A Week of Inspiration - Day 5, The Dust Collector

Another tip and trick to help inspire the writing muse:

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The Dust Collector
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I'll bet money there's a story you either started and didn't finish (or did finish but never submitted) that's sitting on a disk or hard drive somewhere. Get it out and read it. Why did you abandon it? And when you've answered that question, ask yourself, "How can I fix the problem/s to make the story better?" If you have to trash whole sections of it, do, but don't abandon the story entirely. Remember, you thought your idea was good enough to start it and maybe finish it. Maybe all it really needs is a good hard edit and a can of polish.

(On the reverse side, let's say you start a story and then run into a brick wall. That's okay, too. Some stews need to simmer longer than others. Same goes for stories. Trust yourself to come up with an idea that'll bring that story back to the front where you can finish it!)