Do You Have Unfinished Writing Projects?

I recently used a poster showing a dog at the computer. Not wanting to leave out the cat lovesr who read my blog, I am using a picture today that might appeal to the feline crowd.

This cat has the right idea. We all have chapters--or full projects--that need finishing. How many essays or stories or poems have you started and never finished? Writers are akin to those crafty people who start sewing projects and put them away for another day which often never comes along.

How many unfinished writing projects do you have in your files or notebooks? I doubt any of you, including me, can answer None. I have finished everything I've started. If only!

Why do we abandon these stories etc that we often start with great enthusiasm? One good reason is that we are stumped on the middle and/or ending. A great beginning often ends up like a bridge over a river that has never been completed. It's going nowhere. Or, we may not like what we've written so far. A poor beginning may not make us feel like going on with the project.

I once started a children's story about a boy sitting on the player's bench at his baseball game. I wrote a fantastic paragraph (or so I thought at the time) describing the coach. When I came to the end of that, I asked myself and then what happens? To this day, I have never come up with the answer. There will be situations like that, but there are also many beginnings that can come to a conclusion if we put our mind to it. I'm not going to say never to my story. It deserves more than I've given it so far.

The important thing is to write the rest of the story. It may not be the finished product. Instead, it's a way to finding the best middle and ending.Many revisions may take place before a satisfying ending occurs.  I think lots of writers have numerous 'great beginnings' that never see a 'fine ending.'

Look at finishing a writing project as a challenge. Many of us work well when challenged. A few will cower and whine a bit and hide the offending beginnning away again. A good story might end up being buried forever because we tell ourself it is just too hard to finish.

Take some time today, or very soon, to look at your unfinished writing projects. Choose one to work on this week. One at a time is the way to achieve completed projects. I think I need to find something for that little boy and his barking mad coach to do. That's my challenge this week. What's yours?

Finishing Your Projects

I was looking through a stack of papers in my office yesteday, feverishly searching for one particular piece. I went through quite a few piles before I found what I had been looking for. But along the way in my seeking, I found something else. There were a whole lot of writing projects that had been started and never--you guessed it--finished.

Back in the years when I sewed and quilted a lot, I often worked nonstop to finish a project, but I admit there are plenty that didn't see an end result. I'm thinking right now of two beautiful quilt tops that rest day after day in the bottom of the cedar chest in one of our guest bedrooms. That's the trouble. They are only the tops, they need a backing and middle and quilting. I truly want to have them complete one day so that each of my children can have one. One was done by their paternal grandmother and the other by my mother and I. She started it, I finished the cross stitch embroidery on the top. I'm making it a goal for 2013 to find someone to finish the two quilts for me since my hands don't work so well on sewing projects anymore. 

Back to the writing projects. I found a story for kids that had a good beginning and then nothing more. There was a short story that has possibilities with some revisions but I never got back to it. I found a memoir piece I didn't finish because the subject was rather painful. The one thing I felt in fiinding those half-done stories was guilt. Plus a little anger at myself for having let them sit so long. 

I know I'm not alone in having this kind of problem. Lots of writers deal with the same thing. Last night, out of curiosity, I went through My Documents file on my computer to see what, if any, unfinished stories were lurking there. Not as many as I'd feared but enough to make me realize I should work on them one by one until I have the lot done. 

The big question today is WHY do we start a story, article or poem and then abandon it? I can think of several.

1.  We don't like what we've written so far.

2.  We don't have a clue as to how the problem in the story should be solved

3.  We don't like the characters we've started with

4.  We'd rather work on something new

5.  We have no passion for what we're writing at that time

6.  We have no motivation--aren't writing for a particular market

7.  We don't think it has reader appeal

8.  We find a new project that is more appealing

Can you think of any other reasons why we stop in the middle of a writing project? Share them with us via the comments section.

What about solutions? I think I need to take those bits and pieces one by one and attempt to construct a finished piece. I need to make a pile of 'unfinished work' and whittle it down week by week, same with those in the Documents file. 

How about you? Do you have lots of unfinished stories? Maybe even an unfinished novel. What are you going to do about it? Something to ponder on today. Before I begin on one of those unfinished stories, I'm going to delve down to the bottom of my cedar chest and unearth those two quilt tops and leave them where I see them every day. That may spur me into action in looking for a quilter to help me make two special quilts.