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

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider 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 Rider 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: 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 habit, which is simply this finish what you start.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I think this might be the most important habit of all.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is that it's really easy to get distracted by other projects.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've done that many times myself, but I encourage you to finish what you start and then publish it.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: When you have a lot of things that you've written but not finished, it's kind of demoralizing.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like you've put in a ton of work, but you don't have any results.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, I spent months and months doing research for a book, and I literally took 150 pages of notes, and I had a massive scribbler file full of ideas and outlines and details and plans, but I never actually finished that book.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now I do plan to write that book someday, or actually rather what I'm going to do is take pieces of that and I'm using them in some different ways.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: But since that time, I've developed the Daily Writer and I've built a ghostwriting business.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got to tell you, I was really demoralized and discouraged for a long time after working so hard and putting all that material together, and I never finished it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, since then, I've done a much better job of starting and finishing projects.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, the thing that broke me of the habit of not finishing was doing client work.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: As weird as that sounds, I actually had to start doing client work to kind of break me of that habit.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is that when you're a ghostwriter, you've got to produce on demand whether you feel inspired or not.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just part of the job.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: You sit down and you've got something to do and you just have to get it done.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a pretty good habit for all of us who are writing, whether we're doing it for ourselves or for clients.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you finish what you start, it gives you incredible confidence and momentum to keep on going.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, you can't sell what you don't finish.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Readers don't buy half-finished books.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever you finish and publish, you have products that you can sell to readers that can change their lives and that can bring you income and that you can also repurpose into other things like courses or speaking or membership communities or workbooks or any number of other things.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to ask yourself, what do you need to finish and publish?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And how could it give you the confidence and creative fire that you need when you actually do that?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode is an excerpt from our free ebook, How to Build a Writing Habit.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can get this for free along with six other ebooks on writing as part of our free Daily Writer Starter Kit.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just go to DailyWriterLife.com slash free.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Also, a big thanks to today's sponsor, the Writers Talk app.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that 81% of people say they want to write a book, but only 5% of people actually follow through with it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you've always wanted to write but you don't know how to get started, you're gonna love the Writers Talk app.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you join, you get immediate access to hundreds of instructional videos, a tool to help you come up with more ideas, and best of all, a community where you can collaborate with other authors.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Writers Talk is only$4.99 a month, and you can check it out by going to writerstalk.app.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's writersalk.app.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: As always, thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.