Why Most Writers Fall off the Edge. Here’s how not to!

@2025 The Author’s Writer

Most writers fall off the edge.

It’s hard not to.

Writing is hard.

In the beginning stages of writing a book, the feeling is exhilarating. The surface ideas in your head easily slide from your pen onto the paper, sealed in ink.

When you reread what you’ve written, you may realize you don’t have as much to say as you thought. So, you start doing some research and find that others are writing about the same thing. Should you quote them and provide references? Should you say the same thing but in a different way? Should you just quit because someone else thought of something similar?

You start thinking too much. The spark starts to fizzle. You enter a writing lull, which is hard to escape. Then what?

A lot of people start questioning why they’re writing a book. Will anyone want to read what they’ve written? Will they think it’s meaningless? Dumb? Will they even want to buy that book? People experience self-doubt, especially when they find gaps in their work. Many writers fall into despair. They loosen their tether. They nearly fall off the edge.

Because they’ve created a wall of self-doubt that’s impossible to climb.

This is why 90% of books never get finished. (Don’t quote me on this. It’s from my own experience and is purely anecdotal.)

In order to appease ourselves, we do other things that feel comfortable and easier. Of course, we have work, our family, our social engagements, our internet surfing, our social media posts that we must make. Yes, we must engage.

We do everything except writing our books. Does this make sense? No, it does not.

Yet there’s a remedy to all of this nonsense, which is simply to write every day.

Don’t we already follow habitual routines day in and day out?

Most likely, writing is not a part of it. But, if you want to finish, you must write every day without skipping a day, even on days you don’t want to write.

Armed with a pen, you must attack the paper like a warrior, letting the ink drip from the ideas that spurn your heart. Writing is a process indeed. It is a process of discovery which you cannot let self-doubt cannot invade. As you write alone, you’re the only one who reads and judges like you do. One must dive into the subconscious mind with full force in order to find those answers, fill in the gaps, and chart a new course correction.

The answers are not online. Not in a chatbot. But hidden within your own heart. Don’t doubt yourself. You do have the answers. You do know things that others don’t, but want to learn.

All you must do is write every day. That sounds silly, you may think, for you already have a picture of what writing a book looks like in your mind. What does writing a book like to you? Writing late at night by candlelight? Writing in a secluded cabin by a crackling fire? Writing in your office with no distractions?

When we set up visions like this, they become barriers we cannot cross. No wonder we can’t finish. Writing a book may feel like a romantic thing to do. But writing a book takes diligence, consistency, hard work, and routine.

Yes, writing is a good habit to create. Get rid of your old habits that aren’t taking you anywhere and write instead. It’s up to you to decide which habits to change, but, when you make room for writing, you will finish your book.

The end product may not be what you first envisioned. It rarely ever does. This is because writing is a process of self-discovery for those who are brave enough to make the voyage on uncharted waters of your own heart. But if you have the courage, the surface waters will abate and what’s below the murky waters will seem crystal clear.

It is a process, which takes time and hard work, but if you don’t write, you’ll never finish.

That’s my explanation. It’s very simple.

 Don’t make excuses or claims why you can’t write, or that a machine can do better than you when you know deep down it cannot. Trust yourself. Follow your instincts. Create your path.

 Hi. I’m Wendy, The Author’s Writer. I help authors wherever they are in the process of writing as a ghostwriter, an editor (developmental and line) and book coach. I also assist with promotion and publishing advice, too.

Let’s get your book finished!

Schedule a free 30-minute friendly conversation with me to discuss your book project here: