Thoughts on Sustaining a Story

First thought: It’s such a clever/great/amazing/ fun idea for a story!

Second thought: I need to write it down.

Third thought: I’ll just start with this character doing/saying something.

Begin writing…

Stall . . .

Fourth thought: Maybe it’s not that [great/good/workable/worthwhile] an idea.

Rather than abandoning the idea here, I remind myself that:

• Writing is messy.
• There’s a reason people call it the “SFD” (Sh*tty First Draft).
• I need to first write for myself.
• My process always requires me to, at some point, write my way in (or sometimes through and even out).
• There needs to be clay on the table before I can mold it into something that looks like a story.
• I really do have something to say.

More importantly:

• I can let this percolate.
• I may need time to be ready/able to write this.
• Not every idea works as a story.
• I can discard this idea if I want to.
• It might just need to live in [a drawer/a file/my brain] for an undetermined amount of time.
• Maybe it’s not my story to tell.

And that’s okay, because…

…I have more ideas than I will ever be able to use.

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