Cary Tennis

Like many writers, Cary Tennis had a project he just couldn't finish: a sprawling novel he'd started writing while commuting to a detested corporate job. He struggled with it for years before coming up with the Finishing School, a method for constructing a writing group that was about support, not mutual criticism, and gentle accountability. And yes, he finished the novel.

What makes Finishing School the book unique (in my experience of writing-advice books, of which I've read many) is the authors' understanding that writing, and especially projects we've been procrastinating on for years, can bring up big emotions, and it's those emotions, not the writing itself, that frequently gets in the way. Finishing School, the method, is about making some space for those emotions, which in turn makes some space in your head for getting the work done.

I think this method could be expanded to help you deal with any project you want to get done but don't have a firm deadline for. (Discussed in the book are several writers who had writing-adjacent projects they needed to finish, like cleaning out the study that had been used as a storage room for too many years.) In addition to sympathy, the book lays out the method for you to use as a two-person buddy system or as a large group like a class. I'm looking forward to recruiting a buddy to help me get started on a couple of projects of my own.… (meer)