4 Hacks to Finish a Novel

Begin the Finish of Your Novel Today…

Perhaps taking a solid five months to finish rewriting my novel, The New Dawn (working title), into it’s completed third draft is not fast, but compared to the approximate three years it took to write the first draft and two years it took to write the second draft, five months is dang fast for me. 

This time around especially, I believe I made some breakthroughs in my novel writing knowledge on how to leverage my time, motivation, and commitment to finish.

Now as a blogger, I feel the need to share my experience in hopes you may find something useful for yourself, and my sweat and tears may make a difference in your life. 

So, here we go into the story of the fight to finish my novel against binging TV in bed. It. Was. Epic. 

Hack 1: Challenges Can Help You Finish a Novel

The first few months of my writing adventure consisted of sprints and breaks of drafting/light editing. When my steam began to fade, a writing friend and inspiration suggested we do NaNoWriMo together and get our projects done. 

This is where the epic battle began. Have you participated in NaNoWriMo before? This year was my first time being a wrimo, and I can tell you it is not for the faint of heart. I’ve written one thousand words a day before, but that extra seven hundred was excruciating some days. 

The struggle with NaNo is that you must put down words daily when you haven’t an idea what you are going to write about. NaNoWriMo does not care if the muse has shown up or has taken the day off. You write…which should be the reality for every writer’s life, if I’m honest. 

It took me to the final hours of November 30th to finish, but i did finish 50k words of my novel, and my friend did too.

Hack 2: Make a Plan/System

Now, joining a challenge is not a magic bullet. 

I’ve decided to write five hundred, a thousand, or two thousand words a day before and failed before the day was out. 

The difference this time is I had a reason to finish my novel, a support team, and personal reward plan to keep me going. 

The Strategy: 

1. I have been working on this novel for six years, and it was time to finish. But not just because of the time, but because I needed to give an end to this story for myself and for my characters. It was time to finish this part of my life and move forward. 

I also did not want to end November without winning. I knew that would be a big blow to my confidence and writerly self-esteem, so I was determined to keep on track. 

2. Having the NaNoWriMo community and fellow writer Avrie Roberts encouraging me and writing alongside me helped tremendously. Humans are stronger when we come together. If I did it on my own, I might have finished, but it would have been three times as hard. 

3. The night before November 1^st I got rid of my biggest writing distractions: Netflix and Hulu. I logged out of those video streaming accounts, and then sealed the passwords away. Then I scheduled a weekend in mid-November when I could open the passwords and have a movie night if I was on track with my words. Besides that one night of freedom, I could only access the passwords after November 30^th.

I also set a daily and weekly reward plan for myself to keep me motivated and on track. There were candy, books, and coffee trips involved : ) 

Hack 3: Where Did the Time Go? 

How do you find writing time when life is all hustle and bustle and you are working a job as well? Creativity, my friends. 

I would write early in the morning, late at night, in the car, and as a pastime out and about. That many words took me three hours a day give or take an hour, and that is quite a bit of time to devote to one project. Everyday I had to do the math to figure out when I would actually have time to write, and when that time came there was no room for procrastination. The time crunch actually helped in this way. 

I won’t sugar coat the time issue, though. I fell off the wagon on my weekly blogposts and a couple other side projects. But now that it’s done I’m working to get back on the cycle! 

(Thanks for being so patient with me, friends!) 

Related blog post: “How to Find Writing Time in a Busy Schedule”

Hack 4: Reaching Those Final Words: The End

My novel was not completed with the finish of NaNoWriMo. I still had the climax and end of the story to write, which was daunting, and there was no more challenge. What was I to do!? 

Okay, enough with the drama ?

Writing those final words in December around the holidays and work was a difficult feat, I will admit. In fact, I didn’t finish until early January.

I tried to do daily word counts which sometimes worked. I tried rewards, which inspired me but hardly got me writing. Then finally, I settled on the last straw which kept me writing until the end: 

The need to finish this story for my characters, and myself. 

Most likely your story project is something close to your heart. The characters we create are pieces of ourselves and, if we’ve done our job right, they become their own people. I had arrived to the point in this novel where I knew I just needed to finish. The characters needed to have their stories finished.

With holiday festivities some days I couldn’t write, but then two days later I would stay up late and write 3,000 words at once.

The point to Hack 4 is that when all else fails, look deep inside of yourself and draw on the power within which is begging you to finish. Keep writing for that voice inside. Don’t let your character’s story remain untold. 

What is your reason to finish a novel? 

My reason to write hasn’t come to mind quickly or beautifully. It has taken many years for that voice to claw itself above the surface to be heard. I guess it’s a calling, if you will. 

This calling comes back to why you imagined your story in the first place. 

Did we simply have a random spark that created the epic story inside of our heads? Is it really by accident you came upon that particular idea, and were the right person to pen it? 

Everyone has different worldviews, but for me I believe we didn’t happen upon stories that popped into our minds. I believe they were given to us by God to tell, who for some reason believes we are the right people to tell them. 

So if you have any doubts about your being the right person to write that precious story hiding away in your imagination, don’t doubt anymore. Each story we have we’ve been given for a purpose. We are supposed to discover what these characters have done, and in some way that will grow ourselves and hopefully make a difference in a reader’s life. 

My greatest hope for all of my fiction is that it will make a difference in the world. I wouldn’t write for hundreds of hours unless I was sure this story had to be told. 

When all else fails—the challenges, rewards, and sacrifices—you can fall back on this. You are supposed to tell this story, so what are you waiting for? Finish your novel.

Let’s Wrap This Up….

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I am not the most put together person. I try, I really do, but writing takes me a long time and I won’t hide that.

No writer—or human—is the same or perfect, and that’s why there are such great stories to write. 

Wherever you are right now in your writing process, I just want to give you some encouragement, and hopefully some tools to help you get your story out into the world.

Your story will change your life, and make a positive difference in the lives of others. Something like that shouldn’t stay hidden.