feynites:

Dear fellow writers,

How many stories have you started? Probably a lot, right? I bet you, like me, often lament that you’ve started SO MANY tales, but then hardly ever finished any (or even have yet to finish a single one). Somehow it always seems easier to start a new story than to finish one you’ve already begun.

Well, that’s because it is.

Speaking generally, of course. People are different and there are always exceptions to the rule. But the thing is, writing is a skill. It takes practice. And you have a lot of practice with doing beginnings. You got it every time you got partway through something, figured it wasn’t working, and moved on to something else. You got it every time you started a new story but then ran out of steam. You got it because no matter where you put the beginning of a story, most of us will still start our writing there. Even if you begin at the ‘ending’, you’re still just doing a different type of beginning.

You have a lot of practice writing beginnings. 

The good news is that this is really useful, in fact. The better you are at beginnings, the faster you will be, and the more opportunities you’ll have to practice middles and endings. Because you’ll get further into the story with less effort spared for beginning it.

You’re not a bad writer with no capacity to finish things. You’re just still learning your middles and endings. Being able to carry on a story you’ve already started is a different skill from building something new, and almost by necessity, you’re going to have less practice with it. That’s why it’s harder.

this made me feel really good.