The (Many) Budding Ideas

Photo by Me

Writing is a never ending process as I am sure many of you know.  There are always new ideas flowing in and out of my mind and onto that shiny computer screen.  The problem that I am often faced with is the influx of too many half developed ideas.  I will begin a story with a great idea but have no way of finishing the story.  In the end, I have found that I have a lot of great beginnings but not a lot of endings.  Needless to say my computer is littered with partially written chapters and short stories that have become lost in the brainstorming process.

Recently, though, I have been planning out a new story centered around a dream world and futuristic society.  I began writing a little bit of the beginning before realizing I had the perfect little bit of story hidden away on my old desktop.  So, the other day I fired that sucker up and transfered the word document into a more friendly google doc.  I vaguely remember writing this particular story a few years ago because I loved the beginning so much.  Overall I felt it was one of my greatest milestones in dialogue but in the end it lost steam.  It was one of those half thought out pieces with the perfect beginning but no middle or end.  With a little pasting and editing I was able to breath new life into the old story.

This experience made me wonder how many stories that are strewn throughout our lives that could be given a second chance.  While I was searching through my documents I came across so many other pieces of forgotten writing that fizzled out at one point or another.  It was fun to see the different things that came out of my mind all those years ago.  I got so many new ideas from looking over those pages  and this is why I think it is so important to give ourselves a break from writing.  Put something on the back burner and forget about it, when you come back new ideas with flow easier.  Who knows, maybe your story will take a completely different route?

Make today the day that you look through your archives and piece together strings of writing that were brilliant but unfinished.  No idea should go to waste.