As many as 81% percent of Americans say they want to write a book, but fewer than 1% ever will.

So how do you find a way to follow through? Well author and poet Molly Ovenden has some tips to make sure you make it to the end.

When people have the idea to start a writing project Molly says the typical process goes from, ‘Hopes & Dreams’ to, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…?’, to ‘I want to do: xyz…’, to ‘SMART goal’, to ‘I will do xyz task to make progress on my goal’, to actually finishing.”

Now if you start to feel stuck here is what molly says you can do.

She says, “we can be curious about what’s blocking us from finishing. Do we need help with a technical piece? Do we need accountability? Do we need therapy? Do we need to be disciplined and simply protect our time? Do we actually need to or want to finish it?–If yes, why? If not, why not?”

In the new year, Molly Ovenden will be opening her journaling membership for the first time. you can find a link here. And her podcast, “Project Perseverance” is starting the new year with reflection journaling. Asking “What do I want more of in 2024?” and “What am I proud of from 2023?”

She says, “I have a dozen conversations from writers of varying levels of experience coming up over the next couple of months in which we talk about perseverance in the writing process.”