Always Beginning, Never Ending

Any time I've been asked to give a keynote address or inspiration talk or been asked for my advice to beginning writers, I've always said the same thing. 

Finish the book. 

So many aspiring novelists get a great idea and start writing. A few chapters in, they get bored or bogged down. Maybe they fall out of love with the idea and come up with a better one. They put the project aside and start a new one. A few chapters later, they encounter the same roadblock to completion. 

These aspiring novelists can have several partials sitting on their computer, but they never reach THE END. And guess what. If you don't have a completed manuscript, even a crappy one, you have nothing to polish and nothing to submit to an agent or editor. 

Hence, FINISH THE BOOK.

Now, eleven published novels in, I've encountered the other side of the coin. As a proven author, all I need these days is a proposal. Three chapters, a synopsis, and a marketing plan. 

For my first couple of proposals, I thought the synopsis was the hard part. And it is! But as the rejections roll in, I'm now expected to create another proposal. No, don't finish that last book. Start a new one. 

What the heck?

After investing months of research and plotting...after getting to know my new characters and hearing them in my head in the wee hours, I now have to put them on hold for goodness only knows how long and start over.

Yes, I know. I can write and self-publish it. A smaller press may want it. But FOR NOW, I've put the story and the characters on the back burner.

I've plotted out yet another story. Created histories for a new set of characters. This week, I started with Chapter One yet again. I love my new protagonist and can't wait to get to know her better. But all I need right now are three chapters and a synopsis.

What I want is to FINISH THE BOOK.