How to Finally Finish Writing Your Novel 

Steve Cummins always dreamed of writing a novel. He began his writing journey at the age of 22. But, like many writers, Steve found that he just couldn’t finish a manuscript. 

Life got in the way. Before he knew it, over twenty years had passed, but he still had not completed his novel. 

As he looked over his pages, about a decade later, Steve felt frustrated with how long it was taking him to finish his novel. His friends and family all thought that he was never going to publish anything. Though his parents knew that he had dreams of being an author, they told Steve that they would die before seeing him fulfill his dream. 

Hearing his parents’ words added extra pressure on Steve to finish his novel. He tried, once again, to set aside time in his life to dedicate to his writing. He even sought out an editor to help him with his work. 

All his efforts still weren’t enough. 

After the many years he’s spent trying–and failing–to finish his book, he began to dread writing the story he had once loved so much. 

As he woke up every day with no will to write, his confidence continued to drop until he had to accept that perhaps publishing a book in this lifetime was impossible after all. 

Then I met Steve at a publishing class I taught at a Colorado library. He got on a call with me and shared his journey up until this point: his frustrations, sense of loss, and ultimate fear that he would never get this novel written. 

After hearing Steve’s story and his heartbreak over not being able to live his author dream, I invited Steve to join the Writing Gym and he accepted my invitation.

At the Writing Gym, Steve immediately began to experience massive progress on the same novel he had struggled to finish for two decades. Having fallen in love with writing again, Steve finally started to commit to his novel. 

The Writing Gym gave Steve the right kind of support, allowing him to develop accountability toward his writing and giving him new sources of inspiration. We helped Steve establish a set routine that allowed his writing to progress steadily. Steve churned out page after page as he felt his confidence grow and creativity flow.

Besides setting–and meeting–his personal writing goals, Steve also found a new supportive writing community.  

As an extrovert, writing had been a lonely endeavor for him. At the Writing Gym, he found a supportive community of like-minded writers to share highs and lows along his writing journey. 

A lot of writers who go through the Writing Gym come to a point where they realize, ‘Actually, maybe there’s my little Achilles heel.’ and we can all be honest about that and say, ‘We’ve all got them.’

Now, Steve has completely written his novel. After spinning his wheels for two decades, he was able to receive the support and guidance to achieve his writing goals in two months. 

If it weren’t for the Writing Gym, Steve said it would’ve taken him eight years–instead of eight weeks–to complete his novel.

The biggest change is rediscovering the fun of writing, along with believing that ‘yes, I can finish a novel.’ That it’s not just some dream I gave up on years ago.The Writing Gym has helped me to believe that finishing a novel is a dream I can actually realize. It’s just truly so exciting.

If you have been spinning your wheels on how to finish a novel and you are finally ready to take your writing dream seriously, the Writing Gym may be the right place for you. I’ve opened time in my calendar this week to talk with you about where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there. 

How to Find Your Best Writer 

Maria Chapman described herself as a normal everyday woman–until she turned 35 and developed a neuromuscular disease, an event which ended her career and essentially took away her hobbies. 

However, Maria took her own experiences and created a novel that gives a voice to people who aren’t necessarily and accurately represented in fiction: people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. 

Although she had inspiration and motivation to finish her novel, she still struggled to write consistently. Outlining was something that had always been difficult for her, but she was under the impression that outlining is part of a “good” writer’s process. 

Frustration, however, caught up to her. She stuck with outlining without realizing that she was fighting her own instincts. Her futile efforts to fit a certain mold of what a writer should be ultimately overshadowed her inspiration to create stories of people like her for people like her. Her dream of sharing her message to the world seemed like a far fetched dream. Publishing her first book seemed impossibly far away.

Because Maria made such little progress in her writing, she came to the difficult decision of dropping her novel. 

When she heard me speak at a writer’s conference, she had a sudden realization: outlining was not for her. She was, instead, a pantser–a writer who writes “by the seat of their pants” instead of using an outline. 

Maria reached out to me and after our chat, she accepted my invitation to join the Writing Gym. 

When we started working together, she realized that structuring her writing upfront leads her to create a lackluster product. Fighting her instincts with structure felt restraining. She was so caught up in the mixed messages she was getting about what a “good” writer should be that she couldn’t find her best writer. At the Writing Gym, she found her own method–one that doesn’t compromise her instincts.   

The book that I wrote is, in my mind, part of a 3-book series. I already know where books two and three are going, but I’m not worried about sitting down and plotting them out. Because all I know is that when it comes time to write, I’ll just sit down and write. I’ve gotten to a point where I can just sit at the doctor’s office waiting room, I can write 500 words. I think it’s because I’m always in this state of flow and I don’t have to work too much to get there at this point. It was really something I had to work towards when I just started at the Writing Gym.

Rather than forcing her to outline from start to finish, we helped her develop her natural instincts and unique skills as a pantser until she felt comfortable in her own process. While our writing professionals had a major role in Maria’s progress, our very own community of writers (with a few who are fellow pantsers) have also encouraged her to trust her inner voice. 

In fact, from just one particular writing salon in the Writing Gym at our program, she discovered her unique method of writing: “There was a certain feeling that I wanted to get to. So, I wrote the last line first. And filled in everything else.” 

From this one salon, Maria found the whole structure of her novel. She spent a week writing the last scene and filled in everything else in between. During this process, she was able to see major plot holes and the flow of her storyline.

For her, finding her own writing method has been the most rewarding part of her time in the Writing Gym. She finished her novel, a women’s fiction featuring a disabled female protagonist. 

She sees her time with us as an investment in her writing career and she creates a powerful distinction between spending and investing:

Since I’ve started the Writing Gym, I started to write more, faster, and better quality. And because I’m able to do those three things, I’m able to produce more content, so I’m making more money. It’s not money that you’re spending. It’s money that you’re investing. The stuff stays with you. It’s not like I just spent the money and it’s gone. I invested the money on skills that I needed to be better at the work that I’m doing. As long as my brain is still functional, this investment is still working for me.

At the Writing Gym, we don’t force you to fit a certain mold. We help you to discover your best writer–to write with your brain rather than against it.

If you are ready to seriously invest in yourself, to find your own writing method, to live that author lifestyle, the Writing Gym may be the right fit for you. I’ve opened some time over the next couple of weeks to talk with writers who are serious about their craft. You can book yourself directly into my calendar, and we hop on a call to talk about where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there. 

How to Finish Writing Your Novel in Seven Weeks 

Hannah Johnson always dreamed of finishing a novel and had tried time and time again.

Despite being enrolled in writing courses, she felt like her novel was getting nowhere. She was getting mixed feedback and, sometimes, unnecessary feedback. Instead of helping, her writing courses left her all the more lost and confused. 

Frustrated by her lack of progress, of those many hours spent writing without anything to show, she felt like she would never fulfill her dream. 

Hannah began to feel like a failure for not meeting her goal–until she decided that it was time to get help. 

She reached out to me after reading my book, Storytelling for Pantsers: How to Write and Revise Your Novel. During our chat, I invited her to join the Writing Gym VIP Program and she accepted my invitation. 

At the Writing Gym, we gave her the steps, the tools, and the guidance that she needed to complete a novel. For the first time, she began meeting her writing goals.

Now, she is receiving high-quality feedback both. Now, she has inside access to the perspectives of literary agents, publishers, and editors with whom I meet daily. 

Not long after accepting my invitation to join the Writing Gym, Hannah began to realize that the Writing Gym was not only going to help her finish her book, but publish it, too–a goal that used to seem impossibly far away. 

This novel that I finished in the Writing Gym is the very first piece of writing that I was proud of, partly because I finished it in a short amount of time. Knowing my strengths increased my confidence in my writing. 

In the end, Hannah did not finish her novel in eight weeks as most of our authors do. 

She finished writing her 100,000 word novel in seven weeks. 

That is no small feat. Her genre, epic fantasy, has the longest word count in the industry: 120,000 on average. To finish such a book in seven weeks is incredible. 

Not only that, Hannah’s short story made the final cut for Written Tales Magazine Volume 3: Tis the Season. Her short story is the first of her works that has been officially published. 

Here is what Hannah has to say about her time in the Writing Gym:

If you’re interested in becoming a published author, the Writing Gym is definitely the right path. Annalisa talks to publishers, agents, and editors and she can get you an early start–get your manuscript on the top of the pile that agents get from many authors. It’s also been a great experience because not only do you improve as a writer alone, you also improve with the community. You work together and help improve each other and learn from each other. 

If you are serious about finishing your book and putting in the work but need the right kind of feedback to fully realize your writing goals, the Writing Gym may be the right place for you. I’ve opened time in my calendar this week to talk with you about where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there. 

Transformation vs. Information 

Are you lost down the google rabbit hole?

I see so many writers search the internet for answers to their writing problems. 

It’s great to have the impulse to be resourceful, to be looking for answers yourself. After all, we do want to be creating top quality novels. The impulse is good, but it’s misdirected.

Why? 

Writing a quality novel, getting a publishing contract, building an author career is not entirely about getting all the information. It’s about transformation. 

Information is useful; we need it to reach our writing goals, to finish and publish our novel, and to build that author career. But we need to know how and when to use all this information. 

“When should a character be round? When should they be flat? Is it ok that he’s dynamic?”

“Should this happen before that? Does this plot point make sense?”

You’re not going to find the answers to your questions by searching online, by reading a book about writing, or by attending a lecture or a writing workshop. 

In order to have a transformation–to take the information to transform your author career–you need quality feedback. This is the type of feedback that is customized to you: who you are as a writer, how your brain works, what your novel is about, what your intentions are for that novel, what your intentions are for building out your writing career. 

I recently had a great conversation with one of our writers in the Writing Gym. She had brought me her novel without knowing that it had three novels’ worth of content. She needed the feedback in order to see how much content she was trying to fit into one novel. Now, we’ve built out a fabulous plan to transform her novel into not just a trilogy, but into five books. 

The internet will not tell you how to write a trilogy, nor is it capable of telling you when it is necessary to break up your book into different parts. 

Cookie cutter solutions, one-size-fits-all solutions will not help you. These types of solutions tell you the same thing, no matter who you are or what kind of novel you are writing. What you need is good feedback and a customized plan. 

If you are ready to stop churning around in that information wheel and you’re ready to get that real transformation from a customized plan just for you and your writing goals, I’d love to chat with you. I’ve opened up some time in my calendar in the next week or so to chat.  

What Does it Take to Write a Novel? 

Writers often ask me this same question whenever I’m speaking at writing conferences all around the world:

“What do you really need to write a novel?” 

Or, conversely, they say: “I’ve always wanted to write a novel. It’s always been a dream of mine but it’s so hard to do because of X, Y, and Z.” 

Writers always have lots and lots of reasons why their novel isn’t finished yet. While it is true that writing a novel can be difficult, writers sometimes over-complicate the process. However, this is not entirely the writers’ fault. 

Writers are surrounded by the billion dollar writing industry and they often get tricked into spending a lot of money on workshops and conferences that promise to solve their problems, but never do. 

I often see representatives of writing conferences tell writers about what it takes to write a good novel. They could be telling these writers some actual important things, but their methods almost always include some scare tactics and overemphasis on one specific thing. 

Why? 

Because writing conferences like these want writers to keep coming back; they want writers to sign up for their course on A. When you finish this course, they tell you that you need to take a course on B. It goes on and on and on.

They take money from you, maybe $100, $300, even $1000 at a time because they keep telling you that your novel has problems. 

By the end of this cycle, you still don’t have any answers to your questions. You’re not really clear about what A is and why you need it in the first place. You don’t know where B goes or how it even applies to your novel. By the end of it, you will be left with confusion even when you’ve already spent hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Then, you give up writing a novel. 

I have seen this time and time and time again. 

 At the end of the day, writers need one thing: a story that people want to read. 

I hear this same concept from industry professionals–editors, publishers, literary agents. You need to have a story that people would want to read in order to have a quality novel. If people want to read your story, you will land a publishing contract, publish your novel, and gain fans.

How do you write a successful novel? You need to stop thinking about A or B or anything those one-off courses tell you to do.

What you need is a successful program that will take you through the steps to publish, give you an individualized plan based on the kind of novel you want to write, who you are as a person and as a writer, and your future writing career goals. 

If you want to stop throwing away your money and you’re ready for a real solution to finish that novel, to have a story that people will read, I’d love to chat with you. I’ve opened up some time this week and next to talk with writers who are serious about living the author lifestyle and finishing that novel once and for all. 

The Author Lifestyle: Fantasy vs. Reality 

Have you ever wondered–with so many struggling writers out there–how authors actually get published? 

Most people think that because they’ve been writing since they were young, it should be easy to write a book, to get it published, or to be a bestselling author. Although we all started writing in the first grade, the path to becoming an author isn’t always an easy, straightforward path. In fact, it rarely is. 

I was talking with one of the writers over at the Writing Gym about the way that the author career is perceived and how it is portrayed in many films and movies. Someone sits down in front of a typewriter or keyboard, and they quickly bang something out. Their book gets published and then they’re on a book tour, on national TV, and they’re “rolling in the dough.”

We would all love to live that fantasy but it is, in fact, only a fantasy. It happens to maybe one author in a trillion. It is the anomaly in the industry. 

So, how does becoming an author really happen? Becoming an author is a career. Even though we’ve all been writing since we were young, writing and publishing a novel that the publishing industry would be interested in is a very different endeavor.

Therefore, we have to train for authorship and authorhood as the profession that it is. This idea makes sense because, before many of you have gone to your profession of choice you needed some kind of training. 

The same is true for becoming an author. The training to become an author requires the investment of time and of resources. Most importantly, it requires finding the right kind of training, so that you can make author your career. 

In terms of programs to become an author we don’t have as much readily available information as, for example, colleges do. 

What can you look for in order to find a program that’s going to get you from where you are right now to where you want to go–to living the author lifestyle

You want to look for results. 

Does the program get you the results that you’re looking for?

Our writers from the Writing Gym have become Authors. Everyday, they post their celebrations on our facebook group Write to Publish and Sell Your Novel. They post their results, about what is happening to them as they grow into the author lifestyle.

As you scroll down the page, you will see authors who

• have finished their novels and short stories with confidence
• have published multiple times
• have been featured in anthologies
• are going on book tours and speaking to other writers about their own author journey
• have their own book signings
• are getting film deals
• are signing foreign language rights for their novels and getting multinational deals. All of these things are happening. It’s phenomenal. 

The results in the Writing Gym speak for themselves. 

If these are the kind of results that you’re looking for, if this is the author lifestyle that you want to live, if you’re ready to make this investment in yourself, let’s chat about how you can get there too. You can book yourself directly into my calendar. We can spend about an hour talking about where you are, where you’d like to go, and how you can get there.