Why Can’t I Finish My Book: 7 Reasons You Keep Starting Over!

Writing chapter one more times than you can count has authors bonding like never before. We have all been there and we have all suffered as the grasp from our pens seem to weaken.

Maybe you’ve outlined the entire thing, even made pinterst boards for your characters, bought a special notebook and pens with fun beautiful highlighters!

Maybe you downloaded or paid for that one writing app, or your listen to podcasts every day, and you told yourself:

“This is the year I’m finally going to finish my book.”

And yet…you stop and start over! Again, and again.

Convincing yourself that the idea for the book of your dreams is simply not good enough or will never get read! You begin to wonder if becoming an author is really the move for you and after a while it’s easy to assume that the problem you have is discipline but what if that’s not true?

What if the reason you haven’t finished your book has less to do with your ability….and more to do with the fears you’re carrying?

Here are seven reasons you may keep starting over instead of moving forward.

1. You’re Waiting for the Perfect First Draft

I remember my first draft…. I wanted it to be PERFECT!!! Beautiful in every. single. way.

Compelling.

Publishable.

You want the words to sound the way they do in your head.

The problem?

First drafts are NEVER supposed to be polished. That’s why they come first and that’s why they’re called “drafts”!

They’re supposed to just be! The writers who finish books aren’t necessarily the most talented. They get the books done becuase they allow it to be messy before it’s written well.

Allowing yourself room to grow will give you the ability to finish your first draft.

2. You’re Editing While You’re Creating

You write a paragraph and then second guess it so you delete it! You go through this processes a hundred times then before you know it you’re spend four hours perfecting one paragraph.

Creation and editing require different parts of your brain and attempting to do both at the same time is like putting one foot on the breaks and another on the gas. You won’t be getting very far.

Set a timer…. and choose! Are you creating right now… or are you editing?

3. You’re Afraid It Won’t Be Good Enough

The fear of your work not being good enough in reason is a responsible fear to have. It means that you’re striving for excellence.

But underneath it often lives another fear:

“What if I give this everything I’ve got… and it’s still not enough?”

“What is absolutely no one reads my book?”

“What if all I get is one star reviews?”

So instead of risking disappointment, you never finish. You pause in attempt to perfect… but the pause ends up being so long that your unfinished book lives in your head and not on the pages.

An unfinished book can still be perfect in your imagination but a finished one cannot!

4. You’re Afraid People Will Actually Read It

We don’t talk about this enough. It’s one thing to say you want to write a book… it’s another to visulize people spending their hard earned money on it and holding your book in their hands.

What if they judge you or misunderstand what you’ve written?

Disagree with you?

What is they recognize themselves in your stories and not in a good way!?

Finishing a book means becoming visible and that can feel absolutely terrifying, but it’s fear that sometimes writes the best stories. Hold your pen with fear… type that sentence with worry. But you are the author and you control if the narrative gets written or not.

5. You Keep Comparing Yourself to Published Authors

You can’t compare your rough draft to someone published product! In my eyes that’s equal to a baby trying to become an adult within a month! Everyone is in different growing phases with their writing. Some are just beginning, some are nearly there, and others have completed their mission.

It’s easy to forget that every author you admire once stared at a blinking cursor or blank page wondering if there idea was ever going to be good enough to reach the publics eye.

Comparison doesn’t make you a better writer, it makes you a bitter writer.

And sometimes it can just flat out make you quit!

6. You Don’t Have a Sustainable Writing Rhythm

Having a rhythm is vital to completing your book. You wait for inspiration or for life to slow down then your books will rarely get written in small acts of faith! (Trust me, I know… I’m currently in a phase of realizing I can’t wait for life to slow down!)

Books are rarely written in grand bursts of motivation, they’re often written a little at a time but with consistency.

Five hundred words before work and a thousand before bed.

Twenty minutes after dinner, and just one paragraph at a time.

Consistency matters more than intensity.

7. You’re Trying to Earn Permission

This might be the hardest truth of all.

Sometimes we don’t finish the book because finishing means claiming an identity we’ve been afraid to own. Becoming an author, a storyteller, a writer!

We tell ourselves we’ll use those words later, after the contract or once someone else gives us permission but the truth is… published or un-published you already are all of those things. You became an author when you picked up your pen and crafted the book idea and maybe you became a storyteller every time you choose to return to the page after you felt like dropping it.

So… How Do You Finish The Book?

You stop waiting for fear to disappear.

You stop demanding perfection from a first draft.

You stop believing that struggling means you’re not meant to do this.

You write the messiest chapter the world has ever seen and you keep the sentence that doesn’t seem to fit right now! Why? Because you will return after that long break you took and you will begin again without making yourself the villain of your story.

Because finishing a book isn’t about proving that you’re talented.

It’s about deciding that your voice, your message, and your creative idea matters enough to continue.

What Next??

If you’ve been sitting on a half-finished manuscript for months…or years…I want you to know this:

You are not behind.

You are not failing.

You are not the only writer who has wondered whether they have what it takes, and the question isn’t whether fear will show up or not, because it will!

The question is whether you’ll let fear decide how your story ends.

Open the document. Write the next sentence.

It doesn’t have to be perfect.

It just has to be written.

That is how you will write your book.

If you would like help, a cheerleader along the way… I would love to help you! You can book your consultation with me via my website www.mikahwonders.com/services or shoot me a direct text message to schedule your trial writing session 385-484-8266