The power of finishing

As we near the start of 2025, I’m coming to two major endings in my writing career. I’m about to relaunch the prequel and final book in my Woven series (On December 7th). And, I’m working on the very last Station 86 book.

It’s going to be a while before I finish it. I’m still rough drafting it, and will probably be until at least January. But when it’s done, the series is done. And I’ve been writing this series for close to a decade.

Finishing a project this large is something else. I’m not even sure what kind of writer I am if I’m not writing Station 86. I’m not sure what I’ll do.

Actually, that’s a lie. I have another novel I’ve been working on for a few years and an idea for at least one other book. Don’t worry, I’m not shutting up or shutting down anytime soon.

As much as I’ll be sad to finish Station 86, it’s really for the best. Not just because the story has come to a satisfactory ending. But because it’s best for me, as a writer, to finish it.

Here’s why.

The endorphins

When I get to the point where I’m hitting publish on the presale for the current book, I cannot tell you what that’s going to feel like. The endorphin rush is always good, this one is going to be amazing! Why do I know that? It was amazing when I got to the first launch day for Falling From Grace, and it was amazing when I set up the presale this time too.

Finishing a project is the best. It feels so good. I feel so proud of myself. I kind of just want to run around and show everyone who even kind of knows me. The satisfaction, and even the relief that I made it this far. It is unsurpassed.

You prove you can do it

This speaks to the relief aspect I was talking about in the last paragraph. I’m not talking about proving that you can finish a project to anyone else. Not your mom, your eighth-grade English teacher, your judgemental coworker, or weird friend who loves to point out when you’ve failed. Stop being friends with them.

No, you need to prove to yourself that you can finish a project. And I speak from experience. When I wrote Broken Patterns, it was after years and years of starting novels and never finishing them. Getting distracted, getting too busy, getting bored with the story, getting discouraged. Basically, getting to a point where I didn’t believe I could do it, so I didn’t. This was a barrier that I needed desperately to break before I was going anywhere.

You’ve learned about every stage of writing

Writing a rough draft will not teach you how to rewrite. Only rewriting will teach you that. Rewriting a novel will not teach you how to do line edits or polishes. Only doing line edits and polishes will teach you that.

Spoiler, reading about doing those things won’t teach you much either. I mean, if you have no idea where to begin then reading about it will give you a starting point. But, like with most things, you learn by doing.

Getting a project from rough draft to completion will teach you every point of writing. More importantly, it will teach you how you process every point of writing. Writing is an art, not a science. How I revise my books will look different than how any other author does it. How you do it will look different too. You need to learn how your brain works during these different steps in the novel writing process. And you only learn that by, you guessed it, doing it.

You get to write something else

Please don’t get me wrong. I loved writing Woven. And I love writing Station 86. But I want to write other things. I have other stories within me. And I have faith that other stories will come to me.

Art is ever-evolving. If artists don’t try new things, they become stagnate. There’s a reason why series that run too long start getting dull. We stop becoming artists and start becoming producers. All the passion goes out.

I don’t ever want to lose the passion I have for writing. I am an artist, I want to make art. I can’t do that if I don’t finish the art I’m currently making.

You evolve

Every new project will teach you new things. You’ll learn new ways to tell stories, new povs, and new techniques. You will become a better writer, or at least a different writer, just by the practice of telling new stories.

This is what you want, as an artist. You don’t want to hit a certain level of competency and plateau. You want to keep learning new things and growing. You want your art to evolve.

At least, I hope you do.

I know we’re still in November, but I have a suggestion for a 2025 New Year’s Goal. If you’ve never done it before, finish a project. It doesn’t need to be a whole series or a novel. It can be a short story or even a poem. But get one project either submission or publication ready. You will not believe how much that will help you grow. Because it wasn’t Broken Patterns that proved to me I could finish a project. It was writing blog posts here, on a schedule. That’s how I proved to myself that I could do what I said I was going to do. And that is the real power of finishing a project.

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Falling From Grace is available now for preorder! You can get it now on Amazon.