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Writing Habits Practice #8: Finish What You Start · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Writer Starter Kit, visit DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Here on the podcast, we've been doing a short series on writing habits.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope this has been helpful and that you've enjoyed it.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to conclude this series with our final writing habits practice, which is this finish what you start.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, this might be the most important writing habits practice of all.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: The reason is that it's easy to get distracted by other projects.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I've done that many times myself.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I encourage you and I remind myself to finish what we start and then publish it.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: When you have too many things that you've written but you haven't finished or published, it's really kind of demoralizing.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like you've put in a ton of work, but you don't have any results.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, I spent months and months doing research for a book, and I literally, this is no joke, I literally took 150 pages of notes.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I had a massive scrivener file full of ideas and details and outlines and book plans, but I never actually finished the book and published it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now I do plan to write that book someday, but since that time I've developed the Daily Writer and I've built a full-time ghostwriting business.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like I've been sitting around eating bonbons this whole time.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to tell you, I was really demoralized and discouraged for a long time after putting all that material together and never actually finishing it and publishing it.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Since then, I have done a much better job of starting and finishing projects.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, the thing that broke me of that bad habit of not finishing was doing client work.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you're a ghostwriter, you have to produce on demand whether you feel inspired or not.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a pretty good habit for all of us who are writing, whether we're doing it for ourselves or whether we're doing client work.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when you finish what you start, it gives you incredible confidence and it gives you a lot of momentum to keep on going.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, you can't sell what you don't finish.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Readers don't buy half-finished books, just like we don't go to the theater to see half-finished movies.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you finish and publish, you have products that you can sell to readers that'll change their lives and bring you income.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So my question for you today is what do you need to finish and publish?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And how could it give you the confidence and creative fire that you need?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is an excerpt from our new ebook, How to Build a Writing Habit.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can get this ebook for free along with six other ebooks on writing as part of our free Daily Rider Starter Kit.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just go to dailywriterlife.comslash free.