Continuing to Learn, While Trying to Finish

If you've followed along since January, you know what I've been trying to do this year.  If you haven't, no worries.  I decided to start writing more and take things more seriously this year...And more seriously means actually finishing things, not just starting them!

I began with two projects, eventually scrapping one when I realized that two things going at the same time was not worth the trouble at this point in my writing.  I really hadn't planned either project.  I just started writing when an idea hit me.  The trouble is, that's the same thing I had done over and over again, and that leads to a paragraph or two and then nothing.  This time was different though.  I would finish something, so putting the secondary project away, I plugged away at the primary.

Almost four full months into 2013, I can happily say that I'm almost finished...with a first draft anyway.  With a little luck, I'll be done in about a week. (hopefully less)  My "novel" did not turn out to be novel length however and I'm okay with that.  (close to 20,000 words so far)  So not a novel, just a story and admittedly a flawed one.  A learning experience, if you will?

So you say, what did I learn?  First and foremost is to have a plan.  Do an outline for goodness sake.  At least for me, I need it.  The pants-er experiment has been a failure for me.  I know it works for some very successful writers, but not me.  From now on, I want a plan before I start.

The second thing is to know your characters.  Know who they are, what they want and how they would act in a certain situation.  Your characters will bring your story to life if you bring them to life.  I need to work on my characters more before I can tell my story.

Third and not necessarily last, but the last thing tonight is to know your world.  Whether you're building a fantasy world or telling a story in your backyard, you need to know your world.  I don't believe you need to take as long as Tolkien to build your world, but at least put down some notes about how stuff works.  You will probably need more for a fantasy world than the real one so that you'll have something to refer back to when you have questions about things in your world.  They will come up, trust me.

The thing that is frustrating me now though, is that while I'm close to finishing, I don't know just how to end it.  I just know that it's time for it to end.  Oh well, that's a puzzle for me to figure on.  I should be on that, so I'm off to go write 'n stuff.