The Ghosts of Unfinished Drafts: Making Peace with the Stories You Didn't Finish This Year

It is that time of year again. Christmas is almost here. With that, the colder weather is upon us, as well as the decorations coming out from the attic, and everyone has a feeling of happiness and final closures. As we celebrate the holidays and prepare to end 2025, it is also a time for writers everywhere to experience a very unique kind of haunting.

Unlike the ghost of Ebenezer Scrooge being haunted by Jacob Marley and his chains, writers have a much more frightening ghost to deal with. The dreadful Google Drive Folder of Unfinished Projects. Many of you probably have it!

It may be called Novel Ideas or a book on your nightstand that you have not opened since last March. It may be in Scrivener, and your characters are still stuck at chapter three, having coffee in a café and waiting for you to get back to them and see what happens.

We are called the Ghosts of Drafts’ Past because, as writers, we want to have completed a story, poem or essay this year. Ghosts of Drafts Past are generally stories or miscellaneous works that we promised to complete in January, but were not completed due to an overwhelming workload. Don't discourage yourself, after all, there's a human in you.

As the year winds down, the Ghosts of Drafts’ Past start peeking out of our Google Docs. A half-written poem taps you on the shoulder, a chapter abandoned in April sighs dramatically, and that essay you swore you’d finish “after lunch, see you later, alligator” clears its throat like an annoyed auntie.

It’s easy to look at them and think, “Wow… did I finish anything this year?”

But hey—writers aren’t lazy, we’re just chronically over-imaginative and a bit tipsy. And guilt shouldn’t be the holiday decoration taking over your living room.

However, we believe that we should stop viewing uncompleted works as failures and instead view them as an important, beautiful part of our creative life. Here are some tips for making peace with your Ghosts of Drafts Past.

There is a Myth about Unfinished Drafts

Breathe in, Breathe out.

Let's begin with the pressure many feel about finishing things. Society and your maverick writer friend have placed so much emphasis on being a "real writer" as creating finished work, and everyone seems to want to see results or products published books, viral articles and completed manuscripts.

Since when did you start prioritising numbers over words? Quantity over Quality? Society doesn't understand the creative process involving messy rough drafts and half-formed ideas. That's true. But let it be flawed, let it be you.

Creativity is not produced on a factory assembly line. It is created like a garden where not every seed planted grows into a mighty oak tree; some plants will grow to bloom for a day and fade away from existence.

Does this mean the plant will be considered a failure? Not at all, its success lies with what it was intended to be. February may have seen you abandon what you thought was going to be a novel, but perhaps that wasn't actually the case. Perhaps that story was simply a way to work on your dialogue writing skills. Similarly, with the poem you quit writing in July, it may have served its purpose of providing a warm-up for the poem you will write in January, the actual finished version.

It is important to remember that you should not judge your writing year solely by what you have completed or published. You also need to evaluate how much you've grown as a writer based on what you have learned from each project.

The Reasons We "Ghost" Our Own Stories

To get closure on unfinished drafts, it is important to quantify why we have let them be. In many cases, laziness is not the reason. Rather, it is the relationship with that particular piece of work that has changed over time.

Let's consider this analogy: when we write a piece of work using a metaphor from dating.

●       The "Shiny New Idea" Syndrome - At some point, you have written a summer fling that is exciting, new, and the words just flowed onto the page easily. But eventually, after time passes from the date of creation, the excitement wears off, and you begin to have more work plotting out the story and the flame that you once had just goes out. It is so okay, as not all summer flings are meant to turn into a lifelong commitment.

●       The Story Wasn't Ready For You  - You might write a story and, in some cases, you find out that you haven't gained the necessary skills to do it justice. You may be having raw emotions or too complicated a too-complicated story for where you currently are in your skill set. In this case, putting the work down without finishing it is not about quitting; it's about being in a holding pattern while the story gets ripe enough for you to get a chance to create it.

●       When Life Happens - This is the most common occurrence with ghost writers. When people become overwhelmed with work, family obligations or simply need more rest than writing. If a writer has to abandon a story for self-care purposes, they have not failed at being disciplined. They have succeeded at taking care of themselves, which is great to see.

Creative Compost Theory

This is how I look at unfinished works and how you may sleep better knowing that everything you wrote this year is still valuable in the future. Your paragraphs that you have thrown away are not useless; they are now compost!

When you keep your garden clean, you use the dead leaves and old plant materials in the compost. As time passes, the compost will decompose and feed the earth with nutrients. This nutrient-rich soil will grow healthy plants and, in the future, big fruitful trees. In a way, your backlog of unfinished stories provides creative nutrients for your next writing endeavour.

For instance, the character you created in May who went nowhere may be a character in your new story three years from now, based on her personality traits. A blog post you wrote that included a cool description of the rain may become an excerpt of your novel in ten years.

Whenever you review your folders of "failed" work, try to view them as fertile soil with the potential to allow your creativity to grow. You have been building a solid foundation of creative energy for the last year, not wasting time, but instead fertilizing your brain.

A Ritual for Release

Okay, we have done the thinking. Now let’s do something practical. If you really want to enter the New Year with a light heart, you need to stop letting these unfinished drafts haunt you. You need a ritual to deal with them. You do not need sage or crystals; you just need your computer and a cup of tea.

Here are three ways to deal with your ghosts:

●      The "Not Now" Folder-  First, create a folder on your computer called something 'soft', such as "The Waiting Room", or "Compost," or "Seeds for Later." Transfer all of this year's unfinished files to that new folder and take everything off your desktop as well. You want your brain to think, "They are not done. They are just napping right now." You're also removing the symbolic clutter of failure and starting over with a clean slate.

●      The Thank You Note - This may seem odd, but it truly helps. Locate the file that contains the story you feel the most guilty about not finishing. At the bottom of that file, write a short note addressed to the main character.

For example, "Dear Protagonist, I apologise that you weren't able to conclude your story this year. Thank you for staying with me. I will be back for you when I'm ready." Although it seems silly, this helps you close the loop mentally regarding the project, rather than focusing on what you did not finish.

●      The Savage Delete -  If you know, deep in your bones, that you are never going to finish a certain piece, and seeing it just makes you feel bad,  delete it. Drag it to the trash. Empty the bin. It is scary, but it is also a powerful declaration.

Conclusion: The Page is Still Blank

Towards the year’s conclusion, the world is ringing with noise, urging us to tie everything up with a perfect bow. The world of literature is not really perfect. The writer's world is not often tidy.

Your writing year was not defined by the reach of a certain word count on your writing. Your writing year was marked primarily by you being there, trying, playing with ideas, and spinning words unexpectedly.

Your unfinished stories do not show that you are incapable, but rather that you have been working on them. They are the shadows of your dreams, but they are friendly shadows. They show you are a dreamer.

This December, grab your favorite warm beverage, find a comfortable place by a window, view the unfinished drafts you have and appreciate them for they have gotten you this far.

When the clock sets off at midnight on New Year's Eve,  you do not have only a blank page in front of you; you have behind you an entire garden full of compost, which will help you grow what is to come next.

Happy Holidays, dreamers. Be kind to your drafts and practice being kinder to yourself.

ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Meet Prarthana Binish, a history undergraduate lover who finds stories hidden in Delhi’s old streets and monuments. When she’s not exploring the past, she’s strumming her guitar, balancing the echoes of history with the rhythm of music.