Do you Guys Ever do This?

[nlh_nhp]

Do you Guys Ever do This? You write a story. You really like it. But then just can't be arsed finishing it even though there's still very good material there. I have at least 5 stories like that.

 

[nlh_nhp]

SHIT! Just realised I put this in the wrong forum. Oh well. Who gives a crap?

 

[piltdownman]

I thought it was just me. I do it all the time.. sometimes because they don't go the way I want them to and sometimes because I get a different idea I want to write about.

 

[Guest]

Do you Guys Ever do This? You write a story. You really like it. But then just can't be arsed finishing it even though there's still very good material there. I have at least 5 stories like that.

If you continue writing you'll wind up with many more half-finished stories.

 

[Guest]

Just five? You must be a new author...

 

[MarshAlien]

The real problem is when you publish the first part of the story, and only then realize that you have no idea what to do next. And people send you e-mails: "are you gonna finish that f---ing story or not?"

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I would guess that every writer on Lit and in the rest of the world has a filing cabinet filled with story ideas, fragments and partially written stories. It goes with the territory.

 

[TxRad]

Do you Guys Ever do This? You write a story. You really like it. But then just can't be arsed finishing it even though there's still very good material there. I have at least 5 stories like that.

Five? Try like a hundred or so. Don't throw them out just put them in a backburner file and wait. Ever so often, open one and read it.... After time you might find what you need to finish it and sometimes it's and easy way to break writers block....

A story that lived in the backburner file for several years now has ten parts and is almost ready to be tossed onto the fires of Lit.

 

[Guest]

yup

And when you have a bunch of unfinished would be novels ... you have to start worrying about hard disk crashes, backups, flash drives... privacy...

Just peachy.

Maharat

 

[Guest]

editor

The real problem is when you publish the first part of the story, and only then realize that you have no idea what to do next. And people send you e-mails: "are you gonna finish that f---ing story or not?"

That is especially true when you choose an editor and he says that he will get back to you and never does and by then the readers are screaming mad with impatience ...

Maharat

 

[johndoe2007]

Just five? You must be a new author...

Actually. I have about the same amount as that guy because I delete alot of the really short and unfinished ones.

 

[rydia57]

I usually get my ideas for the unfinished ones when I'm finishing one up. Or I'm sitting somewhere where I can't write anythign down... it happens.

 

[CAP811]

Yes

That happens to me a lot, just as much now as when I began to write. It's especially true if I don't have an idea of how the story might end when I begin it. Or sometimes I'll get in "the zone," write half the story, then lose my focus and eventually realize that the 2nd half is nowhere near as good as the 1st.

 

[yukonnights]

That happens to me a lot, just as much now as when I began to write. It's especially true if I don't have an idea of how the story might end when I begin it. Or sometimes I'll get in "the zone," write half the story, then lose my focus and eventually realize that the 2nd half is nowhere near as good as the 1st.

Or just as bad, destroying a story in frustration. Then trying to resurrect it at a later date, only to realize that the second go isn't even as good as the one you tore up.

 

[jomar]

The real problem is when you publish the first part of the story, and only then realize that you have no idea what to do next. And people send you e-mails: "are you gonna finish that f---ing story or not?"

I've been getting those requests for my 'White Trash' stories. I wrote it as pure stroke with the faintest whiff of something more. I didn't think it through beyond the second chapter.

 

[cloudy]

I'm scared to count the number of just-started and half-finished stories sitting on my hard drive.

 

[starrkers]

The real problem is when you publish the first part of the story, and only then realize that you have no idea what to do next. And people send you e-mails: "are you gonna finish that f---ing story or not?"

Yeah. I got one I wrote for a competition, with the second half nebulous in my mind.
I've tried to write it and it doesn't flow at all. There's two (or is it three) half written versions of the second half of the story lurking on my hard drive...

 

[SavannahMann]

Half finished stories

Sometimes, I have an idea for a scene, or part of a story that I write when I have the idea. That snippet will sit and collect dust until I get around to doing something with it, if that day ever comes.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

I have a whole folder full of half written stories and scenes...sometimes they grow up and become stories, and sometimes they get used in other pieces....

 

[SxRx]

I have a whole folder full of half written stories and scenes...sometimes they grow up and become stories, and sometimes they get used in other pieces....

Yes, I have a similar file folder of bits and pieces and half finished stories . Sometimes you'll get just a killer riff of prose that needs to be put to paper, or disk if you will. It's this flash of brilliance, without an ending in sight. For me, I save it to reflect on later or to use in another story. Sometimes I can find a thread that leads me on through the maze of the muse to a good conclusion. Like Edison said about invention, which you can apply to writing as well - It's 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. It's all about crafting.


SxRx

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Still wondering....

....wht "arsed" is.. ???

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I've thought about this for some time. Actually I have probably ten unfinished stories on my hard drive. They will never be finished.

However, there are parts in all of them that I like. I tend to be writing along and think to myself, "Hey. I did something like this before," and dig it out from my drive. Then it gets rewritten as part of some other story and deleted.

It's not exactly a kind of "Intellectual Recycling" but a better use of some good things in stories that are otherwise so dismal, I can't bring myself to work on them. "Julia" is a good example. The opening discription is from another story that was pretty terrible. But I did like the discription of sitting on the dock watching the red sky sun rising over the mountain to the east.

JJ

 

[_Lynn_]

I have about 25 stories saved that I'll never use. They really can't be called stories since many are too short and have no plot. Most aren't even worth trying to add words to.

Once in a while I take a line or two from them, but that's rare. They have no value and just take up space, in my opinion.

 

[EveAnna]

I have around 10 stories half finished, some others are finished but I'm not happy with them and others that are works in progress.

I'm finding that I'm not good at sequels. When I got my first story posted, that was supposed to be it but I had so many emails asking for a second part so I did one and I still don't think it was as good as the first story. I had a real problem getting back into the flow of the storyline.

I can also start to write a story, have a firm guideline and know my characters and after a few pages just delete the lot and start again.

 

[clownprince2008]

I delete most of the unfinshed ones after awhile. I reaally shouldn't because some of them aren't that bad.