We lie about our writing. Most of us do, with the best intentions, to make up the stories about how much we're working on our books. It becomes a story that a writer tells when they say “I'm working on my novel.” If you're working on a book, and writing too little, it's time to enter Finishing School.
The concept is at the heart of a book by Danelle Morton and Cary Tennis. Their book Finishing School
Not everyone feels all of them, but these are the reasons why we do not finish our work. Get a few writers together and their eyes brighten when they can be honest about pitfalls. “I'll never be as good as Hemingway,” (Doubt) or “I never finish anything.” (Shame). Or “I get annoyed by writers' groups, those losers.” That's Arrogance, which is probably not your problem since you're reading an article on being a winning writer.
We struggle separately, alone with the pitfalls. There's a way out and a way up, say Morton and Tennis. You learn to finish together, without judgment or even reading each others' work. You make a schedule for one week, getting specific about what you'll do. Details help. Then find a partner who does the same. You meet in a group over Zoom because it's person-to-person work. You promise to text or email a Finishing Buddy the moment you begin working. The class meets seven days later and share how your plan worked. Or how it didn't, but you're honest now. You plan again, meet again. We become masters of Finishing because, as Cary says, “Finishing School throws into relief the conditions of our actual lives.”
We start with overly ambitious plans. We begin with little awareness of our hurdles. It feels so good at first. Later, the writing plan haunts us when we fall short. Better to make room for your real life, foresee the hurdles, plan for them. Cary and I have one thing in common. It's not that we're both successful advice columnists; that was Cary, at Salon. We both got our training in the Amherst Writers & Artists practice.
“I needed Finishing School for myself,” he says in his book, adding, “I had a panic attack while writing and ended up in the hospital.” Tennis built Finishing School from his AWA training so “workshop participants would crystallize their time; schedule time to work toward it with mutual support; and work steadily to get that writing finished, polished, and published.” There's also accountability without judgment when attending the school. We don't read one another's work/ It's all about the creative writing process.
It's a school you'd hope to see opened by a man who wrote advice from the heart at Salon for more than a decade. We can enter it with a group as small as two writers, artists of any kind, really. The book is powerful, the process transforming. Finishing School might not be the last school you attend. It's a good bet it will be the most important one.
Your registration includes a copy of Cary and Danelle's book.
