Finishing a story teaches you more than starting a hundred stories

Beginnings are exciting. Full of endless possibilities and fresh, unburdened energy.

But the real growth happens when you finish.

When you literally and figuratively wrestle with the messy middle. When you revise the rough draft so much you feel lost. When you make the hard choices that bring a story to its end.

Starting a story teaches you how to dream.

Finishing a story teaches you how to build.

A completed story with all of its flaws shows you what you’re capable of.

Finish something. Anything. Then write the next one even better.

(And now to finish writing my short story about Narcissus trapped in a haunted forest.)