This September, we’ve been focusing on FINISHING WHAT WE STARTED—and I’m writing now to check in with you all. What have you been working on this month? What did you finish?
And if you’re like, what is she talking about???, you can get the highlights and a recording of our fall planning party in this post:
For me, focusing on One Thing and working on it until it’s actually done has been both clarifying and energizing. Everything takes longer than I think it will, but none of it takes infinity. And there really is such momentum in knocking out a project, especially one that’s been lingering on your to-do list for a while.
I finished my first novel (cozy mystery). I tried uploading it to Kindle as both an e-book and a paperback and got stuck. My daughter-in-law is helping me get it done for Oct 1 publication date. I have selected my cover, written all the front matter and back matter. It just needs to get pulled together by someone more skilled than I. So grateful to have her in my family. Next step: select scenes for my very first reading.
Thanks for this invitation to celebrate with us! In response to Maya Stein's Tri-Writing workshop prompts, I wrote two found poems. For fun, decided to lay them out on some watercolor backgrounds I'd made previously.
Every Day Poems is going to share them with their readers in upcoming Substack posts! It does feel good to finish something that might start a conversation with someone else.
that sounds so cool! if they're shareable, I bet other people would be interested in the prompts that worked so well for you--and you're welcome to loop back and share your poems when they're up in Every Day Poems!
Thank you, Nancy! I don't know that the prompts are shareable at this point, as the workshop is currently in progress, but thanks for offering this and for your encouragement. Raising a mug of coffee to you all!
I finished the next step in my poem collection; pulling the poems that don't need mass amounts of editing. I've been writing this collection off/on since college and I decided this is the year. I pulled in poems that had been stashed various places, writing from 1000 words of summer, etc and now I have to edit! But I'm so glad. I can't wait to see the finished stack sitting cozy on my desk by the end of the year.
Got some poem drafts much closer to finished, an application for a residency mostly ready to submit, and two submission packets ready. Super helpful to name what I was working on!
I finished getting started on my new Substack, Work(ing) in Progress! I've been avoiding and putting it off because of all the 'what if no one likes it and this idea is dumb' + 'I don't know how to market a Substack' thoughts and fears, but it's up on its feet and I'm remembering why I wanted it to exist.
woohoo! (and I love the idea of "finishing getting started," which is so real!) for what it's worth, I find those "maybe everyone will think I'm a jerk" fears are always strongest *before* I've done the thing! it sounds like getting it going has been energizing for you!
I talk a lot about "microgoals" with writers I work/connect with and how a single task is usually a bunch of smaller tasks (this is definitely carryover from teaching high school!) and if we don't break tasks down and count and celebrate the steps, we end up feeling like we didn't get anything done when we're halfway through. So finishing getting started is a whole thing in itself!
Definitely get the "everyone will hate this" panic mode the closer I get to pushing the button, like the last-ditch panic lol.
I think I feel grounded now that it's launched, like all the wild energy I've been feeling lately can be more focused instead of just burning me out!
that's so great! and I find that getting to shareable draft stage is such a big hurdle--once there's something on the paper, in an essay-ish shape, you can keep working on it.
there's also always the magic of sharing it with someone else, which always seems to make it feel a little more solid--like, okay, this isn't just a mass of feelings and images and ideas, it's a *thing,* and I can make that thing better. (does that make sense? for me, there's always something transformative about sharing in terms of how I experience my draft.)
yes 1000% - now I want to make it more of a "real thing" which is def motivating. also the magic of actually showing up to a workshop, which reminds me that I can maybe actually do it again -- ha
I've finished four posts for the substack I finally launched at the end of August. Plus a handful of poems that I *think* are finished. (I might, of course, look at them later and decide they need more work; but right now they feel "done".)
I was able to finish three newsletters about NICU awareness. One long, one short and one medium, all about the NICU, with tips for moms to help other moms going through difficult times with babies/children.
I finished an essay I’ve been working on for two years. It’s about my dad and his writing as well as mine, and how neither of us like to finish things! Feels really good to have gotten to some kind of a finish line with this!
Well, the thing I was planning to finish (a chapbook) has spiraled out of control, and I am re-thinking the whole project, but it’s probably a good thing? I’ve enjoyed the clarity around “one thing.” I also started creating a website that I plan to finish this week!
ahhh, I am laughing in deep recognition! though I think you're really right that the time you spent thinking is super valuable. glad the idea of one thing has been clarifying--I think I really needed that reminder, too.
I finished my first novel (cozy mystery). I tried uploading it to Kindle as both an e-book and a paperback and got stuck. My daughter-in-law is helping me get it done for Oct 1 publication date. I have selected my cover, written all the front matter and back matter. It just needs to get pulled together by someone more skilled than I. So grateful to have her in my family. Next step: select scenes for my very first reading.
By the way, I started this book 30 years ago. Don't anyone feel like they're falling behind. It took a lot of work to get to this point.
congratulations! what a big accomplishment! I hope your reading is wonderful--so great to have an opportunity to share your writing!
I finished my homework! LOL oh the joys of grad school 😂 a Donne inspired poem written in heroic couplets that I think turned out okay
phew that is a challenging form! good work!
“Absolve the past for having happened and
Forget the body’s hunger. It’s demand
For satisfaction in this desperate life.
Each second cuts the minute like a knife
That quickly bleeds the time we can’t transfuse
Into some past life we would still misuse.”
That part is toward the end. It’s one of the better passages.
those iambs! so good!
I finished a difficult chapter to write for my memoir and I am thinking about another one.
I'm so excited you're working on your memoir, Claire! And I'm glad you're counting thinking as part of the process for the next one.
Memoir writing is hard, as the process drags up everything.
Phew isn't that the truth
I feel grateful just to have finished one (1 !?!!) Substack post. Now on to the next.
hooray! and I love the "on to the next"--such momentum!
For the first time in about two years I was able to finish a poem in two sittings which felt like a miracle. <3
woohoo! poems especially are so hard to *finish*
Thanks for this invitation to celebrate with us! In response to Maya Stein's Tri-Writing workshop prompts, I wrote two found poems. For fun, decided to lay them out on some watercolor backgrounds I'd made previously.
Every Day Poems is going to share them with their readers in upcoming Substack posts! It does feel good to finish something that might start a conversation with someone else.
that sounds so cool! if they're shareable, I bet other people would be interested in the prompts that worked so well for you--and you're welcome to loop back and share your poems when they're up in Every Day Poems!
Thank you, Nancy! I don't know that the prompts are shareable at this point, as the workshop is currently in progress, but thanks for offering this and for your encouragement. Raising a mug of coffee to you all!
It sounds like an amazing workshop!
I finished the next step in my poem collection; pulling the poems that don't need mass amounts of editing. I've been writing this collection off/on since college and I decided this is the year. I pulled in poems that had been stashed various places, writing from 1000 words of summer, etc and now I have to edit! But I'm so glad. I can't wait to see the finished stack sitting cozy on my desk by the end of the year.
I finished revising a humor piece and it was accepted at a new to me publication!
Congratulations! 🎉🎊
Got some poem drafts much closer to finished, an application for a residency mostly ready to submit, and two submission packets ready. Super helpful to name what I was working on!
That's such great progress!!
I finished my tenure packet! Hooray!
(I also finished a residency application and the proofs for two essays, coming out this fall.)
you did it!!! and wow, what big projects! I'll look forward to reading those new essays.
On the literary front, I finished nothing whatsoever, but I have finished work on some musical projects and begun uploading some compositions.
🎶🎶🎶🎉
Also I finished this post on Substack that was very well received… and my professor asked if he could repost the link on his social media. 😄
https://open.substack.com/pub/zinagomezliss/p/grapple-friends-to-your-soul-with?r=fjyz7&utm_medium=ios
I finished getting started on my new Substack, Work(ing) in Progress! I've been avoiding and putting it off because of all the 'what if no one likes it and this idea is dumb' + 'I don't know how to market a Substack' thoughts and fears, but it's up on its feet and I'm remembering why I wanted it to exist.
woohoo! (and I love the idea of "finishing getting started," which is so real!) for what it's worth, I find those "maybe everyone will think I'm a jerk" fears are always strongest *before* I've done the thing! it sounds like getting it going has been energizing for you!
I talk a lot about "microgoals" with writers I work/connect with and how a single task is usually a bunch of smaller tasks (this is definitely carryover from teaching high school!) and if we don't break tasks down and count and celebrate the steps, we end up feeling like we didn't get anything done when we're halfway through. So finishing getting started is a whole thing in itself!
Definitely get the "everyone will hate this" panic mode the closer I get to pushing the button, like the last-ditch panic lol.
I think I feel grounded now that it's launched, like all the wild energy I've been feeling lately can be more focused instead of just burning me out!
I finally showed up with a (very rough) essay draft to a workshop with writer friends.
that's so great! and I find that getting to shareable draft stage is such a big hurdle--once there's something on the paper, in an essay-ish shape, you can keep working on it.
yes to do this! I feel like it's possible now, even though it is still *very* essay-ISH xo
there's also always the magic of sharing it with someone else, which always seems to make it feel a little more solid--like, okay, this isn't just a mass of feelings and images and ideas, it's a *thing,* and I can make that thing better. (does that make sense? for me, there's always something transformative about sharing in terms of how I experience my draft.)
yes 1000% - now I want to make it more of a "real thing" which is def motivating. also the magic of actually showing up to a workshop, which reminds me that I can maybe actually do it again -- ha
I finished what I hope is the last poem of my manuscript. Now the hard work begins.
Ooh that's a big milestone, though! I hope you'll celebrate such a big step in the process!
I've finished four posts for the substack I finally launched at the end of August. Plus a handful of poems that I *think* are finished. (I might, of course, look at them later and decide they need more work; but right now they feel "done".)
That's so great! And I find that happens more with poems than anywhere else — but feeling done is such a big step!
I was able to finish three newsletters about NICU awareness. One long, one short and one medium, all about the NICU, with tips for moms to help other moms going through difficult times with babies/children.
That's so great, Susan! Those will be such incredible resources ❤️
I finished an essay I’ve been working on for two years. It’s about my dad and his writing as well as mine, and how neither of us like to finish things! Feels really good to have gotten to some kind of a finish line with this!
Amy!!! That's huge -- and how cool that it's about you and your dad.
Well, the thing I was planning to finish (a chapbook) has spiraled out of control, and I am re-thinking the whole project, but it’s probably a good thing? I’ve enjoyed the clarity around “one thing.” I also started creating a website that I plan to finish this week!
ahhh, I am laughing in deep recognition! though I think you're really right that the time you spent thinking is super valuable. glad the idea of one thing has been clarifying--I think I really needed that reminder, too.