How to get your novel over the finish line
BY Anna Freeman, Simon Ings & Jacob Ross
28th Aug 2024
Getting to the end of that elusive first draft is no easy feat. Every writer works differently, and each of us encounter setbacks or struggles on our journey to write a first draft. But fear not! Writing a novel isn't a fruitless task – it's hard work, but there's no better feeling than typing those magic words: The End.
We asked three of our expert tutors – Anna Freeman, Simon Ings and Jacob Ross – for their advice on finishing a first draft. Whether you're struggling with motivation, writer's block, self-doubt, or finding a writing routine, these tips will help you get over that finish line.
Anna Freeman's Tips
1. Try not to compare your work-in-progress to published novels
The books on your shelves have been through layers and layers of edits. They’ve had feedback from an agent and an editor, at minimum – they’re much more of a team effort than many people realise! Your own draft, which looks so tangled and messy to you now? Every book you love looked a bit like that at one time.
2. Rather than comparing your work to your favourite writers, try to learn from them
Pick up your favourite novels, and think about not only what you loved about them, but how the writer achieved that effect. What did they do, on the page, to make you feel what you did? Read as a writer, not a reader, whenever you can.
3. Reflect on your progress
When you do have one of those self-doubt days, because that happens to the best of us, it’s a great idea to compare your current work to your earlier drafts. It’s so heartening and helpful to notice how far you’ve come. I always keep early drafts, partly for this reason! The other reason, of course, is that often I pull scraps from them. It’s amazing how often a cut paragraph or passage belongs in the manuscript after all.
Simon Ings's Tips
1. Urgency is your friend
Writing a novel will, and should, consume your mental resources, and not a few physical resources into the bargain. Stay fit. Stay oxygenated. Walk every day, if only for half an hour. Then, when you’re in a prepared state, put yourself under gentle pressure. No draft need take more than six weeks of constant effort, and the more you can concentrate that effort within six calendar weeks the better. When you’re done, take a week off.
If you put yourself under too much unnecessary pressure, you’ll drown under the anxiety. Gentle pressure, on the other hand, is your friend. Set targets for yourself. Time targets are much better than word-count targets because some days, you are just going to have to stare at a blank screen and think. This, too, is work, and should be counted as such.
Habit is your friend. If the day has gone to the dogs and you haven’t time for that two-hour writing session you promised yourself, sit down and do ten minutes. You won’t accomplish much in those ten minutes, but you will have made tomorrow’s session easier.
2. Do fewer things
The level of concentration required to write fiction well is something like the concentration you need to play complex piano pieces hours on end. If you imagine you can combine that effort with a dozen other demanding tasks, prepare for disappointment.
Give a machine more work to do, and it will do more work. People don’t work like that.
If you want to boost your productivity, you need to reduce the number of tasks you tackle in a day. Not only will you get more done over time; the quality of your work will skyrocket.
We all have to multitask to some extent, but multitasking is never good. Limit multitasking as much as you possibly can. List what you want to accomplish today, then cut the list in half. The writing will come easier, and, in all areas of life, you’ll get more done.
3. Go wild (or try)
Now and again -- and especially if you work in an irregular or interrupted way -- you will hit the buffers.
Writer’s block comes in two forms. You may have bullied yourself to a standstill. We are our own most vile taskmasters, and are more than capable of working ourselves into the ground. Tell your super-ego where to go, go for a walk, and smell the flowers. If you’ve seized up today, take tomorrow off, and the next day. Don’t whatever you do try and catch up on yourself. That’s industrial thinking, not creative thinking.
Writer’s block can also come from not having anything to write about. Running out of ideas, research, and invention is quite usual. We often run into unexpected gaps in our research and planning. Never be afraid to sit there and noodle ideas around on a bit of paper.
Another way out of writer’s block is to write wildly. What would you write if you could write anything, and no-one was watching? Well, guess what. No one is watching. And you can do anything. Reach for outrageous, absurd solutions to your problems. Turn everything up to 11. When you wake up the next morning, you’ll be refreshed (because you spent yesterday having fun) and you’ll also find -- I’ll bet the farm on this -- that amid yesterday’s absurdity is the solution to whatever problem caused you to seize up in the first place.
Jacob Ross's Tips
1. Focus on writing the story to the end
My advice to writers is that their first responsibility to their book is getting the first draft done, by any means necessary. Despite its perceived imperfections — our first draft is something tangible to work with, agonise over and refine. It is the first draft that reveals the novel’s potential i.e. the themes, atmosphere, characters, storylines, ideas etc. that we’d want to develop in later drafts.
Ignore the temptation to edit every paragraph, sentence or chapter. That will come in later drafts. Just write the story.
2. Make notes to self
If an idea pops up in one’s head, which may be useful later. Write it down and press on.
At the end of every ‘sitting’ or writing session, give some thought to what does or might happen next, then note it on the page; so that when you return to writing, the task at hand is there in front of you. Rereading the pages of the previous writing session often helps with keeping up the momentum.
3. Take breaks
Writing is also about not writing — allowing the subconscious to help you process your story.
4. Stick with it
Carve out time and space for your writing, and persevere despite the occasional bouts of self-doubt.
Applications for our Finish Your Novel – Eight Months course are open now. Get all the way to the end of that tricky first draft on this advanced course, with help and advice from three expert author-tutors and a supportive peer group.