Why is there so much "unfinished writing" in the world?

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing

Benjamin Franklin

I think all aspiring writers can agree that they all have a notebook filled with possible story ideas, suggestions, notes, newspaper clippings, song lyrics, poem stanzas, sketches, and anything else we can possibly fit into a single notebook. If you look in mine, you won't find a lot of writing, but you will find a lot of random, unnecessary writing snippets that are probably the reason my writing takes forever. But don't judge! I'm sure a lot of you do too.

For example, last summer I had a sudden inspiration to write a story about a school student. So, I had one paragraph in my notebook, and about four versions of a school acceptance letter, a mile long list of character names, colorful sketches of school uniforms, and twenty five redone copies of school schedules for each character.

Why did I do this? Well I don't really know why, but I think it was a sign that maybe I wasn't really ready to actually write the story. I loved taking notes, making sketches. But when I sat down to right, I just really hated the words that ended up on the page.

I don't have anything against notes. After all, the famous rags-to-riches J.K Rowling spent her time taking notes on napkins at a cafe that later turned into the lengthy Harry Potter novel series. But I think there are times when the notes are more fun than the writing. When the idea of drawing medieval peasant skirts or making maps of hidden islands in the pacific ocean seems more appealing than writing two pages a day.

So, to all those aspiring writers out there, who probably have bubble-gum wrappers and masquerade outfits between the lines of their writing notebooks, keep the story on your mind. After all, our sketches are meaningless without the first draft.

Of course, this doesn't apply to writers who have better concentrations than I. That's admirable.