All of us who love to read or write have certain thoughts about penning our own stories, but of course, there are some things that cause us to hold ourselves back!
Your mind thinks faster than your hands can type!
You might have a full cinematic of your story going on in your head, but your hands can only work so fast. You might find yourself get so caught up with the ending that you struggle to focus on the part you wanted to write now.
Has this been done before?
With how long written history has been around, it's a bit crazy to imagine that a story we write will be 100% completely unheard of. You're worried that your overall theme or storyline may be too similar to someone else's. While it's always good to make sure your idea is fully your own, there's no shame in writing out your own version of something.
You're too scared to let other's read/edit it.
Storytelling, in either art or written form, is a very intimate part of any writer. It's our hard work and imagination on display. No matter how weathered we may be to grammatical and literature critiques, there's still something scary about someone ripping apart a story we've put our hearts into.
You come up with new characters faster than the story allows.
You try and create a colorful cast of characters full of archetypes, stereotypes, and your own unique characters. You get caught up in their backstories, attire, story arches, character building, relationship(s) with other characters! It's a spiral of beautiful madness.
You grow attached to your characters, old and new, and wish you could make them all the focal point. You might struggle to juggle the spotlight on each character, or your favor may change away from former main characters.
You get distracted by other stories forming in your head!
If you're like me then you have a hard time finding a clean ending to your stories. You have so much creative potential that you don't want or don't know where to stop! Maybe you have three books written in your head, but only three sentences written down on paper. Maybe you find yourself trailing away from the original plot, or have an epiphany for an entirely new story!
You give up, thinking you'll never be an author anyways.
All of this eventually grows into a malicious cycle of discouraging thoughts you figure that finishing a story, let alone ever publishing one, is a long shot, far out of your reach.
In a world full of books and stories, don't think that yours will be little more than just another book. Finish your story, no matter how long it takes. The best, most notorious stories that have ever graced our world took years of brainstorming, rewriting, and experienced radical changes. Don't be scared to share your work, don't give up because it may never be published. The only thing stopping you is you.
