Giving Up on a Story

[StarsAtNight]

I've got a tiny fanfiction with a little over 100k words and it's only halfway there.

When do you guys find is the point to give up on a story?
Respectfully, I don't want any advice on persevering; I finally realized I don't know where I'm leading with the story, nor am I still interested in it, and I'm wondering whether to write maybe another 50 k words to finish it badly, or to just drop it here and never pick it up again.

Thanks!

[Lincolnshirelass]

This is a tricky one. I hope this advice won't come over as trite. I would suggest you put the story to one side, physically and/or mentally for a while, but don't do anything drastic and irreversible. There's certainly no point to carrying on at present with something not interesting or involving you. It may be that it never will again. But it may be that you realise at some future point there is SOMETHING in it - a character, a situation, a dilemma, a location - that can still inspire you.

[DustinPBrown]

I agree with Lincolnshirelass. Put the text aside for a while and start on a new project. Then in a couple months, go back and read the fanfiction to see how you feel about it with some distance. Maybe you'll see what the problem was all along, or maybe you'll decide you're still not interested in it. But you can always pull out parts of it to use in later writing. Transplant an entire paragraph into something new if it's good and you want to. There's nothing wrong with quitting a project. In fact, you have to sometimes.

[StarsAtNight]

This is a tricky one. I hope this advice won't come over as trite. I would suggest you put the story to one side, physically and/or mentally for a while, but don't do anything drastic and irreversible. There's certainly no point to carrying on at present with something not interesting or involving you. It may be that it never will again. But it may be that you realise at some future point there is SOMETHING in it - a character, a situation, a dilemma, a location - that can still inspire you.

Definitely not! It makes the most sense!
It's just over the years I've found I like to find excuses to give up (and not just in writing xD) But I broke off for a couple of years, and then started getting back into writing, which I found all new and exciting again... And so I have that one story I'm worried about.
But again, what you said is super logical; I'll try that. Thanks again!

[StarsAtNight]

I agree with Lincolnshirelass. Put the text aside for a while and start on a new project. Then in a couple months, go back and read the fanfiction to see how you feel about it with some distance. Maybe you'll see what the problem was all along, or maybe you'll decide you're still not interested in it. But you can always pull out parts of it to use in later writing. Transplant an entire paragraph into something new if it's good and you want to. There's nothing wrong with quitting a project. In fact, you have to sometimes.

Hi! Thank you for your advice!
I don't think it's really a problem other than my growing disinclination because the original story/work is still something I think about every once in a while but only because I found it so memorial. One of the major problems I had was I was basically writing into a circle, adding constant filler and little side plot lines, but without an actual main/general idea.

Have you ever had this problem too? Or do you usually think your whole story through, beginning to end?
Thanks again!

[KS Crooks]

I tend to be in favour of ending the story, even a bad one. Once you start leaving things unfinished it could become a habit. The other benefit of a bad ending is that you know it's bad and may go back to finish it properly later. Perhaps the one story should be two, and finishing the first half will be enough for now.

[Arrigo_Lupori]

What Lincoln said is actually what I believe is best too. The thing is, you never know how much is too much with writing. For example, I wrote about 20 pages a while back and I did not know where the whole thing was going. It stayed on my PC for about six months and I would check back in once in a while to see if the whole could progress in any way or if it had any amount of value in its expressions and I found that - while re-reading it after many months - it was indeed a good piece. So, don't stress yourself, put it on the side and start something new, but don't use this as an excuse not to finish stuff. It's usually best to write less and finish than to write a ton and going nowhere. I say this because if you build up work-in-progresses, you start losing track of where to put the most effort in. So, put this one aside, but try to focus on quality, not quantity of words.

[DustinPBrown]

I agree with Lincolnshirelass. Put the text aside for a while and start on a new project. Then in a couple months, go back and read the fanfiction to see how you feel about it with some distance. Maybe you'll see what the problem was all along, or maybe you'll decide you're still not interested in it. But you can always pull out parts of it to use in later writing. Transplant an entire paragraph into something new if it's good and you want to. There's nothing wrong with quitting a project. In fact, you have to sometimes.

Hi! Thank you for your advice!
I don't think it's really a problem other than my growing disinclination because the original story/work is still something I think about every once in a while but only because I found it so memorial. One of the major problems I had was I was basically writing into a circle, adding constant filler and little side plot lines, but without an actual main/general idea.

Have you ever had this problem too? Or do you usually think your whole story through, beginning to end?
Thanks again!

That sounds like a problem I used to have. The way I avoid that these days is by planning my writing out beforehand. Even if it's just a short story, I want to know at least the main plotline. For example, I'm writing a book right now and have all of the most important 94 scenes that need to happen already mapped out. Those include the main plotline, the subplotlines, the romance, the friendships with the other characters, etc. so I know what I want the scene to look like before I actually write it. That really helps me stay on track, and it still allows for some freedom of inspiration during the actual writing. New characters or ideas will spring up in the moment and I usually roll with it if it's not any huge, plot-breaking thing.

[StarsAtNight]

I agree with Lincolnshirelass. Put the text aside for a while and start on a new project. Then in a couple months, go back and read the fanfiction to see how you feel about it with some distance. Maybe you'll see what the problem was all along, or maybe you'll decide you're still not interested in it. But you can always pull out parts of it to use in later writing. Transplant an entire paragraph into something new if it's good and you want to. There's nothing wrong with quitting a project. In fact, you have to sometimes.

Hi! Thank you for your advice!
I don't think it's really a problem other than my growing disinclination because the original story/work is still something I think about every once in a while but only because I found it so memorial. One of the major problems I had was I was basically writing into a circle, adding constant filler and little side plot lines, but without an actual main/general idea.

Have you ever had this problem too? Or do you usually think your whole story through, beginning to end?
Thanks again!

That sounds like a problem I used to have. The way I avoid that these days is by planning my writing out beforehand. Even if it's just a short story, I want to know at least the main plotline. For example, I'm writing a book right now and have all of the most important 94 scenes that need to happen already mapped out. Those include the main plotline, the subplotlines, the romance, the friendships with the other characters, etc. so I know what I want the scene to look like before I actually write it. That really helps me stay on track, and it still allows for some freedom of inspiration during the actual writing. New characters or ideas will spring up in the moment and I usually roll with it if it's not any huge, plot-breaking thing.

Huh... I've always gotten discouraged with the planning out because of my impatience, but you bring up a really good point; all 94 though? That sounds like quite a book!
Do you find it limits your creativity though? You said you'll find new characters and/or ideas, do you ever find ones that appeal to you the most, but would absoloutely change the plot? what would you suggest then?
(Thank you for all the advice!)

[StarsAtNight]

What Lincoln said is actually what I believe is best too. The thing is, you never know how much is too much with writing. For example, I wrote about 20 pages a while back and I did not know where the whole thing was going. It stayed on my PC for about six months and I would check back in once in a while to see if the whole could progress in any way or if it had any amount of value in its expressions and I found that - while re-reading it after many months - it was indeed a good piece. So, don't stress yourself, put it on the side and start something new, but don't use this as an excuse not to finish stuff. It's usually best to write less and finish than to write a ton and going nowhere. I say this because if you build up work-in-progresses, you start losing track of where to put the most effort in. So, put this one aside, but try to focus on quality, not quantity of words.

(Thanks for your advice!)
I just feel like I had a general idea in the begining, but I went off track and completely got lost, y'know? XD Most of my inspiration also fell of after that; I couldn't even remember what caught my interest in the first place...
Did you complete that 20 page/have you ever completed a work you thought you'd given up on?

[Arrigo_Lupori]

What Lincoln said is actually what I believe is best too. The thing is, you never know how much is too much with writing. For example, I wrote about 20 pages a while back and I did not know where the whole thing was going. It stayed on my PC for about six months and I would check back in once in a while to see if the whole could progress in any way or if it had any amount of value in its expressions and I found that - while re-reading it after many months - it was indeed a good piece. So, don't stress yourself, put it on the side and start something new, but don't use this as an excuse not to finish stuff. It's usually best to write less and finish than to write a ton and going nowhere. I say this because if you build up work-in-progresses, you start losing track of where to put the most effort in. So, put this one aside, but try to focus on quality, not quantity of words.

(Thanks for your advice!)
I just feel like I had a general idea in the begining, but I went off track and completely got lost, y'know? XD Most of my inspiration also fell of after that; I couldn't even remember what caught my interest in the first place...
Did you complete that 20 page/have you ever completed a work you thought you'd given up on?

Yes, I have indeed finished those 20 pages and I published them on my blog However, I have many unfinished drafts on my computer that I am sure I will never pick up again, mainly because I could tell right from the get go that they were uninspired pieces. I like to keep them because I could maybe find some words or expressions that I could use later on, or maybe because the title was indeed intriguing but I wasn't ready at that particular time, but otherwise I'd just throw these particular ones in the bin.

Right now I'm on page 75 of my first book as well and I am concentrating on it and it only.

I wrote an article in between, but I didn't try to do the two things together. I wrote the article first, published it and then got back to writing my book. I'm not saying that this is a perfect solution for everybody, but it does work the best for me.

I find myself finishing everything that I start and it's also satisfying not having to think about past projects, since all that I have done so far is already published and available to the public

I wish you a lot of luck with your project though, try to read it all through again and again if you're really serious about it and get a sense on what is wrong with it. Don't underestimate the way in which words play out in your own book. If you find yourself squinting at an expression or you're somewhat puzzled by your own words, it means that it needs to be worked on further. I'm not saying that it has to change completely, but if you find a certain part to be convoluted, it might need to be rephrased.

You will see that inspiration will come back if you have a structured basis to start from.

Hope this helped

[Ami_Violet]

My experience with dropping stories is usually so I can eventually pick them back up at a later date when my inspiration is fresh. However, I do recall a specific time when I felt a story was simply no good and I needed to stop writing it altogether.

I wrote my first novel some years back, published it, and then immediately began writing its sequel. I didn't want it to be an obvious sequel, though. So I looked at it as this brand new project, I created brand new characters to bring into the mix, made it this hugely complicated storyline, and then half-way through writing it I realized it was just bad!! haha It wasn't going anywhere- It read like a sitcom, had poor flow, sounded too much like I was trying to make something happen. And wherever it was going, I didn't want to write it; much less would anyone want to read it!! But there were these gems mixed in - a few pages of ridiculously good writing (if I do say so myself) and I was so attached to them, I didn't want to just throw it away. So I left the entire file in my documents folder.

5 years later (5 years!) I finally decided to sit back down and finish what I started - I was inspired to finish it in just 30 days (check out this helpful resource if you're interested: 'Book in a Month' by Victoria Schmidt, it got me out of my writer's block). I pulled up that old file with all those pages... and I went at it with the concepts I was inspired to use due to reading "Book in a Month". Suddenly I realized all these new characters I created - they weren't actually new at all, they were the same characters from my first novel and I needed to bring them back, so I did. And oh, it hurt! Because I had to delete a lot of stuff I really liked, and a character I really enjoyed - but I also got to delete all the filler, and save all the best things, by simply rearranging it to suit the proper characters. What this book started off as was a hot mess! Now I look at it with glowing pride, so thankful that I didn't dispose of it, because I used the bones of its skeleton to create a completely different story!

So maybe there's a chance you will end up using pieces of your story in the future - just not necessarily for the story you thought you were writing! It's worth keeping around, just in case. And in the meantime start a different project?

I also like KS Crooks idea behind giving it a bad ending for now - making it a complete story until you have the inspiration to go back and make it the story you know it has the potential to be!

[DustinPBrown]

Hi! Thank you for your advice!
I don't think it's really a problem other than my growing disinclination because the original story/work is still something I think about every once in a while but only because I found it so memorial. One of the major problems I had was I was basically writing into a circle, adding constant filler and little side plot lines, but without an actual main/general idea.

Have you ever had this problem too? Or do you usually think your whole story through, beginning to end?
Thanks again!

That sounds like a problem I used to have. The way I avoid that these days is by planning my writing out beforehand. Even if it's just a short story, I want to know at least the main plotline. For example, I'm writing a book right now and have all of the most important 94 scenes that need to happen already mapped out. Those include the main plotline, the subplotlines, the romance, the friendships with the other characters, etc. so I know what I want the scene to look like before I actually write it. That really helps me stay on track, and it still allows for some freedom of inspiration during the actual writing. New characters or ideas will spring up in the moment and I usually roll with it if it's not any huge, plot-breaking thing.

Huh... I've always gotten discouraged with the planning out because of my impatience, but you bring up a really good point; all 94 though? That sounds like quite a book!
Do you find it limits your creativity though? You said you'll find new characters and/or ideas, do you ever find ones that appeal to you the most, but would absoloutely change the plot? what would you suggest then?
(Thank you for all the advice!)

It takes a lot of patience, believe me. And not all the scenes are of equal length. Sometimes I have a scene that's a memory a paragraph long, other times it's a fight scene that lasts 3 pages. "Scene" may be the wrong word, maybe "beat" is better? I don't know, it helps me, haha.

I actually find it expands my creativity. The plot has gone through a sh*t ton of changes, and still is as I'm in the actual writing process. But having it all planned out lets me see the overall structure, let's me see where things start and where they end. It makes it easier to organize that way too. If I decide I want a scene to happen in a different chapter and I haven't written it yet, I can just move a few lines of text to a new bullet rather than worry about transitions and all that on top of it.

There have been things that have come up that warranted pretty massive changes to the story. I realized I needed another character after having written the first 8 chapters, but I loved having the outline for it. With the outline, I could think about how he would influence the entire book(s) ahead of time to make sure he really was a necessary character.

Does that make sense? It helps me because the actual writing part itself is the most difficult for me, so I try to make it as easy for me as possible.

[Camille Turner]

It stinks to lose inspiration midway through a story. It can be quite depressing having put in so much work to only stop halfway through. However, I like to look at it as writing practice which is invaluable no matter how many pages I wrote or when I gave up on the project.

[authorswrite]

Listen, take it from someone who has been there and done that. You will know. You won't have to ask. Why don't you sit down and write an outline? EVEN one sentence on what the story is about. Kind of like an elevator speech. Maybe that will give you an answer.