Monday, February 11, 2013

The Unfinished Words

As I chug through my WIP, I started thinking about my writing process and how it changes depending on the book, and what affects whether I finish something or not. Last year I wrote three books and I wrote them all with record speed. This WIP has been much slower, and I always find myself thinking that when I get past a certain number of words the novel has a good chance of being finished. With this project I'm past 25k and am still invested in the story even if I'm not writing lightening fast, but that also doesn't mean this will be a novel I finish. Last year I started writing a PNR that I was really excited about, but it remains unfinished around 21k, and I had thought I passed the point where I was more likely to finish it than not.

Maybe I have writer ADD, maybe all writers do. I have quite a few projects that are unfinished (as I'm sure all writers do), and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, I think it's to be expected actually. It's normal to get fired up about something only to lose steam later on, just as it's normal to get fired up about something and see it to the end. I think the real problem would be if I didn't finish anything at all. And I realized that this isn't only restricted to my writing; I have books I stopped reading, video games I haven't completed, as well as drawings and paintings waiting to be done. But that's just how it goes sometimes, especially with creative people I think. For me, my attention is always being pulled in different directions on a whim, and sometimes I get tired of one thing and just want to try something new. And I think there can be beauty in the unfinished; the possibility will always be there, and sometimes that's nice to wonder about. And who knows, maybe the spark for some of those unfinished things will come back and they'll find their ending. Or their purpose could have just been a jumping point to launch me into something else.

So, I don't find myself disappointed with my unfinished projects, at least the possibility of them will always be there for a rainy day.

4 comments:

  1. That's exactly how I feel. And I can beat you, I got one project to 71k words and quit. :/ Yeah... that's ridiculous right?

    Though I was rereading it last month and discovered it's pretty good. I'll probably get back to it and wrap it up one of these days. We'll see. :D It's a mermaid story and I've always loved those.

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  2. wow 71k is so close! That's definitely something you can finish =) I sometimes look over my unfinished work and wonder "what could have been"...then I move on to something new lol

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  3. I think you have a great attitude about this. And you're right. You can always go back to it.

    I tend to be really obsessive about anything I'm writing--like so into it I barely eat or sleep. Because of that, I don't don't have any unfinished writing projects, other than my current WIP which should be finished the first draft in about a month...but that's only with writing.Art projects tend to lie around my house forever before completion! And don't even ask about my cleaning habits. haha

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    1. Some things are best left unfinished...like housework! lol

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