Don't ghost your own writing. How to finish your creative project no matter what.

You’re writing something so immersive and deeply universal that readers everywhere will forget their problems and disappear inside your well-placed words. You are motivated and have the tools, the skills, and the coffee. Your words flow, propelled by your brilliant idea for a novel, play, screenplay, or poem. You’re at it for hours, then you get up and live the physical life for a while.

This is where things get unpredictable. You return to finish a draft, or you don’t. The number of projects artists and writers begin does not always equal the number of completed projects. There are more unfinished projects in the clouds than completed drafts in front of readers’ eyes. Struggling to finish art is a universal problem.

I want to be clear: it’s okay to take breaks. I’m on one now, but I’m using that time to explore older work, scene scraps that I’ve tucked away, and it’s reminding me that all our individual stories are part of something larger.