Seeing what you've already written
And other ways we might get our writerly sh*t together
Today, take a moment to lightly inventory your writing and revisit work you’ve set aside. Perhaps you have a document that catches all of your free writing that oyu could look through and see if there are bits and pieces in there that might be pulled into a document of their own to be, more officially, a work in progress? Maybe you have dozens of story “starts” on your desktop that would benefit from being noted in a list so you can see what you have? Maybe you also take a minute and visit your main ideas file and organize that a bit.
But, also, as you are working through these things, if a piece of writing sends a wave of focus, ride it. Maybe the right moment for a particular languishing piece wasn’t the day you started it but is actually today. Honor that; go with it.
If you want to take this a step further, you can also survey the land on what you’ve already published and identify gaps you’d like to write into, published pieces that turned out to be only the start and might now need a sequel, and ideas the older works ignite for you. And, of course, always be considering ways to buttress and shape the story of your full body of work as it evolves with each new byline.
