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You’re a serious writer. You’ve been pursuing the dream for a while. You’ve amassed several thousand words on one or more projects, read books about characterization and plot, attended writers’ conferences, and created a daily writing practice.

And yet you haven’t finished your book. Or maybe you have several you’ve started but haven’t finished. Maybe you’ve finished one but then struggled to finish anymore after that.

Writing a book is never easy, and each one presents new challenges to overcome. If you’re struggling to finish your books, you’re not alone, but if you want to separate yourself from the pack and see your writing dreams come true, you must find a way to manage the journey all the way to “the end.”

Note: This is a guest post by Colleen M. Story, she inspires writers to overcome modern-day challenges and find creative fulfillment in their work. Find free chapters of her books, “Writer Get Noticed!“and “Overwhelmed Writer Rescue,” as well as her FREE mini-course on finishing your book on her motivational site Writing and Wellness. She also welcomes connections on Twitter.

Below are four of the most common reasons why finishing a book is hard, along with action steps to take to get you closer to where you want to be.

1. A Book Is Much More than a Good Idea

We all have good ideas for books. Ask anyone who’s ever thought about writing one and you’ll hear them. Amateurs think all you need is a good idea and you’re set.

Real writers know the truth of the matter, but that doesn’t stop us from being distracted by our active imaginations. It’s probably happened to you. Halfway through your novel, you started to struggle. You knew something was wrong but you didn’t know how to fix it.

As you floundered around, your brain started coming up with new ideas for new stories. Because you’re a creative person, you couldn’t help but feel seduced by these new ideas. They sounded fresher, more intriguing, and more exciting than the one you were working on.

Surely it would be better, you thought, to set your current work aside and pursue one of those superior ideas?

Unfortunately, it’s all a hoax. No matter how great your idea, it will rarely be easy to write a book-length manuscript. Instead, you’ll go off on that new idea and end up stuck all over again.

Action Step: When new ideas occur to you, write them down and store them somewhere in a box or a file on your computer. Then go back to your project and continue working until it is finished. Do not let another idea call you away from the one you’re already working on until that one is complete.

2. Finishing a Book is Totally Up to You

For most everything else we do, someone is around to hold us accountable. At work, you must answer to your manager and/or boss. At home, your family has certain expectations of you. Even the organizations for which you volunteer expect you to follow through.

When writing a book, however, there is no one to check up on you. There is no performance review and no one to see about your progress. That can be freeing, but it can also make it far too easy to shirk your duty to the creative work.

Don’t feel like writing? No one will notice if you take the day off. Feeling frustrated with your story? You can set it aside and no one will complain. Tired of the constant grind of writing every day? You can stop it all now without fear of any serious consequences.

At the end of the day, it’s far easier to quit than it is to continue, and a lot of people take the easy way out.

Action Step: Find out what’s motivating you to do this, and keep it fresh in your mind. Why do you want to write this book? Answer that question and post your answer somewhere you can see it regularly.

Then motivate yourself to keep going in ways that work for you. Track your progress. Ask other people to hold you accountable to your goals. Join a writer’s group. Set up rewards for each milestone you reach. Know yourself well enough to know what you need to do to drag yourself across the finish line.

3. Finishing a Book is Hard

When you read a good book by a master author, it looks easy. The story flows from beginning to end. The characters come to life on the page. The settings are so real you feel like you’re there.

Of course, you can do the same thing, you think.

And then you get to the dreaded middle of the book, and everything you thought you knew goes out the window. Your plot feels unhinged. Your characters are acting strange. The pacing is slow. Now what?

You start and stop again. You consult books on characterization and plot. You jump to the end, write that, then go back, but you can’t bridge the gap. You set one draft aside and start over with another, but you get stuck again.

Writing can be bliss at times, but at other times, it can be downright torturous. It’s like being in a maze and not being able to find your way out. Worse—it’s like being in a maze and not being able to find the most exciting, heart-pounding, emotionally moving way out, and only that one will do.

It’s hard. You spend months banging your head against a wall. You turn here and there for help, all to no avail. You feel like a failure. The beautiful novel you had so many hopes for is falling flat on its face.

Is it any wonder so many writers quit?

Action Step: Don’t quit. No matter what, don’t quit. Try again. And again. One-hundred times if you need to. Ask for help. Hire a writing mentor. Take an online course. Read another book. Outline your book and take a bird’s eye view of the plot. Sit down and have a talk with your characters, one by one, and record what you discover. Keep going. Don’t quit. If you hang in there, the answer will come.

I know. It took me five years to figure out my last novel. When I finally did, I felt like I’d traveled the Sahara and finally arrived at an oasis. It was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in my life. The harder your struggle, the sweeter the reward. Real writers don’t quit.

4. Finishing Your Book Matters to No One as Much as it Matters to You

Wouldn’t it be nice if, when you’re struggling, you had someone to tell you it was all worthwhile? If you were like one of those authors in the movies with an agent waiting breathlessly for your next story? If you had thousands of readers clamoring for your next work to hit the shelves?

For a very few writers, this is the case. For most of us, the world doesn’t notice if we publish another book or not. Most people don’t care.

Sure, our friends and family might wonder. But at the end of the day, life goes on. The mail still shows up every day (or almost every day). The planes still fly. The banks still operate. People still go back and forth to the grocery store. Book or no book, it doesn’t matter.

We realize this reality somewhere along the way. We know it, deep inside. The world will survive just fine without this story. And that makes it difficult to keep going when the going gets tough because in the end, who cares?

Action Step: Ask yourself: Does this book matter to me? If your answer is “yes,” honor yourself enough to know that you must finish it. For most of us, writing is a calling. It’s something we’re compelled to do. If you turn your back on it, you’ll be turning your back on yourself. Your potential. Your growth as a person.

You must honor yourself and your creativity enough to go where it leads you.

Writing has many rewards beyond those that come from the outside world. Remind yourself of what finishing means to you, and then get back to work.

Role models have a unique ability to guide and inspire us.

As authors, it’s one thing to theoretically understand what we need to do. It’s another entirely to see a writer we admire shining brightly, lighting the path for us to walk.

Special Note: This is a guest post by Chandler Bolt, he is the host of the Self Publishing School podcast & the author of 6 bestselling books including his most recent book titled “Published.” He’s also the founder & CEO of Self-Publishing School, the #1 online resource for writing your first book. 

If you’re feeling fearful, or doubtful, or like you’re not enough, you’re far from alone.

Any writer woe you’re facing has been overcome before.

When you find someone who has overcome similar challenges to those you face, you give yourself the belief that you can do the same.

Here are some examples to help you move forward.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Have you ever doubted your academic ability? Does some part of you fear that your educational history disqualifies you from writing?

Considering the prominence F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work would go on to have in the classroom, his background is a little ironic.

Fitzgerald was a notoriously poor speller, and with hindsight, many believe he had A.D.D. Traditional academic success was not something Fitzgerald was able to attain.

In spite of that background, he became one of the most studied and loved authors in American history.

How can we draw inspiration from F. Scott Fitzgerald when facing our own fears as writers?

• Love is more important than technical ability. For many of us, having our writing criticized, and being expelled academically, might cause us to give up. Not Fitzgerald. He persisted regardless, spending his time and energy on crafting the stories he loved. The difference? These days, we’re blessed with a lot of tools to help us overcome our technical limitations.
• Our background doesn’t define us. Often, we’re under intense pressure from a young age to have a predefined life path in mind and an academic background that seems ideally suited to it. If there’s something in your academic past that makes people scoff at your odds of becoming a writer, don’t let it stop you.

The next time you find yourself letting a typo or spelling error knock your confidence, stop. 

Remember Fitzgerald.

Our academic ability and technical skill don’t determine if we succeed as book writers.

Only we do.  

Paulo Coelho

As writers, we know how it feels to be doubted. To be treated with a little scorn if we open up about our ideal future or express our creative side a little too strongly. 

Paulo Coelho experienced things more severely – he was committed to an insane asylum multiple times by his own family.

After attending law school, and ignoring writing for years, Coelho returned to his calling at the age of 39. 

Tens of millions of copies sold later, and countless lives touched, we can conclude that things worked out for Paulo Coelho.

But how can we apply ideas from his journey to our own writing goals?

• We can let down our loved ones. While some of us are fortunate enough to have parents that want us to chase our dreams, many do not. While Coelho’s story is an extreme case, it’s possible that even the most painful disapproval can result in superb success. 

• We can switch paths throughout our life. One trap a lot of writers fall into is feeling like it’s ‘too late to start’. Just peruse some writing quotes from famous authors and you’ll quickly discover that it’s never too late. Coelho’s commitment to eventually following his heart’s desire shows us we can become successful writers even after a long period of doing something else.

One of the hardest things to do in life is to admit we’re on a different road to success than people we love and respect wish for us. Or to drop a prestigious and seemingly stable career such as law to pursue something creative.

If you ever happen to find yourself in either of those scenarios, recall Paulo Coelho. Both his fiction and life story can provide you with the courage to carry on. 

Agatha Christie

Did you know Agatha Christie didn’t always seem destined for writing stardom?

Christie was known for struggling with spelling and writing in general. Even among her family group, she was not believed to be particularly intellectual.

The fact that Christie went on to sell over 2 billion copies is remarkable.

So what lessons can we take from Christie’s background and apply to our own writing lives?

• We blossom at different times. Sometimes, we can sadly let our perceived role within the family group determine the path we later take. Christie didn’t. If being seen as less able among her own family didn’t hold her back, please don’t let it hold you back either. You can achieve your potential later in life, regardless of how your childhood seemed to set you up.

• We use the tools we have. Christie achieved a lot of her best work by dictating it. Think about the advances in technology we have enjoyed since Christie’s era. If you are struggling to get your words down, try recording them. Hearing our writing out loud also improves it on the page. 

Try and use Christie’s story as proof that our perceived identity within our family growing up doesn’t define who we later turn out to be. Also, using technological tools doesn’t make us any less of a writer. 

We all need to do the best we can with what we have, just like Christie did.

Which Author Has Inspired You The Most?

So which author has inspired you the most throughout your writing life?

Are there any other authors you like to lean upon mentally when times get tough?

Please feel free to share some examples and takeaways from your personal favorites in the comments.

We love shortcuts to success.

I can’t promise these will all be easy. But if you use them, I can promise you’ll make progress.

This post is by Positive Writer contributor Frank McKinley.

Momentum Requires Movement

Tomorrow is too late.

Momentum is like a fire. It needs you to feed it to live. And when it wanes, you’ve got to poke it to reinvigorate it.

Sometimes we confuse dreams with momentum.

“I want to write a novel next year.” 

“I want to become a bestselling author.” 

“I want to be the next James Patterson.” 

You could also add that you want to be the next person to fly to Mars.

Wanting isn’t doing. Dreams are great, but unless we pick up our pens, sit in our chairs, and write down some words, dreams are just smoke.

But Dreams Are Fun

So is visiting Disney World.

Or the beach.

Or your mountain cabin.

Dreams make sleeping memorable.

Action is what makes dreams come true. You’ve got to write it and share it to know if people will like it.

Will you fail? 

Maybe.

But only if you don’t learn something.

Tomorrow is another day. You can write something else. And as the days pass, you’ll forget about what didn’t work.

You’re a writer. Don’t just hypothesize. Test your assertions. Try them with real people. Something good will come from this eventually. You just have to keep putting words in front of people.

Here are the 7 hacks to transform you into an unstoppable writer!

1 Write down ideas whenever they come.

Keep a notebook or a page somewhere where you can record all those ideas that come to you.

If you can find them, you can do something with them. Maybe you use one and throw away another. Maybe you marry two of them and take a new slant on an old approach.

Just catch them before they get lost.

Writing them down ensures they stay.

You say you don’t have any ideas?

That’s a lie. Take out a piece of paper. Grab a pen. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write the first word that pops into your head on the top of the page and spend the 10 minutes writing down whatever comes to mind.

Send your internal critic on a break while you fill the page with nonsense, profundity, and everything in between.

When you’re done, you’ll have something.

If you don’t like what you have, just do it again until you do.

2 If you don’t use an idea in a week, toss it.

Time kills momentum.

This approach may sound radical. But it’s not.

When you buy produce, you have to eat it soon or it will be rotten. When it’s rotten, you don’t save it for later, hoping it will taste better. In fact, the longer you keep it around the more it stinks.

Ideas are a lot like that. Act on them while they’re hot. Otherwise, you’re just stirring ashes.

You’re most creative when you write about something sooner than later. Later, you’ll have grown and maybe that thought won’t make sense anymore. Maybe you’ll have learned a lesson that made that idea irrelevant. A week is long enough.

If it’s a big idea, take some action on it now. Even if it’s just making plans. A long term project can take a year. There will be lots of parts. Small actions are movement that keep the idea alive.

Do something now to move that idea forward. If you can’t, you probably won’t.

3 Write daily and momentum will come, stay, and grow.

Your work won’t always be perfect.

In fact, it never will because it can’t be.

Don’t worry about it.

When a baby learns to walk, she doesn’t care about perfect. She cares about effective. She doesn’t care how she looks while she’s learning. She just cares about walking.

Write every day. Do the best you can. Do something better tomorrow than you did it today. But don’t spend all day today worrying about tomorrow.

Just pick up your pen and make some magic.

The trick is just doing the work.

4 Print out a calendar and record your progress.

It’s great to have an accountability partner if you can get one.

But honestly, you are your best motivator.

Hang a calendar on your wall. Get one in December if you can. If not, print one out on your computer. If you don’t have a computer, draw a calendar.

Every day, check the box to signal to yourself that you wrote something.

When you’re feeling like nothing you do matters, the calendar will remind you that you’re making progress. You’re writing. You’re testing the boundaries. You’re doing the work.

You’ll only reach your destination when you take the steps every day to get there.

5 As soon as you reach one goal, set another.

Just take time to celebrate your wins.

You’ve probably figured it out by now. I’m urging you to keep moving.

Life is meaningless without a map.

We all want maps because we all have dreams we want to come true.

Maps show the territory in front of you. Goals are the cities you want to visit on a map. You pave the road with the steps you take to get there.

NaNoWriMo is a great example of how this works. You have 30 days to write 50,000 words. You know you’re writing a story that you hope becomes a published novel. At worst, if you keep moving you’ll have a draft you can refine.

The key is:

• You know WHAT you need to write.
• You know HOW MUCH writing is required.
• You have a DEADLINE.

When that’s novel’s done, you write another one if you want to call yourself a novelist.

Writing every day is a goal. Writing a novel is a goal. If you want to move forward every day, you’ve got to set a goal every day.

Then you’ve got to do the work, which is far easier when you’ve drawn a map.

6 It’s great to have lots of ideas. It’s better to turn them into reality.

All your ideas won’t work.

That’s why you need lots of them.

You can also tweak your ideas and effectively turn them into new ones. Your pen is your friend here. Every morning play around with your thoughts. Take them in whatever direction your mind leads them to. There might be gold in the shadows.

You don’t have to publish and share all your thoughts. But you do need to explore the ones that stick around and keep popping up in your idea notebook. There’s probably a golden thread running through them that is calling you to your purpose as a writer.

It’s your responsibility to discover what that is, and take it to the people who need it.

Unrealized ideas are cinders that turn to ashes and never warm anyone.

Don’t let your good ideas suffer that fate.

7 Keep experimenting. It’s better to learn than to guess.

Seth Godin wrote the foreword to a marketing textbook I found online.

He wrote, “This textbook probably won’t be any good for you.”

Why would he say something like that?

Because if all you do is read it, you’ll be wasting your time.

Read it. Learn it. Then go do something with it.

Market.

Test.

Learn.

Build.

Reading this post won’t help you either. So go. Use what you’ve just read. Write something. Now. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.

Go Make Magic

The magic of writing is in the doing.

When you do it daily, and give it your all, you’ll get better. Your message will matter. And people will read your stories.

Your message is your story. It’s the hope you sell to your readers. It’s the secret that, when revealed, frees them to be their best selves, achieve the status they want, and make their dreams real.

What will you write today?