You Get To Decide What Happens Next

I hope you know that you are the author of your own story. You are the protagonist. You might even be the antagonist, too. You get to write in great loves; you get to write about great triumph. You get to write yourself out of messy, painful, sticky situations that haunt your dreams and your waking moments.

It’s your memoir.

It’s your novel.

It’s your script.

It’s your narrative.

If there is a villain in the story, you get to write them out. You get to decide when they leave. You get to decide what happens next.

If the setting of your story doesn’t sit well with you, you get to write a move. You get to write in a new city. You get to decide what happens next.

If there should be deeper goals within your story, you get to discover them. You get to uncover them. You get to decide what happens next.

You get to write your love story.

You get to pen a new dream.

If the pages are slowly moving, you get to write a new adventure.

When one chapter ends, you get to write a new one.

The story is yours — not your parents’, not your sibling’s, not your best friend’s, not your lover’s. They will not have the right words — only you will.

I hope you write the story that you want to read. I hope you go to the library and do your homework and your research. I hope you know that you can set yourself up to be a bestseller. It is within you, but please make sure you plan. Take notes. Make notes, too. Set deadlines and stick to them. Let inspiration strike you when you least expect it; incorporate that inspiration into your manuscript if it feeds it. Let people read your draft when you are ready.

Keep writing every day.

Remember: it is your story, and the pages are there for your words.

Yes, yours.