How To *ACTUALLY* Finish Writing A Book

I recently made a video about how to never run out of book ideas and someone left a comment on that video and said I don't have problems coming up with ideas I have problems finishing the ideas that I start so today we're going to be talking about how to finish writing a book hey what's up you guys I'm Sarah Laurent and I make videos about writing here on YouTube twice a week typically on Mondays and Thursdays and so if you go on to enjoy this video make sure you hit like And subscribe for more videos like this and now without further Ado let's get into talking about some tips to finish writing a book I am so happy that someone suggested this video topic because I know that a lot of people struggle with starting a lot of projects and then not being able to finish those projects and that's something that I used to struggle with as well and now I do a lot better with finishing the books that I start my first tip is to try and figure out if you are feeling fatigued with writing or with your story this can be a pretty big thing if you are feeling burnt out or uninspired with your story you might just need to take a break for a little while this might be a week this might be a month but if you can intentionally put the story aside to take a break you are much more likely to come back to it later than just not feeling like writing so you just kind of avoid it for a while if you're feeling burnt out take a break and especially if you're taking a break for a week or a month or whatever that time span might be actually make yourself stick to that amount of time if you tell yourself okay I'm going to come back to this project in a month you can put it on your calendar you can start to look forward to getting back to that writing project instead of dreading feeling like you don't want to write you're going to start looking forward to it and you're going to start wanting to write but you're not going to go back to that project until your time span is up this can help build anticipation in getting back to the story my second tip is to remember why you're writing this story what was that initial spark of inspiration that made you want to work on this project is this a book that you want to share with the world is this a book that you are writing for your best friend or your parents or maybe even your kids like remember why you're writing it and try to revisit some of that joy in that initial spark and idea in your why tip number three relates back to number two in that I tend to make interest Sports and Spotify playlists for each of my book projects that I work on and every story idea I have eventually becomes a Pinterest board and a Spotify playlist this makes it so easy for me to get back in the mind space of the world and hearing the music that really inspires various parts of my story and seeing Snippets of character art landscape art sci-fi art clothing inspiration quote inspiration all of those like fragments of story ideas that I can build into a Pinterest board make it so easy for me to then revisit that Pinterest board when I'm ready to get back to writing and then again this just like Sparks the motivation to wanting to continue to keep working on this story because the Pinterest boards and the playlists help me visualize in my head what the story is and then that helps spark the desire again to getting that world down on paper so that I can share it with other people also so that I can read it in a linear fashion because normally I don't write in a linear fashion at least not when I'm writing a first draft if you're feeling uninspired with writing you can revisit at Pinterest or if you don't have a Pinterest board yet you can go on Pinterest and start creating a storyboard where you can re-pin anything that Sparks an idea for your story into a storyboard that then you can revisit and continue to add pins to as you get more and more ideas tip number four I mentioned that I skip around a little bit when I'm writing a first draft I recommend this strategy I know some people don't but I really do if you're feeling stuck wherever you're at writing your book skip to the next scene that you're excited about you can always go back in and fill in that space later but if it's going to help you keep writing skip to the next scene that you're excited about I love doing this and I have cut out some of these scenes that I skipped forward to later on because they didn't end up being a good fit for the book itself but it really helped me get to know the characters themselves which ultimately then helped the story so if you need to skip around tip number five if you're struggling to figure out what happens next sit down and just start to brainstorm brainstorm every crazy possible outcome from where the story is right now picture it like a tree picture all the opportunities and all of the bad things that could go wrong and just brainstorm them and write them all down or you could do a little bit of outlining if you know where the story itself is headed and then you can start to piece together how you're going to get to that end result if you're struggling a little bit with brainstorming or outlining you might want to revisit your character motivations and what your characters really want and what your characters are afraid of in revisiting your character motivations you are going to remember why your characters make the decisions that they make and then hopefully revisiting things like that will help with your brainstorming and your outlining tip number six if you've fallen out of love with your story but you want to keep writing it you might want to try letting somebody that you really really trust read it this could mean a parent this could mean a really close friend I'm going to say that if you have options between people that you should try and choose somebody who reads in the genre that you are writing but sometimes you don't necessarily have that option in getting a second pair of eyes on your work in progress that person can help tell you what's really working and then that might kick-start some of that desire to keep working on your project they might also be able to provide some feedback if you want feedback or helpful criticism on how to make your story better or where they feel like the story is going and then you have somebody that has read your story that you can bounce ideas off of when you get stuck in the future having somebody that you can talk to about your story is so nice there's one person in the world other than myself that knows everything about the book that I'm currently editing we went to dinner several years ago and we just talked about my story for several hours because I knew that she was supportive and I knew that she was really excited for me and this is when the book was still in its rough draft phase and then when I got to draft three and I sent my book out to Beta readers she was one of my Beta readers that got to read it and then give me helpful criticism on that story because she had already heard about the larger picture of what I wanted the story to eventually become and then she was able to help me form it into that which I am now working on my edits for if you can talk to somebody take them out to dinner take them out to coffee and just tell them about your story just bounce ideas off of somebody tip number seven seven if you want to finish the story and you're not struggling with motivation or anything along those lines and you just can't find the time to do it let's talk about that if you do not have hours upon hours upon hours that you can sit down and write that's okay sit down and schedule smaller writing increments like 15 minutes whether that means you get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning or you take 15 minutes of your lunch break or 15 minutes after work or before you go to bed because these small amounts of time will add up and the consistency is what matters in getting you to your final goal writing a book is a marathon and not a Sprint and so you need to focus on just slowly picking away at it instead of trying to race your way to the end some people have the ability to write every single day which is amazing and some people don't which is also amazing if you can figure out what days you can write you are much more likely to actually sit down during those days and during those times that you think that you write best and have the most availability to write to actually work on writing your book so identify the days that you can write identify the times that you can write and then make sure that you schedule those times in and hold yourself to it consider it as a meeting or something that you cannot miss because this is something that you want so keep your promises to yourself in showing up for those scheduled writing times tip number eight is to celebrate again writing a book is a huge deal so many people in the world say that they wish they could write a book or that they want to write a book but there are not very many people who actually do or at least not compared to the larger scope of people who don't the most important thing that will issue who you are is you're right and you finish things if you can you learn more from finishing a failure than you do from writing a success and you definitely learn more from finishing a failure than you ever do from beginning something that is fantastic but stops celebrate your Milestones as well as your overall progress so that you don't get discouraged as you're going this could mean every day you write you celebrate this could mean every week that you get X number of words written you celebrate this could mean every ten thousand words you celebrate every time you write a chapter or a scene or an act or whatever you want your measurement to be make sure that you celebrate those things figure out a celebration that would be fun for you I have writing friends that have bought themselves birthday cakes when they hit milestones and had dance parties around their apartment I know people who have bought bookshelves and new books and new notebooks and new pens when they hit writing Milestones I personally have a celebration for every 10 000 words I write that I do a little celebration that goes something like this [Music] and it just makes me smile and it feels like I've accomplished something and so I do that every time I rate 10 000 words it really is whatever works for you but make sure you celebrate because that is so important in keeping yourself motivated for the Long Haul of you know the marathon that is writing a book tip number nine if you're struggling with holding yourself accountable you might need a little bit of external accountability which is when an accountability buddy or writing partner comes into play this person does not necessarily need to be a writer it just needs to be somebody that you trust and somebody that will check in with you occasionally and see how your writing is going so if you tell somebody hey I want to write 500 Words a day would you text me at like 9 00 pm to make sure that I've gotten my words in or maybe every week just check in and make sure I've written 3000 words or whatever it is the number itself doesn't matter it just matters that you have someone checking in on you to see how your progress is going if you want to add a little more pressure to this you could also set it up where you have to send someone a chapter every week or maybe you post a chapter every week or every couple weeks to a platform like Wattpad where you then have readers that are ready to read the next thing so then you have some of that external pressure that's going to make you keep writing tip number 10 is kind of fun if you are having trouble visualizing being done with writing a book you can go on a website like canva and use their free or paid design tools to make a book cover you can also hire a graphic designer or something on Fiverr to make a book cover that you can either print out and put above your desk or you can print out and put on another book have the title have your name on it and then be able to visualize that and be like this is what my book's gonna look like whether or not you choose to change the cover in the future is totally fine it's just the visualization of oh my gosh I'm writing a book sometimes it just feels like I'm writing 26 letters over and over and over again on a page but I'm actually working towards finishing a book and I'm going to be able to hold that book one day in my hands that visualization trick which I have not done and now want to do is a great way to motivate yourself to finish writing your book a bonus tip number 11 that I totally forgot to record earlier is that when you were having new story ideas that you kind of feel like are pulling you away from your main project and you kind of want to work on those but you also really want to finish your main project is to take a moment and write the idea down so you don't lose it but then return back to your project I write down every single idea I have so that I can always find it later when I'm looking for it but I also don't let them distract myself from the book that I'm currently writing unless I'm listening to tip number one which is putting a project on a back burner and taking a break from it for a week or a month or whatever then I will allow myself to work on a new story idea during that span of time but write down all of your ideas just don't let yourself get sucked away by them the last thing I want to end on is that you are doing an absolutely amazing thing in writing a book please don't be too hard on yourself progress is progress if you can Implement some of these tips and techniques you are going to finish writing your book all in good time thank you guys so much for watching please like And subscribe if you have not already my name is Sarah LeBron and I will see you guys in the next video bye foreign

Channel: Sara Lubratt

Views: 6,954

Keywords: How To ACTUALLY Finish Writing A Book, writing a book, finish writing a book, Sara Lubratt, how to finish writing a book, 11 tips to actually finish writing a book, writing tips

Id: hWboyTBl6CE

Length: 11min 43sec (703 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2023