In this episode of The Writing Coach podcast, writing coach Kevin T. Johns discusses the habit writers have of wanting to jump to a new project and provides advice about the right time to do it.
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The Writing Coach Episode #167 Show Notes
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The Writing Coach Episode #167 Transcript
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Hello, beloved listeners, and welcome back to The Writing Coach podcast. It is your host, as always, writing coach Kevin T. Johns here.
If you have not yet joined the Always Writing Facebook group, click here and my Facebook community for writers.
Now one of the reasons I’m mentioning Always Writing is that today’s topic was inspired by a question asked in the group by Ali ShawMoorhead. Ali, if you’re listening to this episode, shout out to you.
I’m not going to directly answer Ali’s question, but what she asked is something that gets asked to writing coaches like myself all the time by lots of different writers, so I’m going to answer it in general. I’ll paraphrase Ali’s question, which was basically, “I’ve been working on a book for a couple of years. I think I might have a better idea. Should I jump ship to this better idea?”
This is something that comes up during the drafting of almost every book that a first-time author is working on. You’re working on a book, and at some point along the way, you say, “Hmm, should I give up on this and try something different?”
Now the answer to the question—should you do that, should you jump ship and move from one project to another—is completely dependent on who you are as an author and what your goals are with your writing.
Do you want to be a professional author? Do you want to publish your work? Do you want to approach you’re writing as a potential income stream? Well, that’s one way to go about your writing, and you’re going to make certain decisions based on those goals.
If writing is a hobby to you, if writing is something you do for fun, or for yourself, then you’re going to have a different set of goals, and you’re going make different decisions. Do you want to publish a book? Or do you just want to play around with a manuscript and have fun being creative?
I’m going to answer this question based on the assumption that the folks listening to this podcast do at some point want to publish their material. They want to become a professional author at some point. Now, to answer the question, let’s first ask ourselves, why do people want to jump ship in the first place?
Why might an author want to give up on a book and move to a different project or pause one project and move to another? The reason is almost always that the person feels like something isn’t working in the current manuscript, and they think that a different book is more likely to be successful. But the problem is that the people acting on this feeling and making these decisions are sometimes midway through a first draft or a second draft. Writing a book is hard, and it takes many drafts to get it right. So if you’re 75% of the way through a first draft, and you’re thinking to yourself, “Man, I’m just not sure if this book is working or not,” it probably isn’t working. It’s a first draft! A first draft is about getting ideas out of your head onto the page so that we know what we have to work with so that we can start improving it and making it better. It’s through revisions that a book gets good.
If you’re in a first draft, or a second draft, or even a third draft, and you’re saying, “Oh, I just don’t think this book works, maybe I should try something else,” well, it doesn’t work because you haven’t put enough work into it yet. You haven’t done the revisions necessary. To get a book done, I often give people the number 10 drafts; you probably want to anticipate doing 10 drafts of your manuscript.
I was watching a video recently by Alex Hormozo, who is an entrepreneur and kind of does these business advice videos on YouTube, and he was saying that for the last year, his focus has been on his next book. What he’s been getting up at five in the morning and getting to work at six in the morning every day. And then from six until noon, every day, Monday to Friday, he works on his book. He works six hours a day on his book, and during this video, I was watching, he was saying, “Oh, yeah, I’m on draft 15 right now.” That’s what it takes. This guy is working six hours a day on his book, and he’s on draft 15, and I’m super confident its going be a great hit book because he’s willing to put in the effort, he’s willing to do the 15 drafts it might take to write an incredible book.
Another reason people often give up on a manuscript is that once you do get six drafts in, or seven drafts in, or 10 drops in, it stops being fun. It does.
Have you ever been a collector of something? When you first discover this thing, you’re so excited about it, you get this endorphin rush having it or seeing it, and you start pursuing other things, other collectibles to add to your collection, and you get this excitement from it. Then one day, maybe it’s a few months, and maybe it’s years, but eventually, at some point, you lose the excitement for that thing that you were collecting that you were so excited about.
It’s because of the hormone rush, that endorphin rush that you get from experiencing something new and exciting, eventually fades with time. And yeah, when you’re on draft 10 of a book, that endorphin rush isn’t there anymore. When people say, “Oh, well, this other idea seems so much more exciting, so much better,” it’s just because it’s giving them that endorphin rush that they’re after. It’s like that new collectible, after you finally got tired of the old collectible, and so now you want to jump ship. But you’re not actually pursuing success or long term goals; you’re pursuing the short term endorphin rush of trying something new.
Here’s the problem: there’s millions of people out there with a bunch of half-written manuscripts. Go on any writing group on Facebook, and there’s going to be people saying, “Oh, yeah, I’ve never published anything. But you know, I have three books on the go, right now.”
Anyone can write a part of a book, and anyone can write a first or second draft of a book, but there’s a heck of a lot fewer people out there who have stuck with it to the end, and then finished and published a book.
I really think that process of seeing a manuscript through to the end—and by the end I don’t just mean locking down the manuscript. I mean, actually hitting publish and finding out what it’s like to be an author and to publish a book and try to sell it—is its own experience that is completely worth going through.
If you’re going to write one or two drafts of a manuscript, and then give up and move to another book and write one or two drafts of that manuscripts, all you’re learning how to write a first or second draft of a book, and you’re learning it again and again. But a book takes many steps. And if you stick with a manuscript, you’re going to learn what it’s like to write a fifth draft, you’re going to learn what it’s like to write a seventh draft, you’re going learn eventually what it’s like to work with copy editors or with proofreaders, you’re going learn what it’s like to get feedback from beta readers, you’re going to learn what it’s like to be turned down by agents, or to negotiate a contract with publishers, you’re going learn what it’s like to market a book or to be interviewed about your career as an author.
None of those things happen if you don’t finish a book.
If you are just going to jump to a new manuscript, there are so many phases in the project that you’re not only not going to get to experience and learn about, you’re not even going to know they exist.
In my group coaching program, Final Draft—that’s my program for folks who graduate from First Draft and are looking to revise their manuscript through to completion—I have a course on how to publish and launch an independent book, a self-publishing course, essentially. That course has 19 videos. That’s 19 different steps that you’re going to take along the way to getting a book published via Amazon self-publishing.
So many writers think writing a first draft or the second draft is nearly done the process. No, you are just beginning the process! And then once the book is locked down, there are still 19 more steps to take to get that book out into the world, and probably 19 more to learn how to sell it and have fun marketing it.
I really think it’s worth it as a life experience as well as a part of your education as an author to actually see something through to completion and get it out into the world.
Now I do know some people believe that they are creatively inspired by jumping between projects. This isn’t necessarily giving up on one project, but it’s juggling multiple projects because they feel like they get an energy rush from going from one project to another.
The reality is in this world, we’re already forced to multitask all of the time. If you have a phone anywhere near you right now, you’re multitasking because you’re listening to this podcast, but you’re also probably monitoring your email inbox, your Twitter feed, and whatever else your smartphone is alerting you to.
We’re always multitasking, and time and time again, studies show that multitasking results in lower productivity and a worse quality of work. There is a huge sacrifice made when you multitask when you move from one project to another.
There’s a great book called Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. I highly encourage you to check it out. It’s about the efficiency and effectiveness and the really great work we can do by rejecting multitasking, by rejecting distraction, and really focusing in on the work that is most important to us and what we want to achieve.
Now, some people say, “Oh, but I’m just I’m inspired by doing two things at the same time. And hey, if it takes twice as long, that’s all right by me.” The assumption being if you’re writing two books at the same time, it’s going to take twice as long. But research has shown it doesn’t take twice as long to write two books at the same time. Instead, it takes four times as long. There is a cost to be paid by constantly switching your attention between projects.
There is a huge sacrifice of time and energy and productivity by trying to juggle a whole bunch of balls in the air at once. Something else you’re sacrificing is the flow state that we’re able to get into when we’re deeply focused on a project and a certain piece of work.
We’ve all seen sports games where athletes somehow just get in the zone and just light it up. They’re hitting home runs, or they’re scoring baskets, or they’re scoring goals. They have these incredible games, and it’s like “What happened that game? How were they able to do that?” What happened was, they got into a flow state. They were so focused on what they needed to do that their body and their instincts and their subconscious and all of these things started taking over. We get into a flow state through focused attention, not by multitasking and not by jumping between projects.
Now something I see people say is that they’re not giving up on a manuscript, and they’re also not trying to juggle multiple manuscripts. What they’re doing is just “putting a project on hold for a while.” And they say, “I’m three drafts in, and I’m going put this book on hold. I’m going to go work on something else for a while, and then I’ll come back to it.”
Well, the thing I’ve seen is that it’s hugely unlikely that you will return to it, and even if you do return to it, it’s going to be a huge challenge to do.
Writing is not like riding a bike. You could not ride a bike, say, for a decade, get on the bike and do a half-decent job riding it. Your instincts remember how to do it. But writing a book, it’s much more like going to the gym If you go to the gym regularly, and it becomes a habit and your body’s used to it, it’s no big deal. But if you miss a couple sessions at the gym, if you take a month off, if you take six months off, you’re back to square one. You’re not hopping on that bike; you are dragging yourself into that gym, and it’s a long journey back up the hill to get back to where you were. So even if you do return, it’s going to be a slog.
I think of Bob Dylan who has a song where the lyrics say, “She’s got everything she needs. She’s an artist, she don’t look back.” And there’s also a documentary about Bob Dylan called Don’t Look Back. And I think we can see that in Bob Dylan’s career he was always pushing forward. He never wanted to do the same thing over again. Even when he’s playing his hits, he’s changing them. He’s making them different. He doesn’t want to look back, and I think most artists, at least myself, feel that way. You do something, you learn, and you grow, and you want to try something different. You want to try something new. You want to continue to expand your horizon
So if you put a manuscript on hold, go do another book, don’t kid yourself that you’re going to come back to this one. You are going to be a different person, you’re going to be a different artist. If you do finish this next book, it’s very unlikely you’re ever going to return to this one. Anytime you’re putting a project on hold, don’t kid yourself by saying, “I’m going to definitely come back to this.” Instead, know that you probably aren’t going to come back to it. And if you do, it’s going to be rather hard.
When might be a time when I would recommend putting a project on hold or trying to juggle multiple projects?
Well, in my Final Draft program is an excellent author named Helen Pilz. She has already published several books with publishers, but the current manuscript she’s working on, she wants to independently publish.
Last fall, she decided she wanted to write a sweet love story for Christmas and self-publish this little novella right before Christmas. And she asked me, “Do you think that’s a good idea?” I thought about it, and there was going to be a short-term sacrifice. I knew she wasn’t going to have the same level of energy, or attention, or time to work on her current manuscript. But I also knew that what she was going to learn from writing, drafting, editing, and then ultimately, self-publishing that novella was going to be worth the sacrifice to the overall project.
And so she was working under a very specific timeline. I think she had about two and a half months, maybe three months, to get that project done. And in that case, I said, “Hey, yeah, we can lose three months on the big project on the book, so that you can do this little short-term project that you’re going to gain a ton of experience and wisdom and knowledge on.”
And so there’s an example of where I would say, “Hey, yeah, it is okay to put your big project on hold momentarily,” but it’s very specific about why I was recommending Helen do that, and why Helen was willing to do it. And it had to do with experience, and it had to do with very short and defined deadlines. Helen was not doing one of these, “Oh, maybe I’ll come back to the manuscript.” No, she was saying, “I’m going to have to decrease the amount of time I work on this manuscript for a little while so that I can gain the experience of going through the self-publishing process with this novella.”
Going back to where we started, every writer is different, and every project is different. We all have different goals in what we’re trying to achieve with our writing.
But at the end of the day, when people come to me and say, “Should I give up on this book?” my answer is almost never “Yes.”
I really do believe that seeing a book through to completion, and even knowing that it’s not going to be amazing, or it’s not going to be perfect, or it’s not going to be a best seller—just because a book is not going to be on the New York Times top 10 best selling books, doesn’t mean it’s not a process worth going through and not a learning from experience—you’re going to infinitely gain from it as a writer,
When you realize that there are 50 steps to getting a book written and published, you’re a heck of a lot less precious about step one. Or step two. You don’t spend three months revising the first draft of scene three in your manuscript when you’ve been on the full journey, and you understand what it’s really like to publish a book.
And so right now, if you’re listening to this, if those endorphins aren’t there anymore, or if you’re second-guessing yourself, my advice would be that stick with it. Get the thing done. Understand, acknowledge, and accept that it’s probably never going to be perfect. But the process of finishing it and publishing it is going to be so beneficial for you as a writer, as a potential professional author, and as a person. Get yourself into that group of people who have finished and published a book instead of waiting around in that group of people who have almost written a book and who have written the first or second draft of three different books but have never published anything.
If you want some help getting through the process of getting a first draft of your book done, if you are finding it difficult to get it done in a contained period of time, I’d encourage you to head to check out First Draft.
First Draft is my group coaching program where we are dedicated to getting a first draft of your book written in a fun and focused manner. We have coaching, we have courses, we have a community, and it’s an incredible place to learn the craft of writing and to get a first draft of a project written.
That’s it for this episode. Thank you again to Ali for asking the great question in the Always Writing Facebook group. It’s a question I’ve heard so many times, and I’m thankful to have the opportunity to give my take on the answer to that question in today’s episode.
Thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button so that I can see you on the next episode of The Writing Coach.
