Oh, look! It's another movie in which a writer decides to stay in a haunted house for inspiration. Okay, sarcasm aside, this was a creepy little story about a writer named Paul who wants to become part of the story of a house where a family was murdered. He wants his own experiences in the house and wants to catalog them in a book. Same old, same old, right? Well, this low-budget gem actually manages to make bedsheet ghosts creepy. I know... Right?!
All that aside, let's see what Paul and his experiences have to tell us about the writing life.
About 16 minutes in, Paul and his girlfriend are lying in bed and she asks him point-blank why the story of "this house" is so important to him. He responds blithely that it's a good time in the industry, paranormal books are hot. But Stella, she's a smart cookie, and she sees through all that noise right away, so she presses the point. "What's driving you?" she asks. He kids a little more, but she won't let go, and eventually, he actually goes deeper and answers honestly:
"I want to prove to myself that I can actually finish something I start. I'm thirty. I'm a part-time ad writer for a newspaper. My biggest accomplishment has been writing an obituary."
Days later, when the activity in the house really gets going, Stella has had enough and she's moving out, begging Paul to come with her, but he refuses, claiming that if he leaves, then this will be just another thing he started and didn't finish.
I get that. I really, totally get that. I can't tell you how many times I've started projects that peter off and lay unfulfilled by the wayside on my road of good intentions. I've started and never finished several novels, two of which are more than halfway done. And I have a backlog of stories that I was "so excited" about that lie tangled in the weeds with those novels. Just ask the book editors who helped sell me on doing said stories.
I could, and I often do, beat myself up about those unfulfilled stories, but then I have to remind myself that I may not have done those novels, but I do have two large collections of short stories (one horror and one of superheroes). I may have a litter basket filled with unfinished novellas and novelettes, but I have a six-issue comic book mini-series published by IDW. I may have a notebook full of beginnings without endings, but I have more than 30 anthologies that have my finished short stories in them.
When I focus on the unfinished and find more reasons to label myself a failure, I tend to miss all the really cool stuff that makes me a success as a writer.
And really, I'm more of a short story writer than a novelist, and I'm cool with that. Most of the time, anyway, except when I compare myself to other writers I consider more successful and prolific.
Still, all that said, that little voice that says "finish what you start" is a good little cricket to listen to, by Jiminy. (See what I did there?) Way too often I need that push to stay on task. And that's okay. As long as it's a push to finish and not a push off the deep end into despondency.
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