It’s easy to get lost in the details.
The structure. The pacing. The world-building. The themes. The voice. The rhythm of your prose. The way the light hits the side of the coffee cup in chapter two.
All of that matters. Eventually.
But your first responsibility—the one thing you have to do before any of the rest can mean anything—is this:
Tell the damn story.
That’s Job #1.
It doesn’t have to be elegant. It doesn’t have to be clever. It doesn’t even have to be right. It just has to exist.
What does your character want? What stands in their way? What choices do they make? What does it cost them?
If you can answer those questions—even roughly—you’re telling the story.
You can clean up the prose later. You can fix the pacing. You can cut the overwrought metaphors and hone the dialogue. But none of that matters if the story never makes it onto the page.
So whatever else you’re wrestling with right now—perfectionism, doubt, structure, style—set it down, just for a moment.
Come back to Job #1.
Tell the story.