How do you know you’re writing the “right” story?
Along your writing journey, you will — if you haven’t already — encounter stories that just don’t work. You’re not connecting with the premise or the characters, or the pieces just aren’t coming together — there are dozens of reasons why writers set stories aside. And the reality is that in the long-term, writers who recognize when a story isn’t theirs and move on are the most likely to succeed in their careers.
There is a way to find “your” story. And it depends completely on your willingness to trust your ideas and give them space to unfold.
Every Potential Story Deserves a Chance
There’s a lot of stigma in the overall writing community around starting writing projects you might not finish. Not finishing something you’ve started writing so often feels like a failure, and we’ve all gotten lost in our heads about this at least once. Why can’t I ever finish a story? What’s wrong with me?
It’s time for all of us — myself included — to bury the assumption that a story isn’t worth starting if you’re not sure it will work for you. That’s only going to start you on a never-ending cycle of throwing our what could be your best ideas because you don’t think they’re worth starting. If you never start anything, well of course you’re never going to finish anything! You have to try, even if trying doesn’t yield a finished story in the end.
Every story idea deserves the chance to develop into a full, completed project. You may find, as you begin working on it, that it’s not for you — either it’s the wrong time, or just not the story you were meant to tell. That’s not wasted time; we learn something new from every writing attempt. If it’s not working for you, that’s okay. At least you know. And just because it doesn’t work in its current form doesn’t mean it won’t come back to you later as something new.
Don’t Overthink Your Ideas
Is this idea good enough? Is it too similar to another story? Can I actually write something like this? Stop asking yourself these questions before you’ve even started writing. You will never figure out the answers for sure if you spend all your time overthinking your ideas instead of turning them into potential stories.
When I say there is no such thing as wasted time in writing, that concept applies to the moments you actually spend writing. Ideas are small fragments of bigger things. You cannot judge them in their raw form. And I know at least some of you are guilty of never jumping on an idea because you overthought it into oblivion. I’ve done it; we all have. Your relationship with the stories you want to write is a lot like the relationships between people. You really don’t know if it’s the right fit until you stop overanalyzing every little thing and just let yourself have the experience and live in the moment.
If you’re looking too hard for the “right” story, you’re going to miss it. Because there is a pretty good chance that “your” story will not be obvious. Even when you doubt yourself in the beginning — and you most certainly will — the only way through that is, well … through.
When You Find ‘The One,’ You’ll Know
How do you know you’ve found the “right” story for you? The biggest tell is that you will feel simultaneously thrilled and terrified every time you sit down to work on it. Because the best stories we have to tell — the ones that are meant for us — are not the easy ones to write. In fact, the challenges that come with writing “the one” are probably going to make you regret ever giving this thing a chance to grow and flourish inside your head. And that will make finishing it — eventually — worth the effort.
For some writers, “their” stories tend to pour out of them so fast they almost don’t know how to manage it. For others, that story both lights them up and tears them apart as they inch forward chapter by chapter — because often, the stories we’re meant to write are also the ones we bleed into. We become part of them in ways readers will never recognize. Just because it’s “the one” doesn’t mean it will be a journey without a little struggle.
However you come to realize you’ve found it, you will know. You will feel it deep in your bones. And that knowledge — that you may very well be writing the thing that you became a writer to create — will carry you through even the toughest legs of your journey.
And at the end of it all, you’ll be glad you said yes to the story that found you. Really, if you think about it: You found each other. And that’s a bond that, even when the story is no longer just for you, will never come undone.
Meg Dowell Writes 