I think it’s important to be realistic about the state of your literary skills. I certainly try to be. I can build worlds well, but I’ve read plenty of authors who do it better. Likewise for dialogue or magic systems or any number of the other things I’ve written about on this very blog. I’m proud of how far I’ve come with each of these, but I’m under no delusions that I don’t have further to go. Whatever success I’ve had as a writer, though, has unmistakably come from one key skill.

Gosh darn it, I can finish things.

Whereas more than one of my friends and family members have tinkered with writing projects for years upon years, until very recently I was putting out full novels at a regular cadence, generally around three per year. Recently, I slowed down to focus on other things for a bit, and in that time I assessed my past methods and those of my friends who are still working on their first books. The goal is to learn what helped me, and what could help them.

Small changes can mean big differences.

There are two aspects to book completion that I’ve found people struggle with. Ninety percent of the difficulty is staying motivated, the other half (as Yogi would say) is actually bringing it home. The methods I find myself going back to again and again to surmount these obstacles boil down to two simple elements: Making Progress and Measuring Progress. And tempting as it would be to break this article up into the former and the latter of those two elements, what I’ve generally found is the real way forward is to constantly bounce between them, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do here.

Plan the Road Trip

There are other, better articles and books on planning a story, so we’ll stay surface level on this part, but one of the surest ways to stay motivated is to make steady progress, and one of the surest ways to make steady progress is have a clear idea of where you’re going and how to get there. I’m an advocate for plotting—that is to say, having at least a basic outline.

Know the path

You don’t have to stick to it, but having at least the next few beats planned out does double duty. It gives you quick context as to what is happening in the story now (even if your last writing session was months ago), and it lays out a path forward so you can spend all of your writing time heading roughly in the right direction instead of mulling over where to go.

Every step forward feels like success

Nothing feels better than making progress, and having an outline gets you on track fast and keeps you on track. It can get you into a flow state more quickly, which means more words in a given sitting, and also gives you a general idea of how much further into the story you’ve progressed once the day’s writing is complete. In other words, it gives you milestones, which feeds nicely into…

Set Goals

Making progress can give you an endorphin rush. Once you’re feeling good about your writing progress, you’ll find yourself looking forward to future writing. Thus it would behoove you to define what progress is. Enumerating your novel–or even your daily writing–into key goals or todo items is tremendously useful. These goals can be defined in a number of ways. It could be something as mathematically precise as “today I will write 1000 words,” or it can be as nebulous as “today I will reach a logical breakpoint.” The key is to have a target, and define it well enough to be sure that you’ll know if you’ve hit it.

Be smart about your goals.

If I feel like I’m not being productive, and thus I start feeling unmotivated, half the time it’s because I’ve failed to properly set or keep track of goals. For the longest time, I had a daily quota of 3000 words. It served me well for quite a while, but it’s simply not sustainable sometimes. Maybe the story is too complex, maybe life is too busy. And just as meeting goals is motivating, missing goals is defeating.

Don’t be afraid to reassess

When I started falling short of my quota, instead of beating myself up, I re-calibrated. Some months “three writing sessions a day” was the goal. Even if I barely got any words in, just knowing that I had put my butt in the seat and put my mind to work in the story was enough to remind myself that slow progress is still progress. That’s the importance of setting goals correctly.

Set up the scoreboard

Tracking goals correctly is just as important. I like to keep a spreadsheet of daily word counts when I really need to know how I’m doing. Other times I’m more motivated by the streak. How many times in a row did I hit my goals this month? How many days total? And what did I do besides words? That’s an aspect that’s too easy to overlook.

Writing is more than just words

There is real danger to using just word count or just plot progression as your measure of productivity. So much of writing is done in the back of the mind, untying knots, exploring new avenues, and building up characters. Especially if you feel like you’re slipping, give yourself an afternoon to go over what you did off the page. Did you rule out plots? Did you run a few versions of character dialogue through your head? Did you daydream within the setting? These things aren’t nothing. Count them up. Measure the unseen accomplishments and give them space alongside things that fit nicely into charts. All of that will make sure that you feel the progress.

Slow and Steady

Let’s take a moment to make sure we’re all learning the right lesson from our fables, shall we? In the story of the tortoise and the hare, we’re told the moral is, “Slow and Steady wins the race.” This is not quite right. Fast and steady wins the race. But just as crucially, slow and steady finishes the race. The steady part is really the key here. It’s not true that you need to write every day to be a writer. But if you want to reach the finish line, you’ll want to at least take a step as often as possible. Some of the best stories ever told were written in fifteen minute fragments.

Little pieces add up

One of my favorite makers on YouTube talks about how sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’ve done anything in a given day, but then you look down and you see the sawdust or metal chips you’ve been making. If you’re making chips, you’re making progress.

You don’t need to finish chapters. You don’t even need to finish sentences. But if you lay down the ink or tap the keys regularly, you are going to move forward. And each step brings the finish line that little bit closer. It doesn’t have to be fast. It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to be. And every bite of the story gets you closer to cleaning your plate, and after that comes dessert.

Give yourself treats

I’ve made it clear by now that I’m highly motivated by finishing steps, crossing things off the list, giving myself the gold star and the mental pat on the head. But sometimes everyone still needs to satisfy their sweet tooth. Don’t forget to give yourself little treats to keep you going.

Do you enjoy dialogue? Maybe reward yourself for getting through some world-building by indulging in a nice, meaty bit of banter. A fan of fight scenes? Throw in a real slobber-knocker as a prize for weaving that exposition in so nicely. I’ve gone so far as to complete whole novellas by writing juicy scenes I was looking forward to and then going back and writing the connective tissue later. Whatever keeps you coming back. But if even that isn’t getting your motor running, it might be time to top up the fuel tank.

Build an Inspiration list

More than once in my writing career I have found a song which provided enough motivation to get a whole book across the finish line. For those curious, the soundtrack of the climax of the Book of Deacon trilogy was “I-E-A-I-A-I-O” by System of a Down. It has nothing to do lyrically with the plot, but the battle that formed in my head when I listened to that song is the exact one that made it to the page.

Find your story’s tone and match it

If you’re struggling to find the motivation to continue your story, give yourself some time to think about what your characters and story mean to you, what gives you the same feeling you’re trying to create in your writing, then gather together as much of that as possible and immerse yourself in it. Make a mood board. Make a playlist. Watch some movies, or even clips of movies. Soak up the flavor and pick apart the elements. Make a music video in your mind starring your characters. Whatever can dump gasoline on the flames of your passion.

Tattle on yourself

Another trait of mine that’s anything but unique is my tendency to prioritize other people’s needs above my own. Thus, it can be profoundly helpful—though maybe a little anxiety-inducing—to turn your own writing project into something someone else is aware of and keeping track of. Commonly you’ll hear these folks referred to as “accountability buddies,” though I’ve found that even an imaginary source of accountability works.

Simply put, you tell someone that you’re writing, what you’re writing, and what your goals are. Often, that’s enough. Now someone else out there knows you’re working on something, and that gremlin that gnaws at your brain when you’re shirking your responsibilities will start “helpfully” letting you know if you goof off, someone else will know you’re not getting things done.

The angel on your shoulder

I say that sometimes an imaginary accountability buddy works for me because the simple act of writing something on a todo list makes me feel as though I’m somehow beholden to the todo list.

But on the off chance you don’t share that particular neurosis, a far healthier and more helpful version of this is to find someone (or a group of someones) to effectively “trade accountability” with. You tell them your writing plans, they tell you their writing plans, and you both resolve to check in with each other to see how you’re doing. You would never believe the lengths I’ll go to avoid having to tell someone that I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. Even, dare I say, actually doing that thing.

Whatever It Takes

The methods above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to keeping yourself focused, moving forward, and striving for that finish line. No one method works for everyone, and most people will need a slate of methodologies to break through especially intense periods of self-doubt, waning motivation, and simmering frustration. But progress, however small, is progress. Every step forward is a step closer to the end of the story, and every finished story is another brick you can use to build the bridge to the next stage of your writing journey.

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About Joseph

Joseph R. Lallo hails from Bayonne, NJ--the fabled birthplace of George R. R. Martin. He has written dozens of novels and novellas, including the international bestseller The Book of Deacon and the critically acclaimed Free-Wrench series. In addition to writing, he has helped run run the Six Figure Authors podcast with Lindsay Buroker and Andrea Pearson. Find Joseph and his books on his website at bookofdeacon.com.

Top image from depositphotos.