why I have 47 unfinished drafts and counting (it's not commitment issues, it's INSPIRATION) ✨
okay listen. LISTEN. before you come for me in the replies about "finishing what you start" and "discipline" and whatever other capitalist propaganda they're teaching in writing workshops these days, let me explain something.
those 47 unfinished drafts? they're not failures. they're not evidence that i can't commit to anything (though my dating history might suggest otherwise but that's IRRELEVANT). they are pure, crystallized inspiration caught in digital amber.
here's the thing about inspiration that nobody talks about: it's not supposed to be monogamous.
you know that feeling when you're three chapters deep into your current WIP and suddenly—SUDDENLY—your brain goes "but what if there was a world where music was illegal and the protagonist was a black market violinist" and your fingers are already opening a new google doc before your rational mind can intervene?
that's not ADHD (okay it might be a little ADHD). that's your creative brain doing exactly what it's supposed to do: making connections, building worlds, birthing stories that NEED to exist.
and yeah, sure, i could force myself to ignore that violinist story. i could be "disciplined" and stick to my current fantasy about the girl who talks to shadows. but here's what happens when you ignore inspiration: it dies. it shrivels up like a raisin and takes a little piece of your creative soul with it.
so instead, i honor it. i give it 2,000 words and a basic character sketch. i let it live in its own little document where it can breathe and exist and maybe—MAYBE—become something beautiful later.
because.. the secret: those 47 drafts aren't separate projects. they're all connected. the magic system from draft #12 might be perfect for the world in draft #31. the character voice i developed in that werewolf story i abandoned last month? she's exactly what my current protagonist needed.
it's like having a massive creative compost pile. everything breaks down and feeds everything else and eventually you get this rich, fertile ground where your REAL stories can grow.
also can we talk about how arbitrary "finishing" is? like, who decided that stories need endings? some of my favorite pieces of writing are fragments. half-thoughts. the literary equivalent of a really good tweet that makes you feel something indefinable.
my 47 drafts are love letters to possibility. they're proof that my brain is CONSTANTLY creating, constantly reaching for something new and exciting and weird. they're evidence that i haven't been beaten down by the publishing industry's obsession with "marketable" and "complete."
and honestly? having 47 unfinished drafts means i never run out of things to work on. writer's block who? i don't know her. i've got a cyberpunk fairy tale, a cozy mystery with necromancers, and a romance between a time traveler and someone who's stuck in a time loop just WAITING for me.
commitment issues would be giving up entirely. this? this is commitment to the craft itself.
(draft #48 is already calling my name but i'm trying to finish this blog post first. see? growth.)
—rin 🖊️
