Unfinished Documents

Type. Punctuation. Backspace, backspace, backspace. Type. Frustrated groan. Undo, retype original sentence. Sigh. Save document. Exit. Repeat after a few... days? Weeks? Months?

It’s always the same, annoying process. You get the most brilliant ideas ever and decide to make a story. You pour out bits and pieces of your plot anywhere you can. Your phone, various notebooks, paper scraps... and a tissue roll that one time. You know it’s going to be your greatest work yet and get so worked up and that you start acting out the scenes and obsessing over tenses, speech and the like. If the high lasts long enough, you even pick out what music would suit every scene. (Of course, you’d never actually use music because, hello, copyright? And the fact it’s not a movie or TV show?)

Then finally, you decide to pull everything together into one document. You have the time and motivation to get the story started. You have a beginning, middle, and end; you’re set.

First, you paste everything on your phone and various computer documents, next you type everything you wrote on paper. Then you put the choppy, unrelated parts in some kind of order and try your best to make them into one story. You fix grammar, add a substantial portion to each bit, and add transitions. After a good... three hours and ten or so pages, you decide to let your mind rest for a bit. You type and change things a little bit more before saving the document and going along your merry way. After all, you won’t be running out of good ideas any time soon.

You get back to the document a little while later. Suddenly, you have no idea where you want the next scene to go. You lose the perfect scenario that was in your head just an hour ago. Your words don’t sound right to you anymore.

Then the distractions come.

School, of course, takes priority. You have to submit a few reports and study for your important tests. You spend a bit more time with your family and friends, because... why not? Then you realize you aren’t updated with a certain fandom and decide to watch and read what you can. This, of course, leads to fanfiction and other similar joys. Suddenly, you discover the most fantastic show or novel and get instantly hooked. More brilliant ideas flood into your mind... sadly, they’re for a completely different work. You decide to write them down anyway, what harm could come from another project?

The cycle repeats itself.

Type. Punctuation. Backspace, backspace, backspace. Type. Frustrated groan. Undo, retype original sentence. Sigh. Save document.

What now? There are, like, twenty more unfinished documents on your computer. Do you plan on finishing any of them?