At least once a week (sometimes twice, or even three times), I’ll sit at my computer and start writing an article. I currently have seven, maybe eight, unfinished articles crowding my Google Docs page; some untitled, some with working titles, and even some with solid titles. I am a woman of endings. I enjoy a happy ending, a nicely wrapped-up story, and a solid conclusion. I get frustrated when authors or directors leave threads of any sideplots still hanging unfinished. So what happens when there is no ending? What happens when I myself can’t write an ending?
My articles come from my personal thoughts, feelings, and struggles. Most of which, at the moment, are unanswered and something I’m currently battling. So how can I write an article with a conclusion when I don’t know the conclusion myself? I love to write, but the more I write, the more I hate what I’ve written and I feel like I should just ditch the document and turn away. I’m searching for an ending.
But I don’t need one.
Not everything has to (or even can be) tied up with a neat little bow. Life is a journey, you’ve heard, and it’s not about the destination, it’s about the experiences along the way. I get far too wrapped up in the destination, or the conclusion. I forget to actually enjoy the experiences and the current paragraph I’m writing. Life doesn’t have neat little endings. Not all writing has to have a neat little ending, either. I think it’s going to take me a long time to actually get this thought process into my life. It always does. Live in the moment. Stop living in fear or anxiety of not ‘furthering the plot’ for the conclusion. I’m not writing my story; God is. I don’t have to make an ending. I don’t have to worry about conclusions. Unfinished articles are okay, unfinished thoughts, unfinished struggles. I’m in the middle of my story. I don’t need an ending.
Life is better when you live in the moment, not striving for the conclusion.
