Keeping a Project Going

Writing is work. It may come as easy to you as breathing or it may take a concerted effort on your part—or you may fall somewhere between those two extremes—but any way you look at it, writing is work. So how do you keep on task to finish the project? The answer to this question has become numerous clichés, from “sit in front of you computer the same hour each day even if you don’t write” to “write something every day.” The real answer is, whatever works best for you. You are the one who knows what will work for you and what won’t.

A writing project is not really any different from any other project. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning is the idea for the story, and the end is the completed, edited, and polished story. The middle is everything involved in getting from the beginning to the end. Once you have the idea, sketch out how the story will progress from the first page to the last page. This can be very detailed, but it doesn’t need to be; it largely depends on your personal writing style. With the story outlined, it is time to get down to the middle: writing.

A common theme among the clichés about completing a writing project can be boiled down to something founded in what publishers (and most industries) do for every project: scheduling. You know how much time you can dedicate to writing each day or week, but be honest. Don’t plan on spending two hours writing each day if you can’t or won’t. If you are not realistic, you will never be able to keep up with your schedule and likely will get farther and farther behind. Once you have an honest estimate of time allotment, set up milestones based on your story outline. For example, you may estimate writing one chapter per week or two manuscript pages per day. Based on this, you might set your first milestone as 25% of the first draft done in three months, for example. Once a schedule is set, always monitor your progress against it, and adjust the schedule as needed. Scheduling and using milestones are proven in business, so there is no reason not to use them for you writing projects. But, as stated earlier, when it comes down to it, the best method is whichever one works for you.

Tin Whiskers Publisher is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). IBPA’s mission is “to lead and serve the independent publishing community by providing advocacy, education, and tools for success. ” IBPA is a not-for-profit membership organization serving and leading the independent publishing community. Founded in 1983, it is the largest publishing trade organization in the United States. IBPA members pledge to uphold the organization’s code of ethics.