To Finish, or not to Finish? - Ruth L. Snyder

This month we are being asked to share whether we struggle with unfinished projects, and how we stay on task until projects are completed.

I am a finisher. In fact, not finishing something can make me very frustrated. Just before I started writing this post I was able to finish solving a problem on the InScribe website. After InScribe members elected the new executive at Fall Conference 2016, the names and contact information needed to be updated on the website. Most of the changes were easy to make. However, the InScribe website has a bottom banner or footer, that is on every page of the website. Information in this area needed to be updated. Every time I looked at the website, that out of date information irked me. (If you're not interested in things technical, you may want to skip the following description.) I knew from past experience that I needed to find the widget. However, when I brought up the widget page, the one I needed wasn't there. I asked our previous webmaster, other people familiar with Wordpress, and even our web host technical support. No one could figure it out. This morning I cried out to the Lord (for what seemed like the hundredth time) and asked Him to show me the solution. Then I went back to the website and updated a plugin. I noticed when I clicked on certain menu options that an error message popped up, pointing to one of our plugins. I disabled the plugin, and the widget I needed "magically" appeared. The changes took a matter of minutes to make. Solving problems and finishing things make me happy. I'm one of those list makers!

 

I may be a finisher at heart, but then many times life happens. One of the biggest adjustments I had as a parent was accepting the reality that I would rarely be able to work on projects to completion, especially at one sitting. I have learned to delay projects that take focus and concentration to times of the day when my children and husband are not around me. I don't want them to feel like interruptions. I have also chosen to focus on shorter writing projects for now, instead of books. Even then, my writing projects often take me way longer to complete than I would like. I have also requested an office space with a door I can close while I'm writing. Some day that will be a reality.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" (KJV). I am often reminded that God's timing is different than mine. Instead of focusing on completing a project, I am learning to focus on the process and enjoy the ride. (My husband has helped me in this area, but not without loud protests on my part at times! Generally I am the planner, and he is the spontaneous one.)

I do have another unfinished project hiding in my desk - a novel that is about two-thirds completed. In the middle of working on the novel with an editor guiding me, God told me to put it away. Some day I'm trusting that the season will be right to finish the novel, but for now I know that I can trust God with it.

What about you? Do you have unfinished projects? Do unfinished projects bother you? What do you do to stay on track and finish?

Ruth L. Snyder serves God as a wife, mother, music teacher, writer, coach, and publisher. Her published works include articles, devotionals, short stories, and novellas. Connect with Ruth at http://ruthlsnyder.com

Unfinished Projects - Sheila Webster

Ephesians 2:10 - For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

About 2006 or 2007 I started to write a manuscript about my simple view of spirituality in a book format.  However, one of those life tsunamis took place and much of my writing and life became jetsam on scattered shores of memory.  Never the same again and I didn’t know what happened to that manuscript along with much of my other writing.

In 2011, while visiting my former childhood pastor, several provinces away, he asked me if I had ever published the manuscript.  I was stunned as I had forgotten about it and became ashamed in a way that it was another broken thread of life.

He laughed at me, which seemed like an entirely inappropriate response for what I was feeling.  Upon going to his office he returned with my unfinished manuscript in hand!

“You emailed it to me for my comments on whether it was doctrinally accurate and not condemning of people or situations! “  He seemed to think this should have been obvious to me.

I didn’t know what to do, except that if God had preserved this piece while hundreds had been lost, I must finish it.

Finishing the last few pages was monumental because I was now a different person, No longer the same name or family structure.  God gave me the grace, the faltering words and the funds to complete it.  A Simple Spirituality was published within the next eighteen months.  Many people have told me how my simple faith and perseverance through difficult situations described in the book have encouraged them to return to faith or increased their faith and forgiveness in situations.

Another unfinished project resurrected itself this year.  I was having what I thought was a simple conversation with a friend about something.  It reminded me of something I had written almost two decades ago that also had been lost during that difficult time.

My friend was so intrigued by the story she asked a literary periodical if they would be interested in it!  She then nonchalantly told me they wanted it and to hurry and rewrite it for them.  I had never considered it, as it was a difficult piece.

Rewrite it I did, even though it came out from a different character’s perspective and with different details but a similar ending which was the most salient part.

I have heard several sermons lately about our calling being without repentance – as Christians those good works prepared beforehand by God, in Christ, through the help of the Holy Spirit.

What pieces do you need to dust off, resurrect, pray over or write?  For all of us the process can be challenging but comes down to a number of simple spiritual and practical disciplines.

1.     Pray

2.     Put your hand to the work.

3.     Persevere

4.     Edit

5.     Publish

In the end, whether on earth or later we will hear the words – “well done good and faithful servant.”

Moving Past Failure by Susan Barclay

This month’s Inscribe writing prompt asks the following:

• Do you struggle with unfinished projects?
• How do you stay on task until your project is completed?
•  As you think of this topic, how is God prompting you to finish the unfinished?

This is about how old I was when I started (ugh).

Do I struggle? Ha! Journey with me over the last number of years I’ve been a contributor to Inscribe Writers Online and you will see that I’ve been talking about this for over FIVE years!! In fact, I mention it over TEN times in my posts over that period. Here's a sampling:

Jan 30, 2012 “As for the novel, I'm in the home stretch, and started it about eight years ago, so it's definitely time to wrap it up.”

November 30, 2013 “I've recently pulled out my unfinished novel and begun to write the pivotal, climactic scene.”  “As I push toward completion of my novel's first draft…” 
 
May 30, 2014 “my focus this year has been on the novel I started ten years ago… While I had hoped to complete the novel by the end of June, it looks like I'll have to extend my deadline to the end of the year.”

October 30, 2014 “I was hoping that this would be the year I'd finish it so I could move on to the next stage of getting it ready for publication, but a couple of major things have happened to make that improbable.”Sept 30, 2016 “As far as my writing goals go, I’m still hoping to finish my novel this year.”

Yes, I am still "working" on it.

Now for link two in the chain of questions: how do you stay on task? 

Clearly I don’t!

Totally a fight to do the right thing.

In September 2011, I talked about "bum glue" – “you must apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair… If you want to succeed in the call that God has placed on your heart, you must make the commitment to apply yourself daily to the task He's placed before you.” Good advice, if you follow it.

In January 2014 I wrote: “I knew where things were going to end up; I just didn't know how I was going to get there. So I wrapped [the novel] in blankets and focused on other projects, including picture books, short stories and personal experience pieces. From time to time I'd hit on an idea, pull back the covers...try out some thoughts, and put it to bed again.”

In May of that year I confessed: “I don’t work from a detailed outline and tend to go with the flow, an approach that has both its challenges and its joys.”

But enough! How is God now prompting me to finish the unfinished?

I’ve been reading David A.R. White’s book Between Heaven and Hollywood: Chasing Your God-Given Dream. In it, he devotes an entire section as to why some never succeed. In short: they give up when it is harder than they thought it would be; they are indecisive, lack confidence, or are unwilling to adapt; or, they are experiencing spiritual warfare. White (of God's Not Dead 2 fame) points out that hard times reveal who you are, and can also serve to improve or train you.

What do these thoughts from the book have to do with me finishing the unfinished? For starters, they prompt me to identify what may be holding me back: 

• Writing a novel is hard work. I'm not sure it's harder than I thought it would be, but it's certainly taking longer than I thought it would;
• I've shown a lack of decisiveness in my ability to clear out the physical clutter that gets in the way of creative juices; 
• I've shown a lack of decisiveness in my ability to commit to a structured writing schedule;
• I've failed to protect my writing time by taking phone calls and getting side-tracked by frivolous online activities.

If I take care of the latter three points, the first may take care of itself! These are changeable things - not easily perhaps as they mean breaking bad habits, initiating good ones, and working to prevent interruptions - but it can be done. 

Today I choose to move past failure, the failure to complete. I determine to put my writing time into my weekly calendar and to protect that time. I determine to clear away book and paper clutter. Now to find accountability partners to make sure I do this and stay on track. If you are in need of a partner to help you in similar ways, please contact me through the Inscribe Facebook group and let's move past failure together!
_______________

Please visit Susan at www.susan-barclay.blogspot.ca