I’ve not written anything worthwhile—much less finished it—in a very long time.

But I’ve recently gotten an idea. It started as a glimmer and it’s blossoming into something with real potential. I’m jinxing it but with my track record 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, I’ve decided that I’m going to change up my approach to this particular idea, in a number of ways.

1. I am NOT going to share it with the world until I know it’s taken root and has solid ground. I usually post the stories and share them here or on my Facebook for the world to see (ie What the Heart Wants), page by page or chapter by chapter. I haven’t finished one and my readers (all five) have been left hanging. And it makes me angry.

2. I’m not going to think about it when I’m not actively working on it. With one of my stories, which was really popular with a few people (like, three), I wrote a massive amount of it and thought about it constantly. I had the ending figured out in my head before it was on paper. At that point I was burned out and couldn’t come back to it.

(I am actually considering a massive overhaul on that story, eventually. I was very proud of Her and hopes were high. I hate the idea of abandoning her).

3. I will not write an outline of what happens. With the story mentioned before, I got burned out and thought it would inspire me to write an “outline”—it was actually a short form of the whole shebang—as a guide to finish. That outline is gathering dust in a jump drive, with the rest of the story.

4. I AM going to flesh out the characters a little. Before and during writing, I plan on fleshing out my characters. With other stories, I had them all in my head and they developed personalities as the stories progressed. I want to have them fleshed out and described before I get too into writing. I don’t think I’ve ever spent much time in describing features of characters in stories. I want to help my readers see what I see.

I really think this one has potential, even if I only self publish. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I want to finish it before I go anywhere with it. Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading.

-c