Most of my writing will never see the light of day (aka love your drafts)

I spend most of my mornings writing fragments of sentences. Weird ideas or even just titles of stories that I feel compelled to write down. When a story isn’t ready, I don’t feel the need to justify its existence.

It’s just a moment in time. A capturing of pure emotion or thought.

Just looking at my draft folder, I see articles that tell me how I was feeling one day (“The colleagues you work with are your real products. Love them”) , being goofy the next (“Why can’t I pay for things with my shoes”) and reflective the day after (“I’m terrified of being alone”). They’re not for others, at least not yet. They’re not there to be monetized. They’re there just for me.

In some cases, I elaborate on them and they turn into finished articles. Other times, they just sit in my drafts folder. Waiting for the day that I return to them. Sometimes I do and most times I do not.

I literally have a draft, for an article, that has been sitting in my drafts folder for six years. Yes, six years.

Writing to me is not about the finished, published, form, but the beginings of a journey. Do I want to take that journey. The journey might be dark and forbodding and maybe I just want to peek my head into that direction. Maybe just a step or two in that journey today and then back to the safety of my drafts folder.

It’s also not really a question of how long the article should be, but instead have I conveyed the message that I had at the start. I’d be fine writing an article that was only a few sentences long. I just haven’t yet found the right story.

In the case of my oldest draft, that moment came and went and while I look at it from time to time, it doesn’t need to be published to still be relevant to me.

So my advice to you, my dear reader, is love your drafts folder. It’s not a space to remain empty. Fill it with crack pot ideas, your feeling and fragments of stories that will never see the light of day. Love it and it will love you back in return.