Reaching the Finish Line, or Why Is It So Hard to Finish What You Start?

Do you every grow weary before you reach the finish line?

Have you ever noticed it is easier to start projects than to finish them?

We all have memories of the comic book we started drawing (the first six pages were brilliant), or the vegetable garden we started digging (who knew turning over 200 sq. ft. of sod took so much work?), or those photos we started pasting in that album. (This is what one did with photos before the days of digital cameras and Shutterfly.) We all know someone who has a garage filled with a partly disassembled vintage sports car or a shed taken over by a half-completed wooden canoe or a basement remodel that stalled somewhere between drywall and carpet. We start projects with good intentions, then life happens and we get sidetracked. “I’ll finish that someday,” we promise ourselves, but somehow someday never comes.

 As a child, I had an entire collection of unfinished projects

I loved receiving craft kits as presents. They came in an enticing variety of shapes, textures and colors. I couldn’t wait to start them. I would eagerly begin; snipping, folding, gluing or painting. (Sometimes I even looked at the directions first.)

Those kits provided many hours of happiness. But I rarely finished them. The novelty would wear off after I constructed one 3-D tropical fish (out of four) or finished the brown, light blue and pale yellow on the paint-by-number. [In my defense, I did complete an entire shelf-ful of model sailing ships (including rigging). I even had the patience to paint most of them.]

 Straining for the finish

R-e-a-c-h for the finish!

Now that I am a responsible(?) adult, I am better about finishing projects than I was in my paint-by-number days. (Perhaps because I don’t get around to starting all those “great ideas”?) These days my struggle with finishing comes in a different form: My patience is inversely proportional to my distance from the finish line. In other words, when the end of a project looms into sight, I get impatient. I want the project to be over. Wrapped up. Completed. Finis.

This leads to a temptation to take shortcuts, or rush the last few steps, or save the final details for “later.” (Which everyone knows is a euphemism for “never.”) So I have to remind myself that finishing well means doing it right, all the way to the end. Sigh.

Arriving at “The End”

Speaking of unfinished projects: Many people think about writing a novel, some people actually start one, but very few ever complete an entire manuscript. And even fewer go through all the work of revising and rewriting until the manuscript is ready to be considered as a potentially publishable story.

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.” —  Erica Jong

For writers (and other types of artists), finishing is particularly difficult. Because it’s hard to know when to stop. There is no finish line, no final bolt to tighten, no toothpick to insert that will prove it’s done. A piece of writing can always be tweaked, changed, or improved. There is no such thing as “finished.” There is only “finished enough.” (Googling “how to know when a story is finished” returns 635,000 hits. I am not the only one who struggles with this.)

Help Wanted

I think I am nearing “The End” of my manuscript. But before I begin submitting my baby to agents and publishing houses, I need your help. I need people who are willing to read through my manuscript and tell me what isn’t working. To use industry jargon, I am looking for Beta Readers. Wikipedia describes a Beta Reader as: a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over the material to find and improve elements such as … plot holes, problems with continuity, characterization or believability; …

So … If you are interested in reading through my manuscript with a pencil in hand so you can scribble comments and mark problem passages, please contact me by:

• Leaving a comment in this post
• Sending me an email
• Mentioning it on my facebook page
• Tapping me on the shoulder at Wal-Mart

If you volunteer, we can discuss details like format (paper or Word.doc) and the sorts of things I want you to notice. Thank you in advance for considering this!