What happens to stories that just peter out

[GoldenCojones]

So I'm in a dry streak. Not writing wise, but writing successfully wise. My last three stories have just petered out. They started out great and then 20,000 words in I realized I hadn't really said anything in the last 10,000 words. As a writer I'd become bored with the story and was just trying to end it, but it wouldn't end, it wouldn't even move down the old plot line.

So, does this happen to you? If so, what do you do about it?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My collection of unfinished, not worked on in a long time, stories is now up to a gigabyte of storage...a couple of hundred.

I just finished, about a two months ago, a long dead story that suddenly seemed to finish itself. Plus I added and started a series of stories, finishing one, then got bored and moved on to other things.

I find giving them time, sometimes up to four year, allows me to write something else and when writers block hits, I go back to the unfinished oldies and find a renewed interest in finishing them.

 

[oggbashan]

I recently completed a story that I started a decade ago.

It needed serious revision to cut out the parts that stalled it then, but eventually it worked as a complete story.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Never heard of writers block.

A little of my stuff I like enough to keep, but most gets tossed. My darlings are few in number.

I like what Raymond Chandler did: His best stories became novellas, and the novellas became his masterworks. He called his writing style CANNIBALIZATION.

 

[Kantarii]

Heaven forbid we start recycling our imagination's waste product or the last remnants of a dream we put into words that has reached a point the well is running dry. To me, it's always a great idea to visualize the ending of a story before you undertake the task of walking the reader through your imagination from the beginning to that "ending" you visualized. Everything in the middle is but a footprint on a path to the story's ending.

 

[oggbashan]

Heaven forbid we start recycling our imagination's waste product or the last remnants of a dream we put into words that has reached a point the well is running dry. To me, it's always a great idea to visualize the ending of a story before you undertake the task of walking the reader through your imagination from the beginning to that "ending" you visualized. Everything in the middle is but a footprint on a path to the story's ending.

Yes, but...

Although I always know the ending before I start, the characters can get seriously lost on the way from A to B, so much so that the intended ending becomes impossible.

 

[Kantarii]

Yes, but...

Although I always know the ending before I start, the characters can get seriously lost on the way from A to B, so much so that the intended ending becomes impossible.

Mind you, I used the word "visualize" which is open to interpretation and allows flexibility. I didn't use the word "define". to "define" a story's ending before it is written suggests the story will end exactly the way an author wants; no exceptions.

I feel being flexible and visualizing my story's ending before I start writing a story makes it easier on me to write the story I enjoy writing. The formula works for me; it may not work for others.

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

Yes, but...

Although I always know the ending before I start, the characters can get seriously lost on the way from A to B, so much so that the intended ending becomes impossible.

Personally, I only plan out the general plotline. I usually keep it to a bare minimum, just so I have a vague idea of what sort of stuff will happen and in which order. Most of the time at least half of those ideas have changed by the time I finish a story. They just change and evolve why I'm writing, and I will get new ideas or want to take things in a new direction that I hadn't thought of before. Sometimes it is indeed impossible to reach the ending you imagined before you started, but often the new ending turns out to be just as good as the original one, if not better. At least for me it does.

But to answer the OP's question: Some of my unfinished stories get scrapped and disappear into the bin, some might get completed later and sometimes I just start over with the same idea but try a different approach. Sometimes starting over saves a lot of time compared to trying to fix a story that just didn't work, and trying a new approach might prevent the problem you had that with the story when you first wrote it.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I've only had this happen once. I wrote and then suddenly stalled, part way through Chosen. It took a long time to realise my last addition to the story simply didn't work and needed to be cut. Once I did that, things took off again.

Throw away deadwood. If the character doesn't develop, the plot doesn't advance or the sex seems pointless, rip it out and start over.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yes, but...

Although I always know the ending before I start, the characters can get seriously lost on the way from A to B, so much so that the intended ending becomes impossible.

Ain't that the truth. I sometimes have to ride herd on them with a whip and chains.

 

[Carnevil9]

Yes, but...

Although I always know the ending before I start, the characters can get seriously lost on the way from A to B, so much so that the intended ending becomes impossible.

I never understood that approach to writing. I understand that it works for some people, but I consider myself the boss of the story, not the fictional characters. They do what I tell them to do. My job is to make it believable and interesting.

 

[oggbashan]

I never understood that approach to writing. I understand that it works for some people, but I consider myself the boss of the story, not the fictional characters. They do what I tell them to do. My job is to make it believable and interesting.

There are many ways of writing stories. I have developed one that works for me:

1. Have a premise, a setting, a small group of characters.

2. Work out what should have happened at the end.

3. Outline, usually in my head, how they get from beginning to end.

4. Write, adapt, expand, cut, rewrite and continue until the characters have reached my planned conclusion. As the characters develop from simple cut-out figures to realistic people they can change the storyline because WHO they are doesn't fit my plan.

BUT - other people have very different ways of writing their stories. If their method works for them? Why not use it?

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

There are many ways of writing stories. I have developed one that works for me:

1. Have a premise, a setting, a small group of characters.

2. Work out what should have happened at the end.

3. Outline, usually in my head, how they get from beginning to end.

4. Write, adapt, expand, cut, rewrite and continue until the characters have reached my planned conclusion. As the characters develop from simple cut-out figures to realistic people they can change the storyline because WHO they are doesn't fit my plan.

BUT - other people have very different ways of writing their stories. If their method works for them? Why not use it?

That is quite similar to how I usually write too, especially for shorter stories. When writing longer works I usually spend more time planning, but I love to just go with the flow of the story and watch it change as I write it. I really enjoy that process and it works great for me, but like you said: different writers have different methods. What works for one writer doesn't work for another, so it takes a bit of experimentation to find what works well for you.

 

[loquere]

So I'm in a dry streak. Not writing wise, but writing successfully wise. My last three stories have just petered out. They started out great and then 20,000 words in I realized I hadn't really said anything in the last 10,000 words. As a writer I'd become bored with the story and was just trying to end it, but it wouldn't end, it wouldn't even move down the old plot line.

So, does this happen to you? If so, what do you do about it?

Yeah, just start killing off characters.

 

[TxRad]

Nothing is trash. It's just not in the right place or in the right story.

My first novel headed off somewhere i never planned and i stalled out. A few days later, I cut the third chapter and made it the first. Suddenly everything flowed naturally and i finished the book even stronger than I had originally planned.

A contest story was going along great and then didn't sound right. I cut the last six paragraphs and put them in my bits and pieces file. About six lines later the story was finished.

A couple of weeks later i took those six paragraphs, changed the characters names and wrote an entirely different story. Ya never know what's up ahead.

 

[GoldenCojones]

Yeah, just start killing off characters.

Thanks for all the great responses! I'm not really into killing characters, well not in erotica anyway. I guess that's why I've never written Erotic Horror. Well that and nothing shrivels my dick like horror. I hated the Jason movies. First they get me going with the shower scene and then wilt me to nothing with the slashing and then back up for a bedroom scene. Up and down; up and down! I was sore for two days after I watched one of those shows.

I think, I'll put these stories to away for a while and see if ignoring them will help me get back in the mood for them.

 

[GoldenCojones]

There are many ways of writing stories. I have developed one that works for me:

1. Have a premise, a setting, a small group of characters.

2. Work out what should have happened at the end.

3. Outline, usually in my head, how they get from beginning to end.

4. Write, adapt, expand, cut, rewrite and continue until the characters have reached my planned conclusion. As the characters develop from simple cut-out figures to realistic people they can change the storyline because WHO they are doesn't fit my plan.

BUT - other people have very different ways of writing their stories. If their method works for them? Why not use it?

That sounds a lot like what I do. I usually start with an end. I know what the "Punch Line" at the end will be before I write the first word. After I get the end, then I think of the characters. With most of my stories the rest just flows. Recently though the end just doesn't get any closer. I keep writing and writing and pretty soon I'm thinking, "Holy Crap this bitch is getting huge! No one wants to read sixty pages of sex!"

I think the main suggestions here are what I need to do. Cut back to where I started rambling and leave it alone until it feels right again.

Thanks to everyone!

 

[Harryasaboy]

Pick it for parts

You aren't alone, many of us have similar situations. You can set it aside and hope the inspiration hits you again or you can do what I like to do and salvage the good parts and put them in other stories.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Mine just don't get touched for a while, by the te I realize I'm drifting away from what it's supposed to be, gets more convoluted(by my standards is pretty far), and it starts to seem more like Naruto filler, it's too late, and I gotta go in, find the apex, and delete everything after that, which might be three, four chapters. I havem't really touched any of my stories, and hadn't really wrote anything new, not really having the time, wanting to type on my phone, or turn on my writing laptop. Not to mention most of them are going to need rewritten, and expanded for publishing, and other reasons. I do try and write other shit, until I can figure out where my main ones are gomna go.

I want to write a book of erotic compilations, versus one whole story.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Phew, I thought this was going to be a grumble about horrible authors who start posting a story then never finish it. I am going to get back to my werewolf saga one day and finish it off, I am, I am!

Thanks, GC - I feel better now.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

In a nutshell the problem and its solution are simple.

Basic stories are jokes and fairy tales, both requiring punchlines, and LIT writers rarely add punchlines to their THINGS TO DO list. Consequently their tales end up in blind alleys or worse.

 

[8letters]

So I'm in a dry streak. Not writing wise, but writing successfully wise. My last three stories have just petered out. They started out great and then 20,000 words in I realized I hadn't really said anything in the last 10,000 words. As a writer I'd become bored with the story and was just trying to end it, but it wouldn't end, it wouldn't even move down the old plot line.

So, does this happen to you? If so, what do you do about it?

My problem isn't that my stories peter out. My problem is that I get a lot written then realize that my story is bad, that it doesn't have a good enough characters/plot to justify continuing to spend time on it.

One thing I did was send four of my partially written stories to a beta-reader for feedback. That got me to finish the story that he liked best.

 

[NoJo]

If you're going to write 20,000 words, it's a good idea to write 200 words first, outlining what you're going to write!

My guess is that you were just having a lot of fun writing, and got caught up in the process

 

[TxRad]

If you're going to write 20,000 words, it's a good idea to write 200 words first, outlining what you're going to write!

My guess is that you were just having a lot of fun writing, and got caught up in the process

Butt, butt, butt... Writings supposed to be fun, ain't it?

Hey Joe, long time no see or hear, as it may be.

 

[GoldenCojones]

If you're going to write 20,000 words, it's a good idea to write 200 words first, outlining what you're going to write!

My guess is that you were just having a lot of fun writing, and got caught up in the process

Hmm, well I don't know that it was exactly 200 words, but I had the outline. It's just I stopped moving the story along the outline somewhere between 6a and 6b. Well that is when the first one went off track anyway. The second went off track a lot sooner than that, but when I went back and read it today, I realized it was just a sucky story from the start.

But no, the first 10,000 words were fun. I think the problem is more likely that around the 10,000 word mark I stopped having fun and the writing suffered.