I debated over three titles for this one.
Finishing Up
So positive.
Up! The best place to finish.
But also it makes me think of food.
Underneath the cheer it has that tone of voice.
C’mon. Let’s finish up and get out of here.
Finish up - as in hurry up.
Positive but impatient.
Been there, try to stay away from there.
Nope. Crossed it off the list.
PS: Infinte patience/Immediate results #helpfulto remember
The Finish Line
The fantasy.
A sweaty runner barrels through that yellow tape.
Ahead of the pack.
It’s visceral, feels like a breakthrough.
But in real creative life
It doesn’t happen in an instant.
There’s usually a long period of finishing.
Crossed that off the list too and moved on to…
Finishing School
I loved the ing part of it.
The feeling that there is a whole period of finishing.
But finishing school is so particular.
Polished. Neat. Mannered.
The more unmannered the world gets the more I care about manners.
But that doesn’t help in finishing projects.
And the other two meanings.
Polished and neat?
Well, creativity is messy.
Because materials and process.
And even more:
Because hope.
Hope is messy.
Tolerance for messiness is actually a creative asset.
Understanding the moment when mess turns to chaos.
The ability to design and live in that specific place.
But one important part of the Finishing School idea.
One of the reasons we’re not as good at finishing
As at starting:
We get way more chances to start.
As much as we procrastinate or drag our heels we still do start a lot.
And then.
Projects turn out to be annoying, so we ghost them.
Or they scare us and we delay them sometimes forever.
Or we bring in the wrong collaborators and end up in an unworkable throuple.
Sometimes the network kills it.
Or life - moving, health issues, having a baby.
Or the world changes and makes your project irrelevant.
Sometimes the project just does not want to get done.
So we end up having all sort of beginnings
That don’t lead to finishing.
Starting is hard.
But we get better at it.
By doing it a lot.
Anyway, it still didn’t seem like the right title.
So, crossed Finishing School off the list.
Had a snack. Did some other stuff. Oh!
Big Finish!
Went with this.
As you know, since you already saw the title.
And if you are here then yay for that choice.
It worked.
if you’re anything like me though
You want to know why.
And in fact asking why
Knowing your why
Is one of the things that will get you
Over the finish line.
We try to finish big - not necessarily in volume -
Sometimes in clarity or hilariousness -
Because people tend to remember the end.
And the beginning.
It’s almost like a big end erases any mIssteps along the way.
There’s a lot of noise about The First Step.
Starting.
Which is the most critical.
From 0 to 1.
From possible to actual.
Shifting the timeline.
Everything is required.
Especially courage and focus.
I’ve written about it here.
But we talk so much less
About the second most important step.
The last one.
We do celebrate completion.
Pub days and premieres.
But these are really beginnings.
When your work meets the world.
Hi! Hello! Heya!
But the thing about starting
Is it almost doesn’t matter
Unless you can finish.
It’s the end - getting your work over the finish line.
And shipping it.
Is a letting go.
Maybe we shy away from talking about finishing
Because it feels like a little death.
We do sometimes talk about the periods after release
As post partum.
We get that drama.
Have you ever suffered through that.
After my book So You Need To Decide was released
And the interviews and reviews had come in
I had it bad.
Maybe I knew it was coming.
My editor kept saying it’s time to record.
I kept saying I need to do a few more interviews.
And then slowly but surely
I somehow dragged myself out of it.
It helps to have different projects in other stages.
To have already started something.
To be in the middle of something else.
In human relations I find polyamory admirable
But for me unrealistic, too emotionally demanding.
In creative life I’m all about it.
In my work life I’m somehow able to feel it all connected.
One love.
When Robert Altman got his Lifetime Achievement Oscar he said:
It’s all one movie.
I think about that a lot.
And it does make it a little easier to finish.
To send a piece out into the world.
Because in one sense you are still working on it.
The thing about finishing we have to separate out
Our desire for excellence - helpful
From our perfectionism - harmful.
I like to stay tuned in to mini completions.
The end of every stand up set.
Rehearsal.
Work session.
Chapter.
Call.
Day.
Finishing.
It sounds so finite.
But it’s a process.
All your final final final really final drafts.
I abandoned this method years ago and just started dating files.
One day the final draft will happen.
Just like magic.
You have to want to finish
Like it’s your hallpass celebrity.
And you have to care so little about it
It almost disappears.
I consider myself a process junkie.
HBO once told me: great pitch and we love your show.
But it’s too much about process.
I didn’t see it that way.
Because I’m also 100% about product.
I know that’s 200% and it doesn’t make sense.
But it does
If you layer them on top of each other
Rather than see them in sequence.
Or if you can live with messy truths.
Which I can.
It’s all about process.
But you eventually you have to ship.
Or you will drive yourself insane.
Infinitely Yours…
xx
b
Live tomorrow! 🎙️ Today? Depending on when you open;)
If this Big Finish post resonated, join me Friday at 3 PM PT for my Substack Live I;ll get a little deeper into what it really takes to finish creative work.
It’s free, it’s live, and you can AMA!
🌀 Substack announces these things in Notes and email - but you can also find it on my Substack home page at go-time.
And 💬 If you’re cozying up to the finish line but never quite crossing it — I got you.
I do 1:1 and group creative strategy work to help you complete what matters most.
Every word of this ring so true
Really good one, Beth. Keep them coming!