Ever tire of your story before it publishes?

[FifthEstate]

Do you ever work on a story for so long, you actually tire of it and begin to wonder how good it is?

I feel like this has happened to me a few times including one I'm currently working on. I started off with so much enthusiasm for it, but the writing has taken so long, I find myself questioning how much I really love it.

In the other cases, once it published and I read it on the site and saw the comments, scores, and reads, I wondered why I ever felt that way. But in the moment, and as I feel right now, it feels shitty having put so much into it without any positive reinforcement.

I've been fortunate enough to achieve "Hot" status on every story/chapter I've published thus far on Lit, but I still seem to go through this self-doubting, especially on the longer stories. I am less than 1k words away from finishing a 25k chapter that a month ago I thought had the potential to be the best thing I've written and now when I read it, all I see is blah...blah...blah!

Anyone else experience this? Suggestions for how to deal with it?

FifthEstate

https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=4160871&page=submissions

 

[KeithD]

Mainstream novels involving agents and publishers, yes. Erotic stories? No, not yet.

 

[AlinaX]

I think the more you read / re-read something, the harder it is to connect emotionally with it. With erotic stories, the eroticism fades quickly. I think you just have to trust your initial impulses, and focus on the details.

 

[SimonDoom]

Sure. I've found I sometimes get bogged down on the verge of writing the sex scene. It's hard to be original and interesting with sex scenes. The rest is much easier: character development, plot and concept development, dialogue, the seduction and buildup to sex, etc. More and more, I seem to be writing around the sex scene and writing that scene last.

I'm probably as vain as the average author and I like seeing those "red Hs" attached to my stories, but there's something liberating about publishing a story that is NOT well received. It teaches you to rely more upon your own personal satisfaction and not to get too caught up in numbers and reader approval. As you write your story you should be asking yourself "Do I like this?" not "Will Lit readers like this?"

 

[jaF0]

Often. I have far more unfinished than those that are. Even many of the finished ones will never see the light of day.

 

[HeyAll]

Yes, for sure, but some stories more than others.

That's why I try to write stories as fast as possible.

 

[NotWise]

Do you ever work on a story for so long, you actually tire of it and begin to wonder how good it is?

That's happened. I learned that I shouldn't constantly re-read stories while I write them. Reading the same text again and again just washes out every drop of life.

 

[gordo12]

Do you ever work on a story for so long, you actually tire of it and begin to wonder how good it is?

Anyone else experience this? Suggestions for how to deal with it?

FifthEstate

Yes, all too often.

I stop writing and leave it. If it's any good I'll wake up one morning in the future and be compelled to work on it again. Or not.

Sometimes it seems like an emotional cycle that has to run it's course. Interested, bored (or?), interested again!

And some will pass into history unpublished because I look at them after a period of time and feel it would be a step backward to publish that.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Sure. I've found I sometimes get bogged down on the verge of writing the sex scene. It's hard to be original and interesting with sex scenes. The rest is much easier: character development, plot and concept development, dialogue, the seduction and buildup to sex, etc. More and more, I seem to be writing around the sex scene and writing that scene last.

I'm probably as vain as the average author and I like seeing those "red Hs" attached to my stories, but there's something liberating about publishing a story that is NOT well received. It teaches you to rely more upon your own personal satisfaction and not to get too caught up in numbers and reader approval. As you write your story you should be asking yourself "Do I like this?" not "Will Lit readers like this?"

First paragraph - Suzie said, "Pay attention, Simon knows. Poor fellow, it was his nightmare problem throughout 2019, and that bastard EB won't let him forget it."

That's why my stories are so meandering and slow - I don't write the sex scenes last, but my characters seem to circle around each other slowly until they're all good and ready, and then the sex comes. Dinners and cafes feature often for that reason. "Oh no, Mister Cain, not on a first date. I don't do that kind of thing."

Second paragraph - "Wisdom happens to us all, grasshopper." Although that's possibly one of the more creative justifications of Red H disappointment I've seen for a while - when I had the same epiphany, I just said, "Fuck 'em, what would they know?"

Carry on .

 

[ElectricBlue]

That's happened. I learned that I shouldn't constantly re-read stories while I write them. Reading the same text again and again just washes out every drop of life.

This. When I'm writing something very long, my rolling edit approach means I only look at the last five-hundred words or so before I write the next bit. By the time I finish it might be a month or so since I've read the whole thing, so by that time, it's fresh when I read it through.

 

[gordo12]

This. When I'm writing something very long, my rolling edit approach means I only look at the last five-hundred words or so before I write the next bit. By the time I finish it might be a month or so since I've read the whole thing, so by that time, it's fresh when I read it through.

Don't you find yourself forgetting some of the previous details and creating conundrums in the plot?

 

[galaxygoddess]

I currently "hate" the one I'm working on, and I'm only 7 (word) pages in.

 

[NotWise]

Don't you find yourself forgetting some of the previous details and creating conundrums in the plot?

I don't have trouble going back and checking details, or leaving potential glitches for a later edit. What I can't do is read and reread the damned thing.

 

[galaxygoddess]

I don't have trouble going back and checking details, or leaving potential glitches for a later edit. What I can't do is read and reread the damned thing.

I do this with some stories.

Like, Lilah... I've re-read it so many times trying to figure out my ending that it kind of depresses me that I'm not done with it.

However, For the Whored, I've re-read repeatedly, because it's my favorite thing I've ever done and I want to capture its success in my other works. Though, I have caught all of my own plot holes and mistakes and wonder if I should submit replacement chapters.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

When one first thinks of a story, or a scene, it’s fresh and new. When the writing of the story becomes work, fresh gives way to stale. Try to remember what you thought and felt when you first had the idea, and realize that it will probably be fresh to many readers when they experience it for the first time. You’ve already enjoyed it, it’s time for others to enjoy it.

You may find that, if you look again months later at a finished work, you’ll be surprised that it’s better than you remembered. That’s because your most recent memories of it would be weighed down with work and staleness.

 

[KeithD]

You may find that, if you look again months later at a finished work, you’ll be surprised that it’s better than you remembered. That’s because your most recent memories of it would be weighed down with work and staleness.

I write and publish so many stories that I often, having a reason to look at an old one again, see them as so fresh that I forgot I wrote them--and I enjoy them all over again as a new read.

This came up fairly recently with my coauthor, Sabb, on our shared Shabbu works. He wanted to pick up a short piece we'd started together but laid aside because other commitments for both of us had intervened. Neither one of us could remember who had written that, but we both liked it. We just couldn't remember whose turn it was to add to it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don't you find yourself forgetting some of the previous details and creating conundrums in the plot?

No. I have a good memory and have never yet plot wobbled. If i did, I'd pick it up on the final read through, which I usually do twice, a day or two apart.

 

[KyraSaden]

Oh yeah, constantly. It's why I'm always working on multiple projects. If one project stops being "fun" to write, I'll set it aside for a little while, work on something else, and come back to it when it feels fresh again. Ideally, I'd do a final edit only after a sizable 2 week-1 month long break, but that's only feasible if I have a backlog ready and, well, for my only currently running series there is no backlog, so...

 

[SamScribble]

I write and publish so many stories that I often, having a reason to look at an old one again, see them as so fresh that I forgot I wrote them--and I enjoy them all over again as a new read.

I do this too. I was re-reading an old story the other day and I found myself thinking: Whoever wrote this knew what he was doing. I should see what else he has written.

 

[Erlikkhan]

I have ten stories in various states of completion. Some have been that way for years. Occasionally I come back to one and find it worth finishing. The best stories are ones I crank out quickly once an idea forms in my head, unless it's a sequel, in which case it may take a while to get it right. Sometimes it's better to stop when you're ahead. I mean who wants to see Fast and Furious 9? Maybe Cats II - I love looking at all those pussies.

I find the hard-on rule usually works when publishing a story. If, after rereading a story ten times, I still get hard then it is ready for prime time. If I come back to it a month later and find my balls aching for release, I publish. That's, of course, because I only write smut. Character development in my stories is someone taking off their clothes.

Time to go watch some porn! It's just for research. I get my best ideas that way.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The list is long... I was going to say 'and distinguished' but, they aren't really.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I finally got back on my laptop(still have keys to pull up and clean) and found a story I started a few years ago and have no idea what I was doing.

Do I get tired? No. I don't read mine in the entirety either, only so far if it's been a while, like maybe two or three chapters from where I stopped. Rarely do I read one completely.

 

[FifthEstate]

When one first thinks of a story, or a scene, it’s fresh and new. When the writing of the story becomes work, fresh gives way to stale. Try to remember what you thought and felt when you first had the idea, and realize that it will probably be fresh to many readers when they experience it for the first time. You’ve already enjoyed it, it’s time for others to enjoy it.

You may find that, if you look again months later at a finished work, you’ll be surprised that it’s better than you remembered. That’s because your most recent memories of it would be weighed down with work and staleness.

I think this best describes how things are for me most often.

 

[CJoshua]

I think it largely depends on the perspective. You attitude, emotions change with time and you look at your writing differently. It's practically the same as focalization in any narration: when different focalizers can look at the same event at a different angle (the point of view is changing here) - the same happens to us, authors; the perception of our writing becomes (again) biased, because some phenomena/factors influenced us more than others.



Main Literotica Forums >> Authors' Hangout >> bot writing stories >> Next topic >> Series without matching titles and questions about submissions with proessays

 

[CJoshua]

One of the perspectives:
George Saunders: what writers really do when they write