The Method of Finishing

Before I get started with my blog this week I just have to talk about WriteOnCon! Were you one of the 11,000 attendees of this grassroots conference?!?

WriteOnCon was the first annual online kidlit conference held Aug 10-12, hosted by a group of authors who met online. Even if you don’t write kidlit or YA you will find some great advice in the archives. Warning! You may spend HOURS at the site. There is so much—articles, vlogs, live chat transcripts, and even critique forums.

Check it out—this may be a game changer in the conference circuit. Search for Nightly Recap for easy links to each session. There are too many good ones, for example:

Give Yourself Permission by editor Molly O’Neill

Writing Realistic, Captivating Dialog by author Tom Leveen

The First Five Pages by Kathleen Ortiz (3 part series, part 2, part 3)

How to Make a Character Collage by author Tera Lynn Childs

Sigh. Okay, gotta clear my head—suffering from information overload. But so good.

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Our topic this month is revision and finishing. Last week, I talked about the Mindset of Finishing. How the mental drive to finish your work comes from these four areas: concentration, confidence, control, and commitment. Very similar to the mindset of an athlete.

Now that we’ve got our brains straight, it’s on to the physicality of writing. The Method of Finishing. Maybe more than anything else, the routine of finishing is the most important writer’s routine. ‘cause if you don’t finish….

How many ways can you finish a novel? I thought up two categories: deadline and plan.

1. Deadline: Determine your end date. Once you are on contract, your publisher will do this for you. So, for us aspiring folks, we’ve got to set our own deadlines. If necessary, use a critique or accountability partner to hold your hands to the keyboard. And, of course, expect to do more work in the final days leading up to the deadline. You’ll procrastinate—you know you will.

• Seasonal—This summer I set a goal of editing a shorter middle-grade novel I had written a few years ago. My deadline was the start of school—met it! I’m kind of liking this school schedule (just makes it easier to be on same schedule as my kids), so my next project is set to end before Christmas break.

• Set a date—Practice for when you do get that contract. Throw down your own gauntlet and challenge yourself to a due date. Work backwards from that date to mark when you want to hit certain milestones.

• Aim for a conference/contest—Determine to have your book ready for a critique or contest entry. This method gives you a little extra purpose because you can then “turn it in.”

2. Plan. I should call this the plug-along plan. Step by step? Day by day?

• Chapter a day. No pressure way: Keep track on your calendar when you complete a chapter. More pressure way: Write the chapters on the calendar first.

• Number of pages per day. (See above, but with pages instead of chapters)

• Checklist (plot line, character arc, descriptions, tension…). Sometimes when you are editing you just need to focus on one skill at a time. Break out the topics you want to hit and systematically work your way through. Write the list on paper so you can cross it off!

What did I miss? Any other good tips on finishing?

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