Visualize the finish.

Your unconscious mind pays attention to landmarks like colours, emotions, and sensations. To get it to lead you to the end of your story, you have to give it signs and images it can understand. This is like giving a tracking dog a clue that has a person’s scent on it, and then setting the dog loose in the forest. She will bring you to your destination by following her nose. 

In your case, this tracking will happen in the background of your mind, as you read, listen to conversations around the dinner table, travel, shop, work, watch TV, and even while you’re sleeping. You don’t have to know how you will get to the ending. You don’t even have to think up all of the scenes you’re going to write on the way there. You just need to set the co-ordinates of your inner GPS, and set up some landmarks to show you when you’ve reached your final destination.

Set up those landmarks by imagining your character at the end of their story, and your unconscious mind will navigate you towards their outcome. I learned this technique first from Al Watt, and I’ve never found a better method for story endings. Set your destination, decide how many words or pages it will take you to get there, and then relax and enjoy the process. The route to your destination will be in and through your writing. 

Try this:

1. In your mind’s eye, visualize your character at the end of the story. Imagine a point where all of the subplots and story elements are resolved, harmonized, or settled. You don’t need to know how it all happens: just skip to the very last scene. How does your character feel at this moment? What images come to your mind? Describe the setting. Where are they? Who are they with, if anyone? What has changed in your character’s physiology, environment, or mental/emotional state? Really see, hear, and feel this scene.
   
   
2. Freewrite in your notebook and write down any images and information you receive. These are clues from your unconscious mind. You might find yourself writing full scenes (e.g., your character laughing, or sleeping, or saying a key piece of dialogue out loud) or describing symbols you don’t fully understand (e.g., you might see a boat anchor, a robin’s egg, or a pair of cowboy boots). Don’t overthink it. First thoughts are best thoughts here, and because they’re coming from your creative unconscious, these images don’t have to make sense to you yet.
   
   
3. Stay flexible and focused by centering yourself daily before you start writing. Stay present to your ever-changing story by orienting yourself towards the finish, even if you are just at the beginning of the journey. Freewrite on one or two of these prompts for about 10 minutes as often as you like to check in, and spark up the tracking instinct that’s running behind the scenes.

I will know I’m at the end of my story when…

Completion feels like…

When the conflict is harmonized, it looks like…

My story will know it’s finished when…

I know I’ve reached the outcome when I write this:

Extra points:

Use the same visualization method to imagine yourself writing the final scene of your book. Your unconscious mind is brilliant and sophisticated — it can navigate both of these creative journeys for you at the same time! 

This is especially useful if you have a false belief running in the back of your mind that tells you finishing a book is difficult or impossible. Use this exercise to replace that old belief with this new one.  

In your mind’s eye, create a mental image of yourself writing the final scene of your book. Where are you? What are you wearing? What do you see on your desk? Out the window? Layer vibrant and textured details into this image. Let yourself really see what it looks like, hear what it sounds like, and feel what it feels like at that moment. Keep writing this scene until it feels like you’re right there.

Notice the way finishing your book feels different than working on your book. Where do you feel this knowledge in your body? Pay attention to the physiological sensations that show you are “done.” These feelings might be literal (e.g., warmth in your chest or a shiver down your spine) or metaphoric and symbolic (e.g., “done” feels like deep blue light filling your chest, or seeing a smooth, round stone on your desk). Write these down.

Now that you’ve set the scene and given your unconscious mind landmarks, you don’t have to do anything else, other than show up as you have planned, and keep writing. Working in alignment with your unconscious mind makes finishing the project much easier, like having the wind at your back.

Photo credit (top): Coralie Meruice on Unsplash.