Not finishing can become a habit, and it's a hard habit to break. There will always be a part of your brain that wants to give up when things get tough.
Don’t give it any extra leverage by making surrender an option.
When something’s just not working out, you think: “This story/novel/whatever stinks. Why waste any more time?” But if you do that consistently, after a few years, you’ll have written 100 beginnings, 40-something middles, and only 10 or so endings. Which means you’ll be much better at beginnings than at endings. Which means you’ll keep messing things up toward the end, which means you’ll keep giving up . . . rinse and repeat.
And that’s a cycle you don’t want to fall into.
So maybe you won't get to the end of your novel by the end of November, but finish it anyway.
It's good practice.
Scott Westerfeld has written three sets of books for young adults, including the Midnighters series and the Uglies series.
