Stumbled on a stat about how many writers give up after page 50

I was reading through some old writer's market guides at the library last Tuesday and found a survey saying something like 80% of people who start a novel never make it past page 50. That blew my mind because I've abandoned two manuscripts right around that mark myself. The source was a 2019 Writer's Digest article, but I can't find it online now. Has anyone else hit that same wall and actually powered through?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thea21d ago

lmao I've definitely been there. The trick that finally got me past page 50 was to stop trying to make it perfect. I gave myself permission to write the worst, sloppiest draft ever and just moved forward even if I hated every sentence. Also I started forcing myself to write the ending first, then the middle made a lot more sense and I actually finished that manuscript. It took like three tries of hitting that same wall before I found what worked for me.

the_wesley21d ago

Did you actually finish that worst sloppy draft or did you scrap it later?

markh8521d ago

Actually those three attempts before hitting on what worked is pretty common from what I've seen, most people I know took way more tries than that. But writing the ending first is a cool strategy except I'd argue it's not really the ending you're writing, it's more like a destination point or a target. Like you're sketching the final scene so you know where the story is headed, which is different than having the actual ending locked in. I tried that once and ended up completely changing the ending halfway through because the characters took me somewhere else. The sloppy draft thing is absolutely the way to go though, perfectionism kills more stories than bad writing ever could. I think some people get discouraged when the sloppy draft still sucks but that's totally normal, the real magic happens in revisions anyway.