7 June 2013 - 6:13 pm

Random Writing Tip #4: Finish

You want to be a published author. That’s okay: there’s lots of us who share your dream. It’s good dream. Shiny.

So you start looking into your publishing options. You toss up the traditional vs self-publishing arguments. You look into self-publishing avenues and the latest advice for how to sell your book. You search for literary agents that deal with your genre and type of novel. You research the publishers that you could submit to. You scour the internet for publications that are looking for short stories just like yours.

Those things I just listed? They’re distractions.

Because you know what you need first? A finished story.

Sure, it’s easy to get side-tracked with the wealth of options available to you. Yes, it’s nice to get a ‘head start’ on the business of getting yourself published (whichever way you choose to do it). And there are plenty of blogs like this one full of advice and information about what you should think about when going about getting published. So much to read and consider, so many avenues to explore, like rabbit-holes in the arse of the publishing world…

Don’t let that get in the way of actually working on your story. That’s the sort of thing you worry about when you have a story worth frothing over publication. All of that reading and worrying and deciding and musing is for nothing if you never end up finishing that story in the first place.

Also, it’s not as productive as you might think. It’s a way of making procrastination seem like productivity; all you’re doing is putting off the real work: writing your story. Recognise it, name it, and kick that time-wasting sucker to the kerb.

Put all of that distracting shit aside. Focus on what you need to do to finish your story: write, edit, polish, research, edit some more. Produce that wonderful nugget that will one day grace a reader’s pages.

First you need a story. So sit down and write it.