It’s Okay to Step Away

Sometimes an idea doesn’t fully form, or change alters your project. Thus, it’s okay to step away.

Photo by Yumi Ang on Unsplash

One of the primary pieces of advice I give to any writer (or practitioner of a creative art of any sort) is to keep at it. Don’t stop, don’t let fear prevent you from making something in your dreams real.

For a lot of people, this is necessary advice. For every published author there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, with half-finished, half-started, semi-coherent stories. Most won’t finish them or share them — and that’s okay. Not everyone is an artist.

But when you desire to see it to completion — that’s where you need all the encouragement you can get. I am often surprised by how many would-be writers either have barely started their work or cannot finish one.

I’ve self-published a dozen books. I have two more that are complete but unedited. There are several other stories I have underway that I know will be completed because that’s my work.

But in addition to those, I have probably a good half a dozen to a dozen stories in various degrees of incomplete. One or two are a couple of pages, maybe, or an outline for an idea — but not much beyond that. One or two have some real progress — but then were halted and remain untouched for…