What if you’re too creative? What if you never finish anything because you keep getting new ideas that excite you more than the one you’re working on? What if you’re a good starter, but not a strong finisher? 

Elizabeth posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

Hi Randy! I had a question I hoped you could help me with. I love stories, and I have many ideas that I believe I could write into books. Problem is that I tend to hop back and forth on which one to write. I start on the one I’m interested in, make some progress on character info and the story, then I get interested in another story idea and want to write that. Often I never even start writing the actual book.

Clearly you can see that isn’t very productive. I know it, and often those ideas just sit half formed. It’s not that they couldn’t be good stories. I give my characters fears, lies to believe, a dark moment in their past, and have some idea for how the story would go. I just lose interest. Do you have that problem? If so what do you do? 

I’m now trying to write a shorter story around 30 to 50 pages. I think that might help make it easier to finish something. What do you think? Thanks a million! God Bless!

Randy sez: Yes, losing focus on a story is a problem. No, it’s not one I suffer with. (I tend to go the opposite way and hang on to stories for very long times.) We all have our tendencies, and not all of them are productive. So how would I solve Elizabeth’s problem?

I can think of three directions she might go. I don’t know her exact life situation, so I can’t guess which of these might work best. Maybe none of them will work for her. But listing them out here may give her another idea. And I suspect this is an issue that a lot of my Loyal Blog Readers might have.

So for those of you who aren’t strong finishers, here are three suggestions.

Write Shorter

Elizabeth has already suggested the idea of writing shorter, and it’s one I rather like.

If it’s hard to stay focused on a long project of several hundred pages, it might be easier to stay the course on a short project of a few dozen pages.

You might take this even further and work on flash fiction of a few hundred words up to a thousand words or so. You can write a piece of flash fiction, edit it, and polish it to perfection in an hour or two. That’s really not enough time to get bored.

Juggle Your Stories

It might also work to give yourself permission to be working on several stories at once. The idea here is that you always work on the one you have energy for. Then when that starts to feel stale, switch to another for a while.

This works if the problem is boredom, rather than an unwillingness to finish. I have a co-worker who likes to have numerous tasks on his pile. He’s constantly switching from one to another. Wouldn’t work for me, but it works for him.

But if the problem is that you really don’t do well with finishing projects, this isn’t going to work. You’ll just juggle more and more and more, without ever crossing the line on any of them.

Write With a Partner

I’ve worked with a coauthor, and it worked out well for both of us. All authors have strengths and weaknesses. If you can find one with strengths and weaknesses that complement yours, then this might be the ticket.

If you’re a weak finisher, then what you’re looking for here is somebody who is a strong finisher and can drag you across the line, kicking and screaming.

Why would anyone want to team up with you if they’re such a great finisher? Maybe they’re not great at starting. In that case, you’d be good at getting them revved up, and they’d take care of getting you wrapped up.

In Summary

So those are three possible solutions to the problem. There may be more, but let’s summarize the ones we’ve discussed:

• Try writing shorter. 
• Try juggling multiple stories. 
• Try writing with a strong finisher as a partner.

And I suspect my Loyal Blog Readers can think of more ideas. What do you say, readers? Any ideas for Elizabeth? What’s worked for you?

Got a Question for My Blog?

If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer the ones I can, but no guarantees. There are only so many hours in the day.