Summary

The article emphasizes the importance of completing a story you've started despite the common impulses to abandon it due to perfectionism, fear, and self-doubt.

Abstract

The article "3 Reasons to Finish the Story You’ve Started" discusses the challenges writers face in the midst of crafting a story, such as the allure of a new idea, boredom, or negative feedback. It identifies three main obstacles—perfectionism, fear, and distrust in one's own creativity—that can prevent a writer from finishing their work. The author argues that overcoming these "trolls" is crucial for a writer's development and satisfaction. Perfectionism, while setting a standard for excellence, can lead to endless revisions if not kept in check. Fear, whether of success or failure, can paralyze the writing process, but facing it can lead to unexpected rewards. The article suggests that writers should trust their creativity and complete a draft before seeking feedback, as this process helps to realize the story's value and the writer's own abilities. The conclusion encourages writers to recognize procrastination and self-doubt as mere illusions and to take joy in the unique journey of writing.

Opinions

Perfectionism can be both a driving force for excellence and an impediment to completing a story.
Fear, in its various forms, is a significant barrier that writers must confront and overcome to continue their work.
Writers should avoid showing early drafts to others to prevent the erosion of self-trust and creative vision.
Completing a story allows writers to appreciate their work's inherent value and their own creative capabilities.
Procrastination and self-doubt are illusory challenges that writers can overcome to enjoy the writing process.
The act of finishing a story is a personal victory that reinforces a writer's ability to persevere and produce more work.

3 Reasons to Finish the Story You’ve Started

Overcoming the impulse to stop writing.

Have you been in the middle of writing a story and suddenly come up with a better idea? Or maybe you felt bored with your story and wanted to toss it? Perhaps you showed your draft to someone and their response was lukewarm?

Writing a different story is a great idea — after you’ve finished the one you’re writing now.

Here is why.

The Three Trolls

Three things are usually front and center when you want to stop writing what you’re working on. One is perfectionism. The second one is fear. The third one is distrust. These are the trolls lurking in your mind that do their utmost to sway you away from your story and entice you with the thought all too familiar to every writer that you aren’t good enough.

Not good enough for what? You may believe this because you set a standard for success so high that you are certain you will never meet it. You may feel impending devastation at the thought of having your story rejected. You may be convinced only other people are good writers, not you.

So the trolls work on your mindset, reinforcing your inclination to stop the story you are working on and try a new idea that you think is better, more interesting, even easier to write.

The Perfect Story

Perfectionism is an emotional response to your work. Of course, you want to write the best story possible. We all do. But how do you know when that has happened? We never do. A very accurate saying is that the only reason writers publish anything is to stop their own endless editing of their work so they can go on to something else.

This happens to all creative people, from engineers to filmmakers. In a recent interview, filmmaker George Lucas said if he had not sold the Star Wars franchise, he'd still be working on Episode IX years later.

Perfectionism is useful to give us a standard of excellence, but useless when it means we never stop rewriting the story or if we stop writing it altogether.

Fear

You know well the fear that writing can engage in us. You can be afraid of success as well as afraid of failure. You can be afraid your story has already been written a hundred times or worry it is too off-the-wall to reach people. You can feel fear at the idea of being seen because of your writing, or never being noticed. You compare yourself to other writers and come up empty.

“Fear is the mind-killer…” So Frank Herbert writes in the science fiction novel Dune.

Yielding to fear can stop your writing. Going through the fear can bring you into a sense of purpose and satisfaction you never expected.

Distrust of Your Own Creativity

In its early stages, a story is fragile, being shaped by your imagination and heart, exploring itself and what it is about and what your intentions are in telling a particular story.

Often, we don’t know any of that until we’ve finished it!

Your wisest course is never to show an early draft to anyone. We are vulnerable in our creativity and until we trust the story’s meaning, we don’t trust ourselves.

Finish the draft of the story and you know you have something real in hand. You know it has value. Then you are free to show it to someone, confident that whether they like it or not, it is your true work, and you love it, and it is a manifestation of your inner creative magic.

Clearing the Decks

If you love to write and finish your story, the trolls will never win out.

You may never show the story to anyone else or send it out to a publisher or magazine, but then again, maybe you will! You cannot know this until you have the whole story in front of you and take the chance.

Yes, it can be daunting, but it is also a clearing — that story being done, you know you can finish another and another and not stop, not give up. That’s what being a writer is about.

Conclusion

When procrastination or self-doubt show up — and they do for all of us — know they are illusions — you are just experiencing one of the trolls, and you can kick it out of the way.

Above all else, allow yourself to enjoy this wonderful writing journey you are on, which is never the same twice, and where you bring your own unique imagination to life.

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