay comfortable. I got to stay safe, where I was, in the realm of the known. Finishing would bring unknown things to me (see all of those bullet points above). It was risky, while not finishing the episode was… well, it would have disappointed my listeners, but it wasn’t risky in the same way. It was easy.
Since I knew the value of not finishing, the next step was to ask myself, honestly: “What is the value of DONE?” For me, there was a lot of value in finishing:
- I could wrap up the loose ends that were bothering me.
- I wouldn’t have this project hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles anymore.
- I could acknowledge (and not waste) the seven months of work I had already put into this episode.
- I could envision delighting listeners with the finale for the season.
- I would have a finished story to share with people, which opened up new opportunities for me as a creator.
- I could start brainstorming Season Two of Girl In Space, which was an exciting prospect, because HAVE YOU HEARD I ENJOY STARTING NEW PROJECTS?
- I could begin toying with the idea of starting a whole new audio drama — or another new project entirely!
What Makes A Good Ending?
I feel like this isn’t something that people talk about a whole lot — again, because in writing and creation in general, the focus tends to be on the starting. But a good ending is just as crucial as — or perhaps more so — than a good beginning.
In my opinion (and people differ on this, of course, because it’s totally subjective), I think a good ending is unexpected yet satisfying. Unexpected in that the reader or listener or viewer has difficulty predicting what will happen (therefore preserving one of my favorite elements — surprise!), and satisfying in that enough of the loose ends are tied up to fulfill the expectations of your audience.
So basically, no deus ex machinas, please.
I also like to think of the story progression as a bicycle wheel — the story comes full circle while moving forward one revolution.
What Do You Think?
Do you have any difficulty starting or finishing creative works? Why do you think that is — and where does that difficulty come from? What do you do to triumph over that difficulty… or what do you think you can try to do next time the fear or resistance crops up?
Let me know in the comments below, or feel free to share your thoughts in my I Am A Writer Facebook group!
Listen In:
Enjoy streaming Episode 072 of the Write Now podcast here, or subscribe to listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or any other podcasting app!
Thank you so much for this peice. It spoke to me in every level regarding my 90% finished novel.
Your words resonated with me as if you were picking them from my mind, ‘will I disappoint the reader?’, ‘will I dissapoint myself?’, etc.
Your saying of “Done is better than perfect” makes me feel so much better and inspires me to wrap this project up! (I have so many new ideas for my next one)
Starting IS so much more fun and gratifying than finishing.
I will be picking up that book!
Thank you for your honest wisdom.
Sarah, I have to comment here b/c I simply must thank you. I am working (no, mulling, sorta in a whiny tone) on book 3 and am petrified and rather… stuck. I realized that a large part of this is the looming shadow of perfectionism but also my feelings that memoir (my genre) is overdone and who really cares to read about my life? And what if I run out of life to write about? Do I go rob a bank to make the book more interesting? Ha.
Anyhow, thank you so very much for this podcast. It’s a blessing and never ceases to help so very much. You and Jeff Goins are my go-tos for courage, inspiration, and practical help.
XO.
Sarah, this episode was like my inner monologue waving frantically at my wild desires to stop what I’m doing and turn towards something new. I’ve been working on my novel since last November when I tried the NaNoWriMo challenge. After a short 2 week break in December I stayed focused on it consistently for the last 7 months, and am nearly in the homestretch of finishing the first draft.
So of course all I want to do now is shove it aside and start working on shiny new short story ideas! It’s not my first writing but it is my first novel. I love the idea behind my story, but even for a first draft it reads like I’m still practicing how to write. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to give it all the rewrite and editing attention it will need to be a decent work, and I know I don’t want to get into that right away. But I am at least going to see this first draft to its conclusion before I consider moving on to a new project. Thank you for your podcast, it’s helping me to stay on track 🙂
Kayla, you’ve got this!!! And you’re not alone, either. 🙂 -Sarah
I think my greatest fear when finishing a major project is that it won’t be good enough to justify all the time I spent on it. I’ve been working on my current project since 2015, and it would be pretty devastating to realize somewhere down the road that I’ve wasted all those hundreds of hours on a novel too fundamentally flawed to even bother with querying. I know that time wouldn’t actually be wasted because of how much I’ve learned since I started, but I definitely have that fear. Do you have any advice on figuring out if a project can’t be salvaged? I know you touched on it a little in your episode on letting things go, but I’m curious what your thoughts are.
Imagine, if you will, a campy, blank and white noir scene where the hardened cop has the lamp shining in the face of the hapless person they’re questioning, and the cop has just dropped so much truth on the person about what the truth of the matter is. That’s me over these last two episodes. It’s not a bad thing. Sometimes a person needs a poke in the arm to help them see the truth of things, to break free of the fog, and move on with things. I’ve been working on a submission to the annual Wildclaw horror drama contest. Ten minutes long, and I’ve re-written the darn thing in my head three times. I keep telling myself. “Self, you can’t fix what what’s not there.” Listening to another person have a similar experience is good, and bad. Good, because they’ve helped me see and admit to what’s happening to me. Bad? That someone else gets stuck like I do. So I’ll sit and do it, write it, submit it. There is no “worst that can happen” scenario, is there? Unless I win, and fall into a severe episode of “Why have I been beating myself up about this?” In any case, thank you. Virtual fist bump. We “should be” creating.
Jim, YES! We are in this together! -Sarah
Yes. Your words remind me of why it’s so important to start…and to finish! Thank you.
Thank YOU, Ralph! -Sarah