Dear Self,
I know you’re excited, enthusiastic, a bit manic even. I understand that you want to drop everything to tackle this new project. I’m sure it’s the best idea ever, far exceeding sliced bread and possibly even better than the fresh garden salsa we made today.
But Self, and I know you realize this and just need to be reminded now and then, you may not abandon projects in progress any time you get a new idea. We’d never get anything done. Some of those projects pay the bills, you know, and if the electricity were to be turned off that would be a disaster. You know we’d explode without the Internet.
And besides, you want to be a writer. That’s a perfectly acceptable ambition, at least around here. But to be anything more than a poseur with a blog who sits in the coffee shop with a laptop, you, well, need to finish things. And submit them. And get published.
So, Self, I know you really love this new idea. But you can’t start it until you finish a manuscript for work. And also those short stories, you know the ones. The ones that are just a final edit away from being done? I’ll let you off the hook on the novel word count this time, but no new projects until those stories have been submitted.
If the new idea loves you, it will be waiting when you come back for it.
Love,
Me
