We can’t wait to get to the climax of a story. It’s the most exciting part, the place with the most action and intense moments. Right?

If you’re not finishing your writing, it’s because of fear. Fear is far more influential than we like to think. We like to believe that we’re not succumbing to fears because we are good at goal-setting, or perhaps we stick to a writing schedule of some kind.

Yet fear is insidious. It is subtle. It speaks with voices you can’t hear, and unless you weed those voices from your psyche, they will forever impede your writing dreams.

Here’s how to overcome your fears and finish your writing with confidence!

Endings are intimidating. They’re heavy-laden with all the narrative weight of your story. And they’re so much harder to write than we imagine when they play out in our heads.

So how do you write that rare, coveted third act that nails every beat and delivers on the audience’s hopes and dreams? How do you conclude your story, or trilogy, or series with power and poise? Let’s dive deep into how to write a winning ending by exploring three essential questions that will keep you on track as you wrap up your next story.

Nobody likes writing the middle of a story. Not only is the middle of a story the part where writers usually quit, it’s the part where readers quit too! The middle of a story can often feel unfocused, slow, or predictable. Sometimes even published and respected stories can feel like they lose their sense of direction and purpose in the middle.

But your story needs to be told. You need to start and finish it with confidence. And the way to write an amazing, page-turning middle to your book lies in answering three essential questions.

It’s difficult to know what to plan for when starting a novel. Is it essential to have each and every character, scene, and key change in mind beforehand? How much, or how little, do you need?

The bad news is, no matter how much you plan, your first draft is destined to be messy. But even if you’re a pantser, there are a few key questions you should answer before you start. When you do, you’ll be building your story on a rock-solid foundation that will give you the freedom to take risks that won’t cost you a ton of time and energy in the long run.

In many parts of the world, people are forced to do something that is completely absurd: They give up an hour of their lives.

It’s called “Daylight Savings Time,” but it’s more like “Good Night Sleep’s Losing Time.” It’s as if Thanos came to Earth, snapped his fingers, and 1/24th of everyone’s day turned to dust.

Yet as painful as it was to wake up an hour “later” Sunday morning, Daylight Savings Time can be the inspiration to write a story in any genre, from comedic to tragic.

Writers are imitators. At its heart, our job is to watch the world, listen to it, feel it, and then reproduce it using the tools of language.

That is why we tend to “write what we know.” Human beings are built for input, and what we put into our minds likely comes out in our writing.

That is why it’s important to choose our reading carefully. Choose the right literature and you’ll be infinitely inspired to create wonderful work.

Ideas always feel fully formed in our minds. But when we sit down to put them into words, the struggle begins. Ideas don’t just morph into narrative form. They resist our efforts, and soon the process of storytelling becomes torture.

Thankfully there are strategies you can use to overcome the stubborn nature of an idea and successfully rise to the challenge of writing a great story.

And one of the best strategies you can use is the Three-Act Structure.

Writing a great story is hard. Every author worth his or her salt knows this from painful experience. And if you’re setting out to write something worthwhile, you’re going to encounter failure along the way. But that doesn’t mean you’re a failed writer.

Despite the temptation to give up or run away from writing again, you have to keep going. You have to keep writing.

Because the reward waiting for you is priceless. Not only that, the reward can only come from failure.

And it’s the ingredient that will make your story a must-read.