The real reason you never finish a book. This is sort of a follow up post to my recent blog on the Secret Success Formula for Writers.
Tell me if this sounds familiar? You’ve spent six years working on the same book but you never seem to finish. Your hard drive contains the first few chapters of over a dozen works in progress, none of which you’ll ever finish. You have a hard time hitting your daily word count. Sometimes you go the entire day without writing anything at all. Hell, sometimes you go all week without producing even a single page. On social media you call yourself a writer, but you’ve never managed to complete a first draft let alone anything that’s actually publishable.
Did I strike a chord? Hit a little too close to home? Does this sound like you? If so, I’ve got good news. The fact that you’ve never actually finished a novel might not be entirely your fault.
It’s possible your inability to complete a manuscript is rooted in something other than lack of talent. Let me ask you another question. Do you often find yourself on social media liking and sharing funny memes like these?
If you said yes, then I’ve found your problem. You see, most of the struggling writers I know spend large swaths of time on social media sharing ironic memes that mostly center around procrastination, writer’s block, and how hard writing is in general. Is it any wonder they produce little if any actual work and never manage to finish a novel?
Pop quiz. What happens if you repeatedly tell a child he’s stupid and inept? Say it often enough, the child starts to believe it, right? Especially if the message is coming from a parent. We’ve all unfortunately seen real life examples of this. Some of us are products of it. Hopefully we’re not perpetuators of it. But I bet you know all too well what happens when a child is constantly told how ignorant and incapable they are.
We are going to dive into a little psychology 101 here, but stay with me. I doubt I’m telling you anything new. What’s true for the child is true for the artist. It’s true for humans in general. Whatever message we put into our brains on a consistent basis, will have a profound effect. We basically program our brains with the information we put in. The messaging we send to our brain doesn’t just inform our success or failure, it absolutely dictates our success or failure. Hypnotists understand this. So do terrorist organizations and political parties (but I repeat myself). How do you think they brainwash all those people?
You’ve probably heard the expression, if you think you can’t, you’re right. Most of our ability as human beings has little to do with innate talent. Anthony Robbins (That’s right, I read his books) often says, “what we can do and what we will do are two very different things”. Tony understands that most people limit themselves through internal belief structures.
What if you spend all day, every day, on Twitter (dumpster fire) and Instagram (mostly dumpster fire) filling your mind with negative subliminal messaging? What if you consistently tell yourself that you are incapable? That writing is hard work? That you’ll never succeed? And success in writing is mostly luck anyway?The Real Reason You Never Finish a Book
What are your chances of finishing that novel, publishing it, and finally quitting your day job? Approximately zero. You are subconsciously telling yourself that you are incapable. That you have writer’s block. That you’ll never win.
Most studies show the average American spends nearly 2 hours a day surfing the web. That’s 14 hours a week. Or 728 hours (30 whole days!) a year which you spend mentally programing yourself for failure. That’s a lot of failure. The worst is, you are doing this to yourself. You are choosing to train your brain for failure. That’s ultimate failure!
There is no way to mentally overcome that kind of negative programing. I don’t care how much your spouse believes in you. And if you are anything like me, your family won’t believe in you until you hit the best seller list. Some days they still have their doubts.
If you are constantly liking and sharing these negative writing memes, YOU NEED TO STOP RIGHT AWAY! You are destroying any chance you have of ever becoming a successful writer.
A quick search of author friends bears out this idea. I went through the social media profiles of James Patterson, John Patten, Jack Carr, Jon Land, Jason Redman, Mark Greaney, Derek Murphy, Jeff Wilson and a dozen other successful authors. None of them are regularly sharing memes about writer’s block or how hard writing is.
On the other hand, I spent some time perusing the social media profiles of authors (unnamed) who have yet to publish anything. Can you guess what I found? A lot of negative mental programming via funny memes.The Real Reason You Never Finish a Book
Gee, I wonder why all the writers I mentioned are successful and the unnamed writers are not?
There is a clear dichotomy between successful authors and writers who engage memes which mentally orient them toward failure.
This truth seems obvious to me, which is why several months ago I started muting (or outright blocking) any writer who shares or likes negative memes. That’s right, if you and I are friends on social media and you post memes like the ones above, I’ve probably got you blocked. I don’t have any time or mental energy to spare on people who aren’t moving me forward. I’m a busy guy. I’ve got lofty goals, and I don’t have time for people trying to hold me back. The Real Reason You Never Finish a Book
If you want to break the deadly cycle of procrastination and finally finish that first draft, start by refusing to entertain the disparaging memes that mentally sabotage your dreams. Mute writers who fill your feed with that kind of negativity. Block or unfriend them if you have to.
Instead, I want you to like and share positive memes like these:
Hokey you say? Maybe. Call me a hippy if you like, but I believe in the power of positive reinforcement, and I think if you give it a try, you’ll find it makes a huge difference in your own writing as well.
Let me encourage you to take the writer positivity challenge. Encourage your fellow authors instead of discouraging them. Lift them up and spur them on to greater success. Start sharing positive memes. More importantly share this post!
And don’t forget to tag your memes with #LiteraryRebel so I’ll be sure to see it. I’ll like and share it. Who knows? Maybe together we can start a whole new way of thinking about writing.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the damaging impact of social media, not just on writers, but on people in general. Let me know what you think in the comment section below.
The Real Reason You Never Finish a Book
