Your Writing Habits Are Keeping You From Finishing Your Book

Have you begun writing a book, but have never been able to make it to that final page and you're just not sure what's holding you back?

Well, the answer may be a common writing habit that affects hundreds if not thousands of writers so at least in this you're not alone. 

Even better news - this means that there are easy solutions for you to follow to get you back on track to finally closing the cover on your long-awaited novel. 

Here are some of the most common writing habits that may be holding you back.

Perfectionism Paralysis 

One of the hardest things for a writer to do is to accept that their work isn't perfect the first time around. It can be hard reading messily written parts in your first draft and start to think that maybe writing isn't something you should be wasting your time on, but the reality that you need to accept is that everyone's first draft sucks - yes even the best selling authors - it's the whole reason editing exist in the first place. 

I promise if you saw the very first draft of one of your favorite author's books - you might even think they shouldn't be writing either.

Focus on writing and just getting your ideas down onto the paper, it can always be fixed later… but not if you don't write it down first. 

Endless Editing

Edit - Revise - Write - Repeat - Repeat - Repeat  

This habit can go hand in hand with the previous one, but more often than not it befalls writers after they have finished their first draft and somehow are now working on the tenth or even hundredth -  of that same book. 

 It's possible to overwork your work, adding things in, taking things out, erasing characters, and changing points of view. 

There comes a time when a writer needs to let go of their project by handing it off to either beta readers and critique partners or simply putting it away in a draw so that the next time they go to edit it, it's with fresh eyes where the changes made will be more effective than changes made looking at the project day after day after day.

Overthinking and Overplanning 

You will never hear me say that a writer shouldn't plan or outline their work, but I will say there does reach a point when the story just needs to be written. 

Thinking and planning a novel can become a procrastination tool that keeps you from writing it. 

Find the balance between making an outline that will help you write your story and writing your story. You can always add more to the outline as you go, but there comes a time when you just need to start.

Inconsistent Writing Schedule 

Sorry to end the alliteration. I couldn't come up with anything for these final two that worked quite as well. 

While I'm not saying that you should write every day, not having a consistent writing schedule can make reaching the final pages more daunting when all you're doing is sporadic writing. 

Have a consistent writing schedule by making a routine, whether you write every day or once a week, make sure that you show up to write when you've scheduled for it and let nothing keep you from it.

Distractions 

The biggest distraction in my life unfortunately is books. There have been too many times when I've sat at my desk to work on a novel or have been sat on the couch or somewhere in my house with the intent of getting up to work on a novel and have lost myself in an eBook either on my Kindle or on my library app.

Sure reading isn't the worst distraction to have, but as I am avoiding social media at the moment, it's replaced my endless doom scrolling with a good habit -  though still a distracting one. 

When you sit down to write - make sure you're sitting down to write.

Close the emails, silence your phone, and close the door to stop people from bothering you if you can.

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While there are many good writing habits there are plenty of bad ones as well that can hinder your progress and keep you from reaching your writing goals and potential.

Finding our weakest points, amending bad habits, and creating healthy writing schedules and environments that don't keep you from writing your novel are the first steps to meeting your goals. 

The next is to write. 

With love,

B.K. xo xo

Want to write with me live? I'm now on Twitch! Come join me in some writing sprints most days at 10:30 pm EST

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