3 Tips to Help You Finish Writing Your Novel (For Real This Time)

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Hermit, a 2020 NaNo sponsor, is a fast, elegant, and free to use web-based writing application. Today, Alex, its founder and developer, shares three tips to (actually) help you finish your novel:

In this post, I won’t be telling you that you should use Hermit—you can try it out and decide that for yourself. I want to help you finish your project by sharing tips I regularly use when writing software.

Tip #1: Quit while you’re ahead.

The problem with creative projects is that they require a good dose of motivation and inspiration—2 things you can’t buy at a local store. A tip that worked well for me in the past is to quit and take a break whenever I’m thrilled at the amount I got done and feel like I could keep going. I know this might sound counter-intuitive, but the idea here is to make sure you pause your effort while having a positive mindset. If you stop when you’re stuck, the next time you pick it up, that’s all you’ll remember, and it’ll be extra challenging to get motivated. Remember, long projects like writing a novel or software are marathons and not sprints—you have to trick yourself into staying motivated.

Tip #2: Keep a list of to-dos and ideas.

Whenever I work towards a significant milestone, I take a piece of paper or post-it and write down the next four or five things I need to do and a list of potential ideas to investigate. The goal here is to have a list of simple things you can jump in and do whenever you have a bit of spare time. I then add more to-dos and ideas as I chip away at that list. If I accidentally do something that wasn’t on the list, I add it to the list and scratch it off right away—it keeps me motivated. I tell you, nothing makes you feel invincible as a growing list of scratched off items. Make sure there’s always a couple of simple things on that list, and you’ll fly by the finish line in no time.

Tip #3: Keep it a secret.

I’m sure this one will be quite controversial. Talking about your work in progress project to others around you should keep you accountable and motivated, right? Well, it never worked out well for me. Every time I would start talking about a project to a friend, those two things would happen: 

I would get a feeling of satisfaction and achievement. Usually, this would be good, but here I would be getting the same feeling I would get from actually completing my project. Nothing hampers motivation like that.I would create unnecessary pressure on myself to produce something perfect. The more publicly I would talk about my project, the more likely I would take forever to polish it. Keep your project to yourself, and all of a sudden, you have no expectations to live up to—it’s a fantastic feeling.

I hope those tips come in handy next month as you embark on this exciting journey. If you’re still looking for the best writing app, I invite you to give Hermit a spin. It’s free, and the premium features also are for a full year if you subscribe before the end of November.

Alex is the founder and developer of Hermit, a free to use, secure, and lightning-fast writing application for everybody who likes to write, from scribblers to aspiring authors. He’s been continuously improving it over the last 7 years and plans to continue doing so. His next goal with Hermit is to tailor the experience for different writing projects and let authors order physical copies of their work with as little effort as possible. Sign up & subscribe now to get all premium features for free for a whole year.

Top photo by Kat Stokes on Unsplash.