That statistic about how many writers actually finish a novel surprised me

I was reading this article from Writer's Digest last week and it said only about 3% of people who start writing a novel actually finish one. That blew my mind... I figured it would be higher, like maybe 20%. Makes you wonder if all those half-started stories in my folder are actually pretty normal.

3 comments

3 Comments

nguyen.tara2mo ago

My 7 half finished novels in a drawer are feeling very validated right now lol. 3% is brutal but honestly tracks with my attention span.

riley_taylor2mo ago

Wait, did I actually only finish 3% of what I started last year? That number stings but @nguyen.tara is right, it matches my attention span too. I used to blame myself for not sticking with things, but now I get that starting is sometimes the fun part and that's okay.

jessica_hall492mo ago

Did you catch that podcast about habit stacking where they said starting is actually the hardest part and finishing is just follow through? Honestly, 3% isn't that bad when you think about how many things we try just to see if they fit.