Most writers are creative individuals filled with thousands of wonderful ideas.
This creativity obviously serves writers well when it comes to developing ideas for stories.
Unfortunately, that same creative spark that stimulates the initiation of a writing project is the same instinct that inspires writers to jump from one project to the next without ever finishing and publishing anything.
In this episode, we explore why writers are so prone to abandoning projects and what you can do to see your writing through to publication.
Listen to the episode or read the transcript below:
The Writing Coach Episode #148 Show Notes
Get Kevin’s FREE book: NOVEL ADVICE: MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION, AND CREATIVE WRITING TIPS FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS.
The Writing Coach Episode #148 Transcript
Hello, beloved listeners, and welcome back to The Writing Coach podcast. It is your host, as always, writing coach Kevin T Johns here.
And for the longest time, I was obsessed with Bob Dylan. Did you know that about me? You probably know that if you’ve attended workshops I’ve done or worked with me as a coach or listened to the podcast, I mention Mr. Dylo from time to time. Not that it’s unusual to be obsessed with Dylan. Many, many people are and have been for half a century. So I’m not particularly unique, but there was a time in my life it, it all started with the film, I’m Not There. Todd Hayes, I think, is the director. Back in my cinema days, you know, if Todd Hayes put a movie out, I would definitely check that out. And he put out this movie called I’m Not There, which was about Bob Dylan But like various different actors playing him, including Kate Blanchett and Heath Ledger, all doing a different version of Bob Dylan and his persona over the decades.
I found the movie fascinating. I loved the movie, and I was like, you know, I really don’t know much about Bob Dylan. I grew up listening to punk rock sixties folk wasn’t really on my radar. And so I just never listened to Dylan, really. And so I got a best-of album, and I listened to this best-of album, and I liked it. I liked it a lot, but I was confused because from song to song, his style would change, his voice would change. I was like, something weird’s going on here . . .
And of course, what I eventually learned was as Dylan went through his career, every three or four albums, he’d completely reinvent himself. The music he played, the way he sounded, the way he acted, everything. And so that really sparked a multi-year-long obsession with Dylan.
You might <laugh> might not be a surprise for you to hear. I get obsessed with stuff. I’m not one to just listen to a best-of album. You know, I had to listen to every single Dylan album of all time, which is like, there’s like 50 of them. You know, and I had to go through it chronologically and then I needed to read up on, on each album. And I ended up with books and books and books about Dylan and, and albums upon albums and movies and documentaries. And of course, I went to see him in concert. I’ve had the, the privilege to see Dylan seven times, I believe live.
I’m a pretty huge fan, but after listening to nothing but Bob Dylan for like three years and thinking about nothing and watching movies about nothing other than Bob Dylan, I remember there was this one day, it was lunch break at work. I headed out to go for a walk. I put my phone on, put the headphones in, turned on some Dylan. And I kind of had a bit of a headache that day, and I was like, eh, I don’t really feel like listening to Dylan right now. And this was the first time in three years. It was the first moment ever, where I didn’t want to listen to Bob Dylan. And it, it was a, it was a big moment. It kind of, it was the moment where the obsession ended and I started looking for other things to entertain me.
And this is the way obsessions work or, or things that you’re a fan of, or things that you are excited about, you’re excited about them. And then one day, you aren’t.
Several years ago, or I guess around the time Disney was purchasing Star Wars, I didn’t really have any hobbies. I wasn’t really into hockey as much as I’d been in the past, and I was looking for something to follow and care about. And when I was a kid, Star Wars was always a big thing to me. And so Disney was putting out a new movie. And so I thought, you know, I think I’ll make Star Wars my hobby. I’ll follow Star Wars podcasts and, you know, see what the latest news is and whatnot. And for several years it continued to be my hobby. It was the thing I kind of thought about in my free time or whatnot.
But just a couple of months ago I mean, there was some major ups and downs, <laugh>, believe me, the, the Disney Star Wars output has not exactly been a smooth ride, but I stuck with it. And, especially for my kids, you know, it’s Star Wars is such a great family story. And so, you know, I stuck through the bad stuff for the most part. And, and it was always a pleasure to watch the movies and TV shows and everything with the kids. But then recently, just a few months ago, the Obi-Wan Kenobi show aired, and there was some pretty bad stuff in there. And there was this one moment where Obi-wan Kenobi is smuggling Princess Leia, who’s a child out of this top secret facility. And we, we kinda see him rescuing her, and then we’re like, how are they ever gonna get out?
And then the next thing we see is Kenobi has just put on a trench coat <laugh>, and Princess Leia is hiding under the trench coat if they walk past hundreds of bad guys. No one noticing this fact that there’s a child under this intruder’s trench coat. It was just the stupidest thing I’d ever seen. Like my jaw was on the floor for how much I hated everything about what I was watching. And that was really a moment where Star Wars lost me after being a fan you know, like, and the fan with effort, like kind of saying, “Hey, this is something I’m going to care about, I’m gonna follow.” When I saw that, I was kind of like, I am out <laugh>. Like the spark that lit the fire, that started the rebellion, that burned the empire down, it went out <laugh>. I’m watching Andor, and I’m enjoying it, and my fandom will continue, but that feeling of excitement was gone.
And you might be wondering, Kevin <laugh>, why are you going on about Bob Dylan and Star Wars? Well, something that I’m talking about here is the way the human mind works and how excitable our minds are. This ties into something called the Batter Mine h phenomenon, which is also known as the frequency illusion. And it’s really a cognitive bias where your brain just becomes excited by something and then it seeks out more examples of that thing. It’s almost like being addicted to it. And so when I discovered Dylan, my brain was so expired excited by it, and it’s kept seeking out more Dylan, more Dylan, you know, same with Star Wars. Until one day it didn’t. But this is why when you become pregnant, or your spouse becomes pregnant, suddenly you see pregnant people everywhere, or you buy a blue car, and suddenly everywhere you look are blue cars, or you start drinking green smoothies, suddenly everyone’s drinking green smoothies.
This is just your brain paying selective attention to the thing that really excites it. And so because of this, human beings and artists in particular are almost always going to be excited by the newer thing. So if you read the title of this podcast already, or looked at the blog post, you know, this is a podcast episode about people giving up on projects, people moving on to the next thing, and then the next thing, and then the next thing to the point where they never actually finish their book. They never actually publish anything. Now the issue is everyone goes into their book excited, their brains are on fire with creativity. But unfortunately, a book is not something like a painting that can be done in an afternoon or two days of artistic outpouring. A book takes weeks and months and sometimes years to write.
And so just like eventually one day I was no longer looking for more Dylan, and just like one day my brain just, it had enough of Star Wars. We work on our books long enough that at some point our brain often stops getting excited about the project. Now, I think this happens even more so for writers and for creative people, because they’re always having new ideas. I say this all the time, I very rarely see writers who say, oh, I have writer’s block. I have no ideas. What they say is, I have a million ideas. I don’t know which one to follow. And so, even more so than normal people, the creative artist has a brain that’s on fire, and that’s always wanting to jump to the next thing, because your brain is excited by all these new ideas that you’re coming up with. And this is why so many people will say, pour their heart out into NaNoWriMo and write 50,000 words, and then never revise that book, or never publish it, because the excitement of NaNoWriMo is gone.
The excitement of putting words down is gone. And now you’re into the much less arguably exciting period, which is known as revisions. Now, James Clear has a book about habits. He writes about habits, and he tells this amazing story about an Olympic weightlifting coach that he talked to, and he said, what makes a gold level, a gold medal-winning Olympic weightlifter? And the coach said three things. One, nutrition; the people who eat better, perform better in sports. Two, genetics. Some people are just naturally gifted at Olympic weightlifting. And if you don’t know Olympic weightlifting, it’s a sport that only involves three moves. You have the deadlift, you have the bench press or overhead press, overhead press, I believe, and the snatch. So basically you’re just lifting a barbell three different ways. That is it. And what James Clear said is, what differentiates the gold metal weightlifters from everyone else, including the bronze medal ones, is they are the athletes who have the discipline to put up with the boredom of training.
Okay? So the people, the elite, the 1% of performers in that sport are the ones who are able to deal with the boredom of just doing the same three lifts again and again after again, session after session, month after month, year after year. And I think it’s pretty obvious how this ties into writing. The people who finish their books, the people who publish books, the people who have careers as authors are the ones who are willing to put up with the boredom of continuing to work on a project after that initial spark is gone, continuing to work on a project even when your brain is on fire with new other ideas that seem so much better and seem so much more exciting. Now, I would like to argue that one of the reasons these new other ideas always seem more exciting has to do with Plato’s theory of forms.
So Plato said that everything that exists on earth is an imperfect reproduction of the perfect version of that thing in heaven. So in front of me is a computer mouse. Right now, there’s a perfect version of this mouse in heaven. This version in front of me is an imperfect reproduction, and I think this works as a perfect metaphor for writing. Our books are always perfect in our heads, and then when we put them down on the page, we’re forced to deal with the reality of their imperfections. That unfinished project, that project that’s still an idea, is always going to feel more perfect than the project that’s actually down on the page, the project that now needs to be revised for the third time or the fourth time. When you’re looking at something that exists, especially if you are its creator, all you’re seeing are those imperfections.
And all you’re seeing is the space, the dissonance between Plato’s version and heaven, or the version that existed in your head and the version that exists down on the page. The other thing is that writing a first draft can be super challenging and super draining and complicated, but it can also be really exciting and surprising. Your story can take interesting turns, your characters can open their mouths and say something you didn’t expect them to say. There’s an element of surprise that really makes that creative process of writing a first draft fun and stimulating. Well, guess what? When you’re on draft five of a book, there are very few surprises. At that point. You are just doing the hard work of editing and polishing a book, and you’re not going to get those neurons firing in your brain going, oh, what a surprise. Oh, what an exciting thing.
It’s just the hard work of getting a book to the stage of quality that readers demand, or that’s going to make your book stand out from all the other books out there. Another thing is that the more you revise a book, the more diminishing returns you get. You can put a lot of time and energy into a sixth or seventh draft. And unlike the second draft or the third draft where you are making huge changes and the book is improving, you know, you could take a first draft to a third draft and have it improve 50%. You double the quality of the book. But by draft six, draft seven, you might go through an entire draft and have 5% improvement. So once again, that excitement just isn’t there. And you’re also just not getting that big reward feeling of being like, wow, I made the book so much better today.
And this, again, is why people give up on their projects. People hop over to the next thing and they pursue that gratification that comes from the exciting thing, the new thing or the thing that doesn’t quite exist yet. And so it seems so much more perfect, or the thing that’s feeding the brain, your brain and the stuff that your brain wants. And so what’s the point here? You need to be aware of the transition curve that is creating a book. You’re always going to start the book with uninformed enthusiasm. You’re going on pure excitement and creativity. And then at some point, you’re gonna move into a phase of informed pessimism where you say, oh, man, this first draft is done, but the book’s not that good. There’s still a long way to go. And that’s when you reach the point where you say, is this worth the effort?
Is this good enough? Or should I hop onto the new shinier better thing? That’s the key moment in the creative process. That’s the moment where you wanna say, do I want to get a book published? Do I want to be a writer? Do I want people to read my words? And that’s when you say, if so, I need to be like those gold medal weightlifters. I need to put up with the boredom of pushing through self-doubt, the boredom of draft seven, the lack of excitement of doing the hard work it takes to get a book to the finish line. If you’re always jumping to the next new hot thing, you’re never going to get anything done. So stick with the project that you’re working on through to completion. You’re going learn so much more from finishing a project than you’re ever going learn jumping from project to project throughout your life.
Speaking of books, if you would like to get a copy of my book, Novel Advice: Motivation, Inspiration, and Creative Writing Tips for Aspiring Authors, head on over to www.kevintjohns.com. There should be a popup. There’s also a tab at the top that says, free book. Drop your email address into the form there, get on my mailing list, and I’ll send you a free copy of that book for authors. Don’t forget to also hit subscribe on your podcast, catcher of Choice. I believe that’s what they’re called, right Pod catchers. Whether you’re listening to this on iTunes or something else, hit subscribe so that I can see you on the next episode of The Writing Coach.
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