I have struggled with this a lot since I get excited about different ideas and I always want to accomplish them all. Perhaps I should be the last person offering my take on making a book come together. I have planned and discarded a few possible plots for a book I am writing and I am finally settling on a particular one that I think will fit.

After a few discouraging attempts, I had this idea of writing and letting the story define the end. Long story short, it was a bad mistake. My first draft became a composition of “events” rather than one cohesive storyline. I decided to do a bit of research and get advice from authors who have been where I am. What I found was quite helpful and I have shared some of the tips in this article.

Tip 1 - Being Creative

This was extremely helpful for me particularly when I started feeling like quitting. As an author, you are allowed to play around with the plot until it fits. After all, it is your work and you have the right to mold and remold it as you wish. I realize that everything does not have to fall apart when you arrive at some point in your story and then it dawns on you that pieces in the storyline are not merging. You can always add an extra character or scene to bridge the gap that you feel exists between different points. Alternatively, you can take out the digressive strand and continue with what fits. It is important to remind yourself to stay focused and not get overwhelmed. Sometimes the limitless opportunities become a hindrance.

Tip 2 - Setting Time Limits

Consider how long a scene should take in real life and also what time period you want to cover in your book. This way you will be able to avoid too many details. It will also help you in the case where you realize you can still add a few more descriptions to prevent your scenes from being too scanty. The most important benefit of giving your story a time limit is the avoidance of working too much on a particular sub-plot that will have little impact on the whole story put together.

Tip 3 - Defining the End

A great way to make the end make sense and help your plot feel cohesive is to keep the end in mind. This way, when you complete the book it will not feel abrupt or forced. You will also create characters and everything about your book based on this foundation. Let the end be very clear. I realized most of my drafts constituted vague endings which made my writing very difficult. The end kept shifting in my mind, depending on what I wanted to achieve at various points of the plot. Finally, I realized that I had to set a specific endpoint to be able to piece all aspects of the plot together. The earlier you can define what your completion point should be and how it should look, the better.

I am growing in this area and I know it can be done.