How To Finish The Novel That is Driving You Nuts

I really want to give writing advice, especially to those people who are struggling to finish the first draft of their first novel. When I was trying to find advice on how to power through the first draft of Epic, everything I came across was like “just do it! Just write the book!” and I was thinking “if I could just write the book I wouldn’t need any advice." But this past December I had a lot of time on my hands and was feeling inspired to write and before I knew it, I had finally completed the novel. I spent two years on that draft because I could never finish it, I wouldn’t touch it for months at a time. I worked on other stuff, short stories and such, but in my heart I always wanted to finish Epic and I was lucky that my inspiration came back. I guess it’s true that you can’t rush art.

But onto the actual advice part of this post.

To the people like me who apparently just need inspiration, keep your eyes and ears open. I mean it. I was listening to this song and the sound of it (not the lyrics of the original song) inspired a key (no pun intended)* setting in Epic and I looked at this image and it inspired an important scene in the story. My point is that inspiration can be anywhere and when you think that something strikes a cord and could lead to something in the novel, WRITE ABOUT IT. Without going into much detail about my novel (this post is about you, I promise) the song I linked just clicked somewhere in my head with what I wanted that scene to represent to the reader and to the characters, but it was just that upbeat, happier version of the song (the original is depressing af) that I was connecting that scene to. So I created this gorgeous, and vivid world based on a song that only lasts a few minutes. A big chunk of the novel is set here and it was all written around a song. So like I said, keep your eyes and ears open. inspiration will come, sometimes in the form you least expect. It can be a song, a film, a photo, a person, a building you walk past. There are so many things in this world you can see and interpret in your own way. If you walk past a skyscraper, you may think “wow I bet some important stuff happens there” but if your characters walk past one, let’s say in a post-apocalyptic setting, they’d be curious and want to explore this massive, ancient structure that is somehow still standing (hint: that’s a metaphor for humanity surviving the apocalypse). So then the characters go in, they find something cool, they take it home, ask their parents about it and the old world, the family begins talking about how life once was, and then you can just keep going and see where the writing takes you. If you hit a dead end, so be it, but you’ll be writing and something you come up with in this sort-of freewrite can maybe develop into a full idea for the novel.

I know that this process of “write when inspired” isn’t for everyone. And to those people who this doesn't work for, I recommend a few things. first, try to pick a side character and create a new document in whatever program you use. Then write 5-10 full pages of information for this character. physical stuff, quirks, pet peeves, anything about them. This doesn’t have to become the canon stuff, you can always change things later. And this doesn’t have to go into the final version of the story, it can just be for you to know the character better.

If you’re still not inspired, write a summary of the novel, make it at least a page. It doesn’t have to be an outline but just get down what exactly you’re aiming to have once the novel is done. One, it’s good practice for querying, and two, having a good idea of where the novel is headed can help you visualize the complete novel, and it won’t be as completely as abstract an idea as it is in your head… that made sense, right?
If you’re still, STILL not feeling it, here’s a controversial tip: do nothing. Nada. Zilch. Do not touch that novel. I’ve been there before many times, and like I said, I wrote other stuff. Write something completely new. Epic is a high fantasy, space adventure so what did I write when I wasn’t feeling Epic enough? A short story about vampire hunters, and I started a steampunk retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Go to the opposite side of the genre spectrum and just let the juices flow (I hate that saying ew). It’s like when you’ve spent too much time with your s.o and you’re just like “I… need to spend the weekend with my friends.” You don’t want to smother your novel, or worse, have it smother you.

I hoped this post helped those of you suffering from writer's block. If you have any questions or need clarification on anything, don't hesitate to ask me!

- L