My unpublished graveyard needs a bigger plot of land

When you have more ideas than you can publish, you need clarity.

When I started writing, I got excited. I could not believe it. All I had to do was string words together, and I would get paid. I could write about whatever I want—niche smiche.

I started coming up with more ideas than I could remember. I would occasionally obsess over writing them down. The fantasy was that if I could come up with a good idea, that would be the one to catapult me into the stratosphere. “Who is that writer?” I’d imagine people asking and then fawning over my article because I’m so fabulous, obviously.

Back to reality, I have more unpublished articles than you can shake a stick at. I’m getting over my fear of deleting those ideas to make space for new ones that I can actually complete and have the confidence to publish.

I can only begin to tell you how liberating it is to click through and delete old ideas. There are some I cling onto in the hopes that I will complete them. I set a deadline, and if they’re still in ‘draft mode’ after a month, then into the graveyard they go. The tombstone would read something like ‘here lies an idea that once was, but never became’. I don’t really want to cross any lines here, but the death of an idea is sad. Technically everything has potential, but unless you attach wings to it and let it leave the nest, it’ll never fly.

I try to stick to the ‘finish what you start’ rule now. It’s gotten me out of some bad habits. I have no idea if what I am writing is good enough or if people even want to read it. Does it really matter? As they say, I am sure there is an audience out there for everyone. So I’m going to keep it up as long as I can.