It worked!

Well expressed, Gwen!

When you think about it, no one has ever undergone precisely your life experiences combined with your mind and your heart. Therefore no one else could possibly describe the usual cabal (36 plots or otherwise) in quite the same way as you. Therefore … just start where you are, expressing who you are, and gratefully witness the world as you see it. – Gwen

Hi Sandra, I think you need to pick ONE project and stick with it until you finish. Don’t LET yourself move onto something else until you’ve finished the first one. (In fact, holding yourself back from moving onto another project might, in itself, be motivating to you.) I suggest you choose the project that is closest to complete so that it will be relatively easy for you to finish. Then, you need to define what finishing means. Does it mean having the MS ready to send to friends? To a copy editor? Be sure you have a clear definition.

I now have four full-length novels in various degrees of incompleteness, none of which is a full draft. I can’t figure out why this happens. Even after I put a project aside (“to be finished at a later date” – yeah, right), I think of bits of dialogue or plot twists or adding new characters. But I rarely pick it up again.

To make it worse, I currently have two very exciting ideas for new novels. I’m being a little more cautious this time and not galloping into them right away. Unfortunately, that seems to stop me from writing anything, not even my blog.

Do you know of any way to jump start my writing energy back to completing things?

You’re welcome, Daphne!

Really good idea, Mary Ann. I’ll make the change this week. Thanks!

True. It’s a fine line to walk between satisfied readers and increasing click-throughs to your website. An idea: instead of just saying it’s prettier on the blog, you could point to this community you are trying to build, and the most engaged readers would not mind an extra click.

The islands are small but the likelihood of a chance meeting are slim. So glad you had a great time!