from drafts to done: building a habit of finishing your writing

4 minute read

What we practice becomes permanent.

– Gabriela Pereira, author, speaker, and founder of DIYMFA.com

Ouch. That line pinched me in the arm the other day when I was listening to DIYMFA podcast, episode 470, Draft Zero.  

“Practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent,” the host Gabriela Pereira said. 

It hit me then. For so long now I’ve been permanently practicing starting things. Like all those drafts I keep starting to write that keep piling up!

“The behavior we keep doing, we keep doing,” she explained.

a self-aware moment

Wow. I see it now. Or maybe I have noticed it—how I’m really, really good at starting things, but not so good at finishing them—but then ignored it and looked the other way. 

Once when I needed tech-support for my blog, the tech guy asked if I was having an issue posting since there were eighty unpublished drafts in my dashboard. How embarrassing! “Nope, no problem posting,” I told the tech guy. But I was thinking, Oh my god, seriously? Eighty unfinished drafts? Why can’t I ever finish anything?

The behavior I keep doing, I keep doing! 

Blarg. I keep starting new drafts before ever going back to finishing—or trashing—those other draft ideas I started months/years/a decade ago! 

“Um, hello? You know it’s your perfectionistic ways that stop you every time. Just saying.”

Who’s there? Who’s that talking?

“It’s me—well, you.”

Um . . . Excuse me, reader, I’m having a mildly significant self-aware moment . . .

. . . Okay. I’m back. And now there’s a mini-me sitting on my shoulder tapping on my ear.

“There, there. Come on. You did finish writing and publishing your book!”  

Yeah . . . right? I did finish something. But it’s been a year now and I wanna write other stuff. Wait. Let me rephrase that: I wanna finish writing other stuff—blog posts, an essay, a short story? 

On some level, I think I know that starting a draft is the easy part. Way easier—and more fun—than actually finishing it. Anyway, if I finish something like this draft, I usually feel hesitant to share it. Why? I guess I think that what I write is never good enough, or exactly right. Which leads me back to editing it (or walking away). I think I may be a little too perfectionistic?

“May be? Um, you definitely are, and I think you need to give that up, like now! Like right now. Stop editing this draft. It’s good—perfect—enough.”

You think? Or . . . Maybe I should comb through it one more time?

“You’re gonna do that no matter what I say. So go ahead. Proofread it yet again. But if you really wanna move on to writing something else, you’re gonna have to move on.”

practice finishing

I do wanna move on. I wanna start building a habit of finishing things (oops, there I go again, putting “start” in there). 

Lemme try again: Building a habit of finishing things is what I wanna practice. Done is better than perfect, right?

“That’s what I keep telling you, but you keep getting tangled in your own thoughts, listening to you instead of me.”

Alright, me. I hear ya. Starting now, I’m gonna work out my writing muscles and move on and finish this draft. And then maybe work on and finish one of those other drafts. 

Ooh. I feel the burn, new synapses, sparks flying. This is good.

the end

Done. I did it. I got to the end. I finished this draft!

“Way to go, you!”

Hah! Only eighty unfinished drafts to go. Take that, tech support!

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questions

Do you also struggle at times to finish those things you started? You were so motivated at the start, then after a while your energy fizzled out? 

Or maybe, like me, you’ve also practiced a longtime habit that didn’t turn out to be as helpful as you thought? 

I hope this blog sparks an idea or an awareness of a behavior you want to change. If it does, I hope you can adopt whatever new behavior you think will work better.

Any tips or similar experiences? Lemme know in a comment below.

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