Near the beginning of my writing career, I attended a writing group in college. A friend encouraged me to go with them when I mentioned I like to write. Keep in mind, I was still very much in the “writing is a hobby stage” at this point while they seemed to want to make a career of it.

I went, then continued going, and eventually ran the club myself (as equals with a few people I still talk to daily). We did more than work to make a community, we did our best to make sure everyone got the best feedback we could provide. And, importantly, we encouraged everyone to finish their drafts.

So here I am, almost 10 years past where I was the day I joined. Since that time I have three novels, a dozen short stories, hundreds of articles, and an official Doctor Who audio to my name.

It was at that club that I got a taste of writers who wanted to make it a career. I’d never really met anyone else who had that mindset before.

That one friend for years would bring the beginnings of dozens of stories, and the start of even more novels. And he had real talent too. But he never finished a project. To the best of my knowledge, that has stopped him from ever being published despite working with editors from major publishers.

The problem was he wouldn’t finish what he started. He’d start, drown in the beginning to middle, and never finish.

Worst of all, and we'll come back to this, he never sought help. Despite the fact he knew some of us had professional training, or had a knack for helping him reach his vision, he floundered in silence. He never even answered questions about how his important projects were going.

To an extent, I get it. Endings are hard for me. I’m on the second draft of two different projects and neither has an end yet. Both have an outlined end but writing it has been a bear.

You have ends to tie up, you’ve got to make it satisfying, and you have to make sure it aligns with the rest of the story. Those few thousand words have so much pressure attached to them.

Do you know what’s frustrating? The end of my first book was so smooth. It came to me, I did a little research, and wrote those few thousand words in one sitting, if memory serves. What’s even funnier is a lot of people didn’t believe I’d written it. They thought my editor had a large hand in it. But the first time he saw it was when I submitted a finished draft to him.

The second book was where I made the mistake of writing a large chunk of a mystery without knowing who did it. On a related note, I highly recommend against doing that in your work. Agatha Christie was a genius; while she wrote almost every novel blind, pinning the murderer as the detective did, some of us need a little more planning to create a satisfying ending.

Book three had four different endings when all was said and done. I moved locations a few times, added dialogue, and the final result ended up being one that not only fit the story but better set me up to create a series with that character.

So you’re approaching the end of your story and you’re stuck. What do you do?

1. Take a Break

By the time you hit the end of a book, you are very very close to the project. Sometimes, you’re a bit too close. You’ve been hanging with these characters for weeks if not months and you’re attached.

Sometimes, that’s a problem. When you’re too close to a project, you lose some of your objectivity and may go the route that is easier for your characters instead of the one that is best for the story.

I do a couple of things here. Sometimes, I step away from the project for a bit. I clear my head and try to come back to some form of objectivity. Because when writing an ending, you have to be objective and do what’s right for the story instead of what you want to do.

That can literally mean stepping away. In June, I went away for a couple of days and left the laptop at home. It let me read and clear my head. Even a day trip can help.

By taking those two days and doing a partial digital detox, it helped me refresh and recharge. While I’ve come a long way on my Mental Health journey, I’ve still got a ways to go. In all honesty, I hang out dangerously close to burnout these days.

Other times, that means going to another project. On top of my fiction work and the screenplay I’m developing, I write articles once a month for Stage 32 and once a week for my publisher. By rotating through projects, it helps keep my head clear. For example, I may totally be using this article to give me breathing space on a project that is driving me up the wall.

Whatever the case, time can do wonders.

2. Outline and Research

Once upon a time, I used to hate outlines. I abhorred them when I first started out in my writing career. I thought they stifled creativity, that it limited my options. That I had to stick to exactly what I wrote. Older me will be the first to tell you that that is not the case.

Somewhere around the time of my third book, I got hooked on them. One thing I used to do was go to my alma mater and use their study rooms. The walls are painted with dry erase paint so it turns the room into a giant whiteboard. I would sometimes cover three walls in notes as I schemed and plotted (and wondered what people thought of what I was writing with absolutely no context - perils of a mystery writer).

I’m very visual so it helped me get out of my own head. My editor would join me and we’d plot out chapters at a time, sometimes the whole story.

When I am in a position where I can paint walls, I want to paint at least one wall like that.

I mentioned earlier about my first book. When I approached the end, I got a solid picture of what I wanted to do. But, there were some things I had to pause and do research on.

If spending a couple of days looking stuff up will help you reach the end, go ahead and do it. Researching is also writing in its own way.

3. Ask for Accountability

For me, this first started with that writing group. Then, it evolved into my editor and me touching base and making sure I was on track.

I’ve been fortunate that I’ve always had someone who can hold me accountable and check in with me throughout a project.

That’s one of the reasons NaNoWriMo works so well for some people. For the month of November, you have two forms of accountability. The first is that it tracks your progress every day and will let you know if you fall behind.

I’ve been using Dabble to write for almost as long as its been a platform. Imagine my surprise when I open up the processor and see that I can directly link my live document with my profile on the site.

Game changer. I was barely on the site all month if I’m honest. Between Dabble and our Community Discord, I was set.

That count helps. But your region is the second form of accountability. With COVID throwing us all into virtual meetings for a couple of years, I think it actually brought our community closer (at least locally). We use the server throughout the year which means we talk more often than one month out of the twelve.

If you get nothing else from this post, please find people you can write with. There are Facebook groups, Discord servers, and even websites dedicated to it. The Writers' Room here right here on Stage 32 is great!

Having someone to rely on, talk to, and maybe edit you can make all the difference.

Endings are hard. Sometimes, it’s because you don’t want to say goodbye to characters. Other times, you still need to figure out who did it in a murder mystery (seriously, don’t go down that road, leave it to the queen of mystery).

But reaching the end, that final page…

I can’t describe the feeling and words are my trade. There’s such a feeling of satisfaction, relief, and something else that comes with crossing the finish line.

Most importantly, if you want your project to go anywhere, you have to finish it.

Don’t be like the writers I’ve met along the way who can’t call their project done and let it go.

Don't be like the writers I've met who never find the courage to complete their first draft.

Finish it. You won’t regret it.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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