by Patricia Gilliam

Created on: December 03, 2010

Writing a novel can be one of the most fun and rewarding projects you can do in your life, but constructing and finishing one can also be a challenge.  Using the analogy of building a house, you need to take an honest look at your novel's current condition before you proceed with an approach on how to finish it.  While there may not be one correct answer to the issue, here are some common problems and possible solutions to help you:

1)  Know Why You Want to Finish Your Book

When things get tough, you're going to need some reason to continue and to remind yourself of why you're doing what you're doing.  Make this personal and meaningful, and you'll take away your excuses to procrastinate.

2)  Make Sure Your Foundation is Solid

If you began writing with little to no foundation (character and setting development, plot planning, background research, etc.), don't be surprised if later your book feels like it's stuck in the mud with no place to go.  While you may not need to scrap everything you've written up until this point, taking a few steps back to see the bigger picture may help.  Knowing your characters and setting well can help drive your story forward with a lot less effort, and the experience of writing becomes more fun.

3)  Have a Blueprint

If someone tries to build a house without an overall plan, the end results aren't going to be pretty.  It's no different writing a book.  If you're going to be putting hours of your life into creating anything big, don't do it aimlessly.  While you may not always be sure on the fine details of your plot ahead of time, it's helpful to at least know the major checkpoints (including the ending).  This way when you're writing, you're writing toward a goal as opposed to just hoping you'll end up in the right place.

4)  Divide the Project Into Smaller Stages

According to how your novel is structured, you can break it down into smaller sets of scenes and later individual chapters.  This makes things easier to manage, and you're not overwhelmed on a day-to-day basis.

5)  Create Accountability Based on Your Personality Type

If you're achievement driven, you may need to decide a specific deadline to finish your novel to get yourself motivated.  Otherwise, the project will just remain in the "Someday I'll..." category...where the chances of it ever happening are at best a lot slimmer.  Other writers have better success being accountable to other

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