Ten Ways to Finish (Really, Finish) a Writing Project: Part 7

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Welcome back to my series on practical ways to finish your book using the power of psychology. Each post in this ten-part series presents a different method you can try to finally just GET IT DONE and WRITE THE FRIGGIN BOOK. If you haven’t read the other articles in this series, you can check them out below:

• Part One: JUST DO IT

• Part Two: If-Then Planning

• Part Three: Trick Yourself

• Part Four: Gamify: Make Writing Fun

• Part Five: Manifesting Your Goals

• Part Six: Make a 6-Point To-Do List

When I first started running, I came up with an unhinged plan to run every day. I was going to run two miles a day for a month so that I could work up to a 5k. Of course, this quickly crumbled when I realized how frigging hard running is (for me, anyway). I didn’t give up, I kept running, I just scaled that goal back to one day a week. I started interspersing my runs with other exercises: Yoga, weightlifting, and workout classes at my gym.

I quickly realized that everything feeds into everything else. By doing different types of exercises, I was better able to run because I was more flexible and stronger.

All of this being said, I’m someone who has a chronic illness. I have lymphedema, hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos (EDS), recurring infections, and severe allergies, including idiopathic hives. So running every day was simply unrealistic given my body. Because I’m chronically ill, I often need breaks. There are whole weeks when I can’t exercise. At first, I would get really frustrated by these breaks. I still do, to be honest. But I’ve realized I can’t push my body beyond pain—that just results in more pain. The truth is, we all need breaks as humans.

And as a writer, you need breaks, too. And here’s a stunner of a surprise: Breaks actually help you write better.

In psychology, the Zeigarnik effect is the idea that an interrupted task is actually more readily recalled. The idea is that “multitasking” or doing one task, taking a break to do something else, then coming back to the task, can actually help you focus better.

Zeigarnik was a psychologist who came up with the idea after a study where they asked a waiter to remember orders. They were surprised to find that the waiter could remember unpaid, pending orders, but they couldn’t remember finished orders. Waiters juggle multiple orders with ease, getting constantly interrupted, but they can still remember who hasn’t paid yet.

The idea is that as humans, our brains don’t remember the things we’ve accomplished. We only remember that which we need to complete: Our to-do list. We don’t celebrate the successes.

This is kind of devastating because psychologically, it means that negative thoughts and self-doubt have priority in our brains. It’s a lot easier to think: I didn’t make my goal this week, so I suck. I didn’t get to run (even though it wasn’t my fault because I was sick), so I’m bad at running.

Let’s apply this to writing. There are two takeaways from the Zeigarnik effect. The first is that interruptions are actually beneficial to a goal. If you struggle to focus while completing a long writing session, it might actually help to juxtapose that writing with something else.

I personally use this concept to juggle multiple writing projects. I find that if I’m bored with one writing project, starting a new one can actually help me finish the first because it gives my brain something different to work on. Sure, I might have a lot of unfinished projects. But why is that inherently bad? Successful bestselling authors usually have more than one project going on. They might be writing a draft while revising another and completing proofreading on still another, while marketing the book they wrote five years ago that is now being published.

In fact, I’m doing this right now, as I write this post. I have this window up while I switch back to workshop critiques for a class I’m teaching.

This juggling can be really overwhelming for a new writer. It’s a “leveled up” writing skill that takes time to get good at. Juggling many projects at once requires you to switch gears quickly, perhaps moving from one storyline to another or even one genre to another. And like all writing advice, it doesn’t work for everyone. If you’re the kind of person who struggles with distractions, you might do better to narrow your focus. You might try just allowing yourself to take a break entirely from a project.

As an editor, I often see writers struggling with this. They toil over one project forever, never working on anything else, never writing the next thing, and in the end, that one project becomes gobbledy-gook. My role then is to help them see the work with some distance.

Taking breaks has benefits for revision. Coming back to a project after, say, a few weeks, can let you see it with more objective eyes.

The second takeaway from the Zeigarnik effect is about to-do lists. (What do you mean, Holly, you’re going to talk about to-do lists AGAIN??!) The reason I harp so much on to-do lists for writers is that they work. Constantly re-evaluating your goals helps you shape your task list for a project. It’s important to stay present in your writing life. By acknowledging what you have left to do, your brain will start to think about ways to accomplish that goal.

Awareness is so vital to a writer’s goals. It’s not just about building an awareness of your style and process: but about being aware of your pitfalls, too.

Most new writers lack awareness of not just their writing but also their process. They write a story, but don’t know why a character acted a certain way. “My characters just do what they want!” And while it’s normal for your imagination to surprise you, in the end, you’re in charge. You’re the writer, here. New writers don’t know why they chose a setting or a plot element. But for readers, everything has to feel cohesive and tied together, otherwise the reader is thinking: WHAT the heck is going on in this book? You want the reader to feel impressed by the book, not confused. As writers, we need to be aware of the choices we make.

The Five Minute Brain Break is a method developed by researchers at the University of Sydney to refocus attention. If you find yourself distracted, you might try this simple technique. Take five minutes and do nothing. Set a timer (you might even work this into your regular routine by setting a Pomodoro timer to take a break after 25 minutes of work). During that time, go somewhere other than your computer. Sit quietly and relax your mind. If you need help, try simply thinking “I am breathing” or “I am taking a break”.

It’s okay to spend your break thinking about your project. In fact, that is the point of the break. One study found that during such breaks, the brain wasn’t idle. It was actually churning through the task at a super-high speed of over two dozen times in ten seconds. That’s astonishing to think about. So even if you’re trying to hold, say, a novel in your mind—which is a really big project, your brain is capable of that!

Taking a break is a big part of my creative process. In fact, I use it for all my poetry writing. I write a poem, stick it in a folder, and then return to it the next year to revise. That’s right: I give my poems whole years before I revise them. Why? Because in a year, I’ve changed, and the poem has changed. It’s shocking how some of my poems feel illegible after a year, while others surprise me with how good they are. This helps me look at the poems through a new lens.

I take more breaks now with my exercise, too. I’ve realized the mind and the body are similar: They need time to refuel, refresh, and grow.

Try this journaling exercise: Make a list of everything you have done so far on your project. What have you achieved? Spend some time allowing yourself to celebrate your successes. Now consider: Do I need a break? Are there other projects I can work on that might feed into this one? How can I “level up” to be able to work on more than one project at once? (This might include working revision into your normal drafting routine or finding a critique group to balance drafting with receiving feedback.) Do I need to work more routine breaks into my writing sessions?

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