How to (Finally!) Finish Your Book
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 окт 2022
- WORK WITH ME ON YOUR STORY
www.alyssamatesic.com/profess...
DOWNLOAD MY FREE STORY SELF-ASSESSMENT!
www.alyssamatesic.com/#freebi...
SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER FEATURING WRITING/PUBLISHING EXPERTS
www.chapter-break.com/
------------------------------
For many people, starting a new manuscript is infinitely easier than finishing one. It makes sense - starting a book involves the fun and exciting parts of writing, such as world building, fleshing out characters, and coming up with plot twists. But when it comes to finishing a book, sitting in front of a Word document can become slow, grueling, or even boring. If you’re looking to finally finish a WIP you have in your Documents folder, of if you’re embarking on an ambitious writing challenge such as #NaNoWriMo or #FinishUrBookFall, watch this video to get in the right mental space to finally finish your book!
------------------------------
GREAT BOOKS ABOUT WRITING/PUBLISHING:
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer / amzn.to/3VE8dtt
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody / amzn.to/3Vyk2Bn
Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum / amzn.to/3Z4at03
SOME OF MY FAVORITE NOVELS:
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones / amzn.to/3vvWItt
Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips / amzn.to/3CFz4Pt
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid / amzn.to/3CjFFi5
------------------------------
MORE WRITING RESOURCES:
Scenes to Cut from Your Novel (Just Do It!): • 5 Scenes to Cut from Y...
Destructive Writer Habits that Are Holding You Back (and How to Overcome Them): • Destructive Writer Hab...
How to Tell If Your Book Ending Sucks: • How to Tell If Your Bo...
HOW TO FINISH YOUR NOVEL:
01:39 - Treat writing like a job
03:13 - Be flexible with word count
04:49 - Use placeholders
06:03 - Ignore your inner critic
07:04 - Plan your celebration
ABOUT ME:
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with 7+ years of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey-whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
------------------------------
MUSIC:
Chilling by HoobeZa • [No Copyright] Chill L...
Charlie Brown by Smith The Mister smiththemister.bandcamp.com
Smith The Mister bit.ly/Smith-The-Mister-YT
------------------------------
Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. 
Хобби
I finished my third draft this week and I'm in the process of distributing it to beta readers. It's been more than 20 years to reach this point. Tuesday I start the first draft of my second novel.
Wow, congrats!
What's it called
Still under wraps until they're published 🙂@@user-wr1xt5cp8i
I'm with you ❤ I finally finished a novel after 20 years. Keep going forward
My 1st Draft was 49K word count, and I'm an underwriter planning 70-80K for my 13th and final draft.
I finished my first draft when I was laid off during COVID shut downs. I finished it at 135K words and by the end of all revisions and editing it’s now under 95K and will be published next August.
Congrats! That's big cut to make!
Thanks A. In a way the hardest part is when you know you can almost see the end. But the more you pursue your objective the more you learn. You've got to believe in yourself no matter what. Writing is hard, but so is any art. If it was just easy it wouldn't be worth doing. Ignore the fact that Picasso could knock off a masterpiece in half an hour! Writing is so multifaceted with so much to control. But practice makes perfect enough to call it a day.
There's no end set in stone. It's a decision that gets easier to make the more you do it.
Well said!
I'm at around 30k words in my 1st draft and still going. What motivates me to finish is finally getting to share the story, I wonder how it'll be perceived. Plus it is always great to hear your kind words of encouragement Alyssa. Thank you🙏
Wow. How long did it take to hit 300k?
Hey @@MuhammadAli-qh8tg ! I meant 30 000 words and that amount took me around a year.
Fantastic video, Alyssa. Each of your tips are very helpful. For me, writing every day, which falls under Tip #1, is what has enabled me to finish my book. Age has helped as well. I find that when I have a scene to write, I am far more capable of using books I've read, stories I've read or overheard, and experiences I've been through to get through a scene. That is so much more fluid for me at age 50 than age 25, when really all I knew about was going to school, and poorly at that.
When I get stuck on a research detail I underline the text and keep moving. The underlines make it easy to find the problems later.
Great tip!
Everybody's hot such wonderful stories. I am on chapter 1.
But it's version 1,885 so I really think I have it right this time.
I laughed out loud when you mentioned googling murder techniques. 😄 I've googled so many violent things, I worry I'll get flagged somehow as a serial killer. I imagine trying to explain to the FBI..."really, I'm a writer!" They're always skeptical, lol.
My first novel is done at 80,000 words. I am on the second and it's going much smoother after learning from your videos and from the writing experience itself. Research was time consuming for me. I was the rabbit hole girl and spent lots of time reviewing things I either couldn't find later or never even needed to start with. Now the idea to plan a reward is really important since the agent search is on. I have a delayed purchase in mind for when I get a publishing contract. Fun just to think of it on the way so I don't care if I act on the reward or not! Thanks again. Your upbeat attitude is wonderful.
Thanks for the kind comment, Susan!
Thank you, just in time for NaNoWriMo!
That was the plan! 😁
Current manuscript is fantasy and I’m @ 170,000, planning for 120,000. Oh, well. 😊 Kinda feels like mile 23 of a marathon. One foot in front of the other. I’ll get there soon, one way or another. Come to think of it, having run a few marathons, I wish you could go back and edit them! But that’s another subject entirely.
My genre is memoire. 1st draft 77k looking to reach 80k by 12/31. I can do it!!! I started it 6 years ago and its time. Thank you so much for the motivation.
Best of luck!
Your hair is beautiful
I think I’ve finished my memoir… going watch your other video to see if my ending might suck 😬
As motivating as always, Alyssa. Thanks. Again, I'm loving the newsletters, your videos and the self-assessment sheet. Keep well. Keep posting :)
I just finished my book 30000 words so proud of myself 🎉
Oooo I like the placeholder advice. I love a good rabbit hole, to my detriment. Thank you!!
My motivation to keep writing is getting out of my crappy retail job. Keep querying agents until the day comes.
Working retail seems to be a good motivator for me as well. I don't want to work this job for the rest of my life.
@@TheLegendOfRune Same. Although for now it has been a solid job for me to pay off my house.
I tried the indie path, but this was an utter failure. Four books out and hardly made a tenth of what I invested in all four books. Which is why I try so hard to get an agent. Alyssa's videos have been a huge help, giving me enough confidence on getting one.
I don't think I can just not worry about word count. I'm at more than 112K now and I need *at least* another 35K to finish. It's Sci-fi, and so I understand the upper limit for the safe zone is 120-125K. I've known for a while now that I would have to cut at the end. Trying to chop off 25K (or likely more) at the end sounds way too hard. So, I'm now going back with editing, finding and eliminating repetition, trying to be more concise with description and dialogue, etc. I'll be doing that for a good part of November. I'm hoping to reduce a few K from what I have and then write for a target of 135K or so. That will leave me with a much more manageable cut at the end.
I'm of course planning to binge Alyssa Matesic videos when I finally release my book to agents. I do fairly well at drafting - frankly I love the process. I'll say one thing that helps me is that I'm part of a writing group, and I think that's been a big help throughout my book's wandering path. What I've struggled with is getting to the end of revisions. There may be some perfectionism at play, but part of what happened is that I got the draft down, but along the way thought of interesting things to add, so I put them in. Taking them out has been a tougher process, but I think I'm there.
I'm glad to hear that your writing group has been supportive of your story's journey! Best of luck with the edits!
My MSS is at 73K and the word count goal is 100K. I’m on the home stretch but I’m doing edits to get back in the game again.🎃
The celebration isn't supposed to be the joy of editing? Opps! 😜
Great video, full of practical suggestions.
I wish, haha! Thanks for the kind comment :)
Thank you! This is such practical, valuable advice.
Glad it was helpful!
Somewhat off topic, a friend of mine (who is a reader, not a writer) leaves scratch tickets at the back of a book, and doesn’t scratch them till he finishes reading it.
That's a great way to motivate yourself to read! 😂
I'm working on my second draft. First draft was 86k words. Second draft is going slowly as I iron out the kinks in the plot but it's coming along. I plan to celebrate by having a sip of Writer's Tears Irish Whiskey and reaching out to editors.
Best of luck!
I loved this video. 💯
Glad you enjoyed it!
Iam doing NaNoWrimo😊 day 3. 4045 words♥️ iam really trying out everything - this would be my 4rth book. The others Don't have an Outlining or structure at all. So now I try to add this all to My NaNoWrimo book, 💪♥️ Thank you for your Tips! 😊❤️👍
Best of luck with NaNoWriMo!
Hi Alyssa, love the channel. I am about 350 pages in. OR almost done with my 42nd chapter and I plan to write 50. It will be broken down into 10 x 5 chapter books or short stories that carry itself to the next book. Anyways, I decided to quit my job to focus on the last chapters of my book. I realized my job was taking up too much of my time and I needed to take my writing career seriously. I have money so I'm okay but I'm starting to bog down. I know how my book's ending is going to be but I have a mindset to make every word count. I also started to feel guilty about quitting my job and not writing nearly as much as I was hoping for. The more I step back and look, I realize it's hard to force creativity. Still, I created subplots around my main plot and I really want to tie everything together nicely. Thoughts? Oh also, and this just happens to be a coincidence, I am gong to visit my hometown hoping when I am done with my book. I'm excited and motivated to finish in time for my trip to treat it as my reward celebration gift to myself. Keep up the good work and happy writing/reading.
Needed this video!!! Thanks Alyssa! BTW...where's your dog?
Hi Alyssa, do you have ideas for how to lengthen a novel? A checklist of ideas to develop chunks of 'telling' into full scenes for example? Thanks.
I would read through the novel first and look for white room syndrome, talking heads, and important details that neglected to make the journey from mind to page.
After those things are fixed I would look at the story's pacing. When deciding whether to show or tell; you want to show when it's important to the characters and plot. If you show EVERYTHING you risk boring readers into not finishing the book. The best YT video I've seen on show vs. tell is by Hello Future Me. I needed to go back and rewrite portions of my novel because I found the subpar videos, that don't explain how to do it properly, first.
If your word count's still light, think about adding a new arc that throws a curve ball at your characters and makes it more difficult to achieve their goals.
not long finished the first draft of my first book, feels like a pretty big accomplishment, will be starting my next one on the first of November with the target of finishing it in the month but as long as i hit the word count i think ill count it as a success
Are you saying you will start and finish your next book in one month?
@@truthbetold444 isnt the goal for nanowrimo 50k in the month?. i was thinking if i wrote all day every day i might be able to do a little more then that, i know that if i write all day i can get about 5-10k words for the day so i thought if i wrote all day every day i might be able to finish a book in a month...
@@maxsinclair787 At that rate, you should be able to finish your next book in two weeks or less. Don't be a slouch and stretch it out to a month, Max.
@@truthbetold444 your right i should try to push myself a little more, that's what my teachers always used to say. max is a bright lad he just needs to apply himself. still assuming my next one comes in at a similar word count to the last one 150k i suspect it will take me most of the month or a bit longer if i get stuck with anything
You indicated another segment wherein you discuss comps at length. Where do I find that segment?
what is a good word count for a booklet (a guide) Do you have experience with that?
I write a lot of different stories and have 5-10 works in progress right now
Have fully written and edited my manuscript, had several beta readers (overall really positive feedback), and only have a few small plot points to iron out. But, I’ve hit a wall. Feeling discouraged with the state of the publishing landscape and the knowledge of how inundated agents are at the moment. Knowing the querying process comes next (and dreading it) has created a mental block. Trying to push past it but avoiding it altogether seems to be my go-to at the moment 🥴
I am self-publishing using Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant, where I'm responsible for processing orders and shipping my books out as people buy it. I completely avoided traditional publishing companies, and they may not have been interested anyway. My book was over 100k words but had too many photos to use Amazon KDP, so I am only paying for a designer, printing company, and rights fees to a handful of the photos. I self-edited using the latest Chicago Manual of Style guidebook and strictly following it. It's a bit of an unorthodox approach, but it has worked for me, and I have a very busy regular job completely unrelated to writing. My book is a sports history book; this method may not work for other genres.
Have you looked into self publishing?
Cons: You have to hire your own editors and cover designers up front. Works best if you have several books in a series. Have to learn how to market your books yourself.
Pros: You avoid the headaches of querying and, if that goes well, waiting for them to sell it to a publisher. You maintain control of your IP and will be able to keep drawing traffic to your books with advertising as time passes.
@@dueling_spectra7270 + Brian - I’ve considered self publish for sure! I’m a digital marketing manager by trade, so self-marketing would be manageable for me in theory. However, would love to create a little separation between the work I do day-to-day and my writing, which is why I’m wanting to try my hand at trad. publishing before taking all of that on myself.
That said, self publishing is not off the table, and once I get through this bit of block and give trad publishing a solid try, if it doesn’t pan out I’ll definitely be working on a strategy to move forward on my own.
Appreciate the insight from you both!
I finished the first draft of my fourth novel on friday and celebrated by buying a complete Formula 1 decade boxset :)
Horses for courses :)
Congrats!!
@@AlyssaMatesic It cost me 300 dollars. In other news I sent my first manuscript off to a bunch of agents :)
I have signed up for the story self-assessment twice and it has not arrived. Not in my spam folder either. Any suggestions?
First! Heck Ya!
I mean wow I'm on 30,000 words of my fantasy novel and the ending has been written but I'll be damned if I can bridge the middle.
Yeah, I also write the ending first (but I don't do a full outline). And I write the villain first too. For the middle, just keep increasing the tension.
How to finish a book? I've been thinking about starting for the past 1 year.
good advice, you should've been movie actress, too pretty
Word count is not all that important...unless you wrote 173,000 words! lol I'm almost down to 120,000, but it's taking surgical precision, chapter by chapter, scene by scene! 😅
Haha, it's hard work but someone has to do it! Best of luck :)
@@AlyssaMatesic I guess that someone is me, especially if I want my name to STAY on the cover! lol
160,000 words... I might be here a while...