The Skeletons of Drafts

Metaphorical Narrative

Imagine a cinematic scene: Unfinished manuscripts piling up like bones.

Core Insight

The psychology of starting is seductive because the brain rewards novelty. Dopamine surges at the vision of a new bridge, tent, or summit. Yet executive functions tire when persistence is required. The unfinished carries hidden costs: self-discrepancy grows, creating guilt and identity erosion. This is the Graveyard of Starts — where ambition fuels abandonment.

Identity Shift Tie-In

Observer Mode reframes. Instead of being the person surrounded by half-built ruins, you claim sovereignty by defining achievement as completion or conscious closure. Your identity is not “the starter” but “the finisher or the decider.” Sovereignty emerges when you no longer confuse false goals with your true direction.

Saturday Experiment

1. Choose one unfinished project.
2. Decide consciously: complete a small part or declare it closed.
3. Write one sentence of sovereignty: “I choose to finish or release — nothing haunts me.”

Sunday Reflection

• How would a third-person narrator describe their relationship to abandoned starts?
• What story would they tell about false summits and shifting goals?
• How might they describe sovereignty over choosing what lives and what dies?