How Do You Actually Finish a Story When Every Attempt Falls Apart?

An aspiring writer on Reddit recently shared this:

So in short I have a bunch of ideas for what can be full books , novels or even series however I have been terrible at making them a reality. I have the ideas and I can write a few hundred words a day however every time I try to actually make a full story instead of waffling between ideas it goes down in flames. I try to plan out an idea, I try to use some template however after about ten days of planning the anxiety of possibly screwing it up eventually leads to a detonation point where it fails. I’m sick of giving up on this. I have a mostly free summer and I know if I force myself I can finish one story, just one book and I want to at this point since this is a fear that has to be conquered if I’m ever going to bring my stories to life like I want to.

To any writers here who have finished a long story, whether it was some Lord of the rings length monster of a script or just a lengthy Fanfic, how do you do it? What’s your method from start to finish? How do you shut up that well of anxiety and uncertainty? Are there any methods you use or would recommend?

This writer is not alone in these fears. What they’re describing is not laziness, or a lack of discipline, or being terrible.  It’s fear. Full stop. It’s fear of doing it wrong, of wasting time, of pouring oneself into something only for it to collapse, or every sort of self-doubt. Every serious writer has stared into that same uncertainty.  Hell, even now when I start a first draft, I’ll still have this voice in the back of my own head whispering to me, “There’s no way this silly little idea can possibly turn into a full manuscript.” But then it does, and next thing you know

And honestly? That writer is already showing real bravery because they haven’t just thrown up their hands and turned to AI to do the work for them. That choice speaks volumes about how much their writing means to them. There’s heart in that struggle. There’s a desire to tell a story that actually matters.  And that’s where the soul of writing comes from, not from ease or perfection, but from caring enough to try, even when it’s hard.

So let’s break down what’s really going on with this kind of fear—and how to push through it.

(Since it’s 2 a.m., I’m on vacation, I’m tired, and I probably won’t get a chance to revise this properly until next week, please forgive the lack of polish and probably abundance of grammar errors.)

 

1. The Fear of Screwing Up Is Killing Your Progress, Yet Your First Draft Is Supposed to Suck

Let me say that again: your first draft is supposed to suck.

That anxiety around somehow getting it wrong is trying to protect you from failure, but it’s doing so by stopping you from trying much at all. You need to flip your mindset: you are supposed to screw it up on the first try. That’s literally what first drafts are for. This is why we revise eleventy thousand times, and then once more for good measure.

This isn’t a flaw. It’s not a sign you’re a bad writer. It’s part of the process, and it’s why revising eleventy million times is a part of the process. I’ve written stories that went down in flames, but I still wrote through the flames. I revised that dumpster fire into something workable, and then I revised it again, and again, until it shined. That’s how writing works.

The first draft is where you’re figuring out what the story even is. If you’re expecting it to be polished, perfect, or even coherent right out of the gate, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

And just so you know I’m not being theoretical here, know this: I’ve kept all my first drafts, and oh my god, they make me cringe. Seriously messy, awkward prose, plot threads that go nowhere, scenes that don’t even make sense, so much telling in places that need showing, head-hopping, and worse…much, much worse. It’s hard to believe those and the final versions came from the same person. One of these days, I’ll pull up and share a side-by-side of a first draft versus the final version, presuming I can ever make myself share the awfulness.

But that’s the point! What you write first doesn’t need to be beautiful. It just needs to exist.

What I do: I let my first drafts such and have gaping plot holes and errors.

 

2. Perfectionism Will Kill Your Book

The urge to perfect the early chapters before you’ve finished the story might be the biggest killer of all. I’ve seen so many writers stall out because they polished the first three chapters within an inch of their lives, only to hit a snag halfway through the plot. Suddenly, something big needs to change. But now they can’t cut or revise anything because they’re too emotionally invested in the “perfect” beginning they crafted. And so, they give up.

Don’t let that be you. Don’t try to write a perfect story right away. Let your first draft be trash. Let it be weird, inconsistent, overwritten, contradictory, full of plot holes and inconsistencies. But let it exist. You cannot fix what doesn’t exist. How can you polish a hunk of carbon into a sparking diamond if you don’t let it exist?!

What I do: I don’t look back until I’ve written the last word of the last paragraph of the first chapter.

 

3. You Try to Plan, But Planning Too Much Feeds the Anxiety

Ten days into planning and it falls apart… That’s a red flag that planning is becoming a stalling tactic. When you’re anxious, planning feels safe thanks to the feeling of control. But the second the story starts looking real, your brain says, “What if I mess it up?”

So you scrap it and start again. New idea. New plan. Repeat.

The solution? Plan just enough to get moving, and then start writing before the fear has time to take over.

Your outline doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to help you write the next scene.

What I do: I have a loose guideline to start, and then see where the story takes me. It’s actually like being a reader in this way since the direction it takes can be a twist even to me!!

 

4. Characters Change, Plots Shift…That’s Normal

Here’s a little truth I’ve never, ever seen mentioned: The process of writing that first draft develops our characters and our worlds deeper, and this often means they go in a somewhat different route than we planned. That rigid planning that seemed like such a safe idea now feels like we’re losing control.  This can discourage us.

It is completely normal to excise characters who don’t work, add characters you didn’t plan for, discover new relationships or pairings that work better than the ones you originally imagined, and realize your characters are evolving into different people than you initially envisioned.

This is all part of the writing process. Characters reveal themselves in the act of writing. Sometimes they surprise you, and sometimes that means the story changes.

What I do: I get excited that they’re all so alive that they start to tell me what’s what and who they are!

 

5.  You Have Ideas, but You’re Scared to Commit

If you constantly bounce between ideas, it’s likely not because the ideas are bad or because you lack creativity, but because sticking with one means facing the part where the story gets hard. Expect that point! You will always, always hit a section of the draft where the excitement fades and you’re not sure it’s working. And that’s not a sign you picked the wrong story. It’s a sign you’re in the middle.

Middle = messy. Write through it anyway.  Mess now. Clean later.

Almost every writer hits a wall in the middle of a draft. The excitement wears off, the plot gets murky, and self-doubt sets in. You start thinking, this story is terrible and I should quit.

Don’t.

This is a known, common part of the process. The middle is hard. Push through it. Even if you have to write clunky, messy scenes to get there, do it. You can fix a mess. You can’t fix a blank page.

And sometimes choosing one project often feels like giving up all the other good ones. But here’s the truth: you’re not choosing one forever. You’re choosing one first.

You’ll write more. You’ll come back to other ideas, but not if you keep dropping all of them mid-process.

What I do: I have a file where I write out in no more than ten or so sentences the general premise for the new story coming to my head.  When I know I won’t forget it forever, I can forget it at that time to focus on the story at hand.

 

6. Build Momentum with Small, Consistent Steps

You said you can write a few hundred words a day. Great!  That’s plenty, as long as you let it count.

Even if some days you’re just researching, brainstorming, or outlining (as long as it’s not too rigidly), that’s also a part of writing. Track your momentum by effort, not just word count.  A day or planning or plotting today could lead to 3,000 words tomorrow.

So commit to one story for the next 30 days. Just one. Keep a journal of progress or what worked, what didn’t. Don’t revise. Don’t jump projects. In fact, don’t even let yourself go back at all since you may get lost trying to perfect things. Just go forward and accept that there will be inconsistencies right now.  Let them exist. You can figure out which ones to keep and which ones to fix to make it all consistent later on.

What I do: Schedule in time to write/brainstorm/etc, and make it clear to my family that this time is sacred.

 

7. Use Placeholders to Power Through Sticky Scenes

Sometimes you hit a section that just doesn’t want to come out. You know what needs to happen next, but this scene? It’s a brick wall. You stare. You second-guess. You slow to a crawl. How do you write a mountain when you’ve got the molehill of an idea?

Don’t stop. Don’t backtrack. Don’t overthink. Just use a placeholder. Pick a symbol or tag you’ll never use in actual prose. like *dk (for “don’t know”), and write a quick summary of what should happen:

*dk John and Jack lead the charge into battle against Jane, and Jane should get in a few hits on Jack before John tries to stop her and then she kills him.

*dk Jack and Jane kiss and make up in a dramatic scene where neither sees the toxicity in the relationship they’re about to start.

You’ll come back to it later, and for now, you keep moving forward. This trick keeps you from losing momentum because one scene jammed the gears and lets you keep writing the parts that are flowing.

What I do: I do exactly as I said there. I will not hesitate to *dk a scene and move on to the next scene. 

 

8. Reframe Your Goal for the Summer

Right now, your goal is: “Finish a book.” That’s a big, high-stakes goal, especially for someone battling perfectionism and anxiety. It’s a worthy goal, but try this instead:

“By the end of the summer, I want to have written a complete, messy, imperfect draft of one story.”

That version gives you permission to mess up, which is exactly what you need to finally follow through.

Keep in mind that even Nora Roberts, one of the most prolific and experienced novelists alive, has said it takes her around 45 days to write a first draft…and that’s after decades of practice and with a full-time schedule! She writes for a solid eight hours a day, every single day.

So if you’re just starting out, writing part-time, and trying to find your rhythm? Be kind to yourself. Don’t expect to be faster than the professionals. Expect to need some time, and set a truly reachable goal.

What I do: I set goals based on what I know I can do at this point in the writing game, but also build in catch-up time.  See my schedule here and notice the time I built in in case I get behind.  Life happens. This buffer prevents feeling likeI failed. Even experienced writers are human, and we need to treat ourselves with kindness by having realistic goals that don’t overly stress us and let is breathe.

 

9. Your Final Word Count Will Change (A Lot)

First drafts are usually lean, rough frameworks. You’re figuring things out. So don’t worry if your first draft clocks in at 60k or 70k since it’s not set in stone and is a work in progress. By the time you revise, fill in missing scenes, expand dialogue, deepen characters, or fix pacing issues, that draft might balloon to 90k, 100k, even 110k words. So if you’re starting with 70k, you’re not “short.” You’re building the skeleton. The meat comes later.

What I do: I turn on the word count, set a goal of 20ish chapters, and then a goal of 3,000 words per chapter to start.  Sometimes they go way over, by double or even triple, but if I’ve got 3,000 to start, that’s good enough and it means room to build out later.

 

Final Thought: You Can Finish This If You Let Yourself Be Bad First

Let your story be messy. Let it be weird. Let it be wrong. But let it exist because once it exists, you can turn it into something great.

You’ve got this.

And when you finally hold that polished, revised, beautiful version in your hands, you’ll barely believe it came from that cringey first draft. But it did. And that’s the magic.

And when you finish that first messy draft, you’ll realize: you were capable the whole time.

 

Second Final Thought

I’m tired.  Again, please forgive the lack of coherence or errors.

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