Have you ever given up on a story before finishing it?

[StillStunned]

Both mention and mentioned work in the context of this conversation, but you know that...
As for whether what you wrote, or say you did, is for me, how do you know? How could you know?

Because, obviously, you and I and everyone else here is shallow and uneducated and quite possibly only slightly more intelligent than a mollusc. Except for Plathfan, whose intellect and accomplishments tower above us like.. like... like something very tall. Where you and I only read and write to slake our base desires, Plathfan's writing can actually cure cancer, and is strongly tipped to win Eurovision too!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Because, obviously, you and I and everyone else here is shallow and uneducated and quite possibly only slightly more intelligent than a mollusc. Except for Plathfan, whose intellect and accomplishments tower above us like.. like... like something very tall. Where you and I only read and write to slake our base desires, Plathfan's writing can actually cure cancer, and is strongly tipped to win Eurovision too!

The spiteful, vindictive bitch in me wants to ask if the crayons are included with his books, but that would be unfounded, mean and just not right.

 

[StillStunned]

The spiteful, vindictive bitch in me wants to ask if the crayons are included with his books, but that would be unfounded, mean and just not right.

I respect and admire your restraint!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I respect and admire your restraint!

Dammit, I thought that was in a private chat...

 

[StillStunned]

Dammit, I thought that was in a private chat...

I won't tell anyone, I promise.

 

[SamBomb]

I finish about 1/10 of stories I start.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I’m flattered you’re so eager to feast on my writing, but it’s like green bananas in winter--hard, bitter, and inedible. To ripen, it needs to sit near onions that release ethylene gas. You’re the onion.

And you know where you can stick your stiff green bananas, ya snob-and-a-half.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I’m flattered you’re so eager to feast on my writing, but it’s like green bananas in winter--hard, bitter, and inedible. To ripen, it needs to sit near onions that release ethylene gas. You’re the onion.

I'm the onion, layered, full of flavor, versatile, sometimes sweet, sometimes sharp... Why, thank you.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I barely remember writing it, so I have no idea what my original plans were or where the story was headed. Now I don’t know what to do with it, and unless some miracle happens, I’ll have to leave it unfinished.

Gosh. Sounds just like STC. But no person from Purlock? At least he gave himself an excuse, but you just indulge yourself, fool no-one.

 

[Duleigh]

Yes. I gave up on a long drawn out romance I called Our Year. I gave up on it when it kind of wandered off the rails. Five years later I was stuck for a story for the Winter Holiday contest and took another look at it and with some effort I submitted it and came in 2nd.

 

[StillStunned]

One story I've given up on, before it even went beyond a line or two:

Imagine giant spaceships arriving all over Earth, like in Independence Day. Except instead of destroying everything, they send out millions of Purple Cock Aliens to fuck everybody in sight.

I decided that people might interpret it as a social commentary on immigration, though, instead of the silly story I had in mind.

 

[nice90sguy]

Not only have I done that many times, I've even done that with posts in the Author's

 

[Rollinbones]

I have almost a gig of them. By the time the characters start knowing where their going, i'm sick of their story. It's important to me to keep writing shit though. some of those discarded nuggets pop up again in published things. It's like i was working through a theme or moment and got it down on 'paper'. Then i lost interest in it and tossed that bit of paper in the 'fuck it' bucket.

 

[Wonderer67]

I dunno if I am adhd but I have a very short attention span.

Plus it’s not ideal but I read stories on my phone. I like the 750 word challenges - both writing and reading them. My preference are for stories no more than three web pages long.

 

[Rollinbones]

I dunno if I am adhd but I have a very short attention span.

Plus it’s not ideal but I read stories on my phone. I like the 750 word challenges - both writing and reading them. My preference are for stories no more than three web pages long

the tennis elbow gets me after the first two pages.

 

[RoperTrace]

Yes. I gave up on a long drawn out romance I called Our Year. I gave up on it when it kind of wandered off the rails. Five years later I was stuck for a story for the Winter Holiday contest and took another look at it and with some effort I submitted it and came in 2nd.

Then that's a huge win in my book.

 

[StillStunned]

I just thought of another: I've been working on a fairy tale called "The Princess and the Ogle". She's led an innocent and isolated life, but after she encounters the Ogle she starts exploring her body and its reactions. All light-hearted fun, but it started to feel creepy. Even though the Princess is already "a young woman", with her innocence she came across as much younger.

I could rewrite it to give her a stronger, more mature personality, but that would diminish the fairy tale quality. So for now, it's in my "Dead Ends and False Starts" folder.

 

[NoTalentHack]

I've got one right now that I've basically given up on. A bit north of 30K words, and it would probably only take another 5-10K to finish it, but I don't like where it ended up. I started with one idea, but it's ended up going in two separate directions. I may take it and try to split the stuff I like into two different stories that each serve the purpose I was going for, but for now I'm putting it to the side.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

I just thought of another: I've been working on a fairy tale called "The Princess and the Ogle". She's led an innocent and isolated life, but after she encounters the Ogle she starts exploring her body and its reactions. All light-hearted fun, but it started to feel creepy. Even though the Princess is already "a young woman", with her innocence she came across as much younger.

I could rewrite it to give her a stronger, more mature personality, but that would diminish the fairy tale quality. So for now, it's in my "Dead Ends and False Starts" folder.

The Stepmother and the Ogle? The Crone and the Ogle? The Ogle’s Coven?

 

[RoperTrace]

I dunno if I am adhd but I have a very short attention span.

Plus it’s not ideal but I read stories on my phone. I like the 750 word challenges - both writing and reading them. My preference are for stories no more than three web pages long.

My adult ADHD has gotten somewhat worse in retirement. The pressure of getting big projects complete during my work career, was the perfect medicine to keep it on track. I wouldn't even attempt to read or worse-yet write one while on my phone.

 

[Belegon]

This happened to me a few months ago when I tried to write another Incest/Taboo story, but this time with a NC/R spin, and with a particular setup in mind. Actually, I had a very particular idea for a penultimate climactic scene in mind, and structured the whole story in way that built up to that one scene. I completed about two thirds of the draft before running out of creative steam. The truth is I just lost interest in the story, its premise, and even the once-juicy idea I had for that climactic scene; but instead of simply filing the unfinished draft away, I deleted it entirely.

At the time, I felt nothing, which seemed to confirm that I no longer cared enough about the story even to archive it for future completion; but now, part of me kind of regrets so casually disposing of about a dozen hours' worth of writing. Of course, now I have other writing projects underway which are more engaging, but I'm also wondering: when the creative juices run dry and/or the unfinished story just stops appealing to you, is it better to shelve the project and come back it later or dispose of it entirely?

I usually put them aside but don't get rid of them. the latest thing I published here, a couple weeks ago, sat half finished in a WIP file for 16 yrs. I don;t remember why I abandoned it then, but when I found it and skimmed thru in Jan., I had zero problem jumping in and getting her done. Part of that is I remembered my initial intent for the latter half... and , okay, a little bit is that the style of speech and behavior of the main female is based on a friend, and once I determined she wasn't hanging around Lit anymore, I knew she would be unrecognizable, so I didn't have that excuse to not finish it. (the female lead is a combo of two women really, but the other one passed in 2023, so I won't be hearing any complaints from her anytime soon.)

 

[lovecraft68]

I might be there now. I began a story, as in not even a full first chapter. Got distracted by another idea, wrote and finished that story, went back to the first, didn't like the start, changed what I'd written, then got hit with another idea and am 15k into that one.

Getting distracted twice with both ideas flowing really well, while I can't even get a satisfactory start to the first story is not looking good for that one.

Sometimes the muse delivers false alarms and while you're responding, throws a real fire at you to just be a bitch and show you the difference.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I have over 50 manuscripts that were meant to be published here last year, and some even earlier than that. I have a lot of unfinished series, and I deleted a lot of my body of work from my profile because I wasn't really satisfied by it, and I wanted to give it another shot. So yeah, this is pretty much a constant state of my being, and the reason behind it wasn't just because I got burned out, or that I lacked passion, or that I constantly chased plot bunnies, but it's rather clinical. I got diagnosed with ADHD at the end of 2023, and both decision paralysis and perfectionism are struggles that I'm fighting on a clinical level since they affect my writing. I thought I'd do good on 2024, but nope, I was learning how to handle my ADHD now that I knew what was the problem. I'm still learning, but I'm on a better position now that last year.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

Going back to the original question, I just let them sit and marinate until something good comes out of them. My Valentine’s Day story (also my first piece published here) is an outtake from a story that’s been languishing in my In Process folder for two or three years now.
Motivation took off like a rocket and got to about 10k words before running out of fuel. It sat for almost a year, and when I picked it back up it just rolled off the fingers until it hit a finished length of about 40k words.

 

[FidelityBoss]

This happened to me a few months ago when I tried to write another Incest/Taboo story, but this time with a NC/R spin, and with a particular setup in mind. Actually, I had a very particular idea for a penultimate climactic scene in mind, and structured the whole story in way that built up to that one scene. I completed about two thirds of the draft before running out of creative steam. The truth is I just lost interest in the story, its premise, and even the once-juicy idea I had for that climactic scene; but instead of simply filing the unfinished draft away, I deleted it entirely.

At the time, I felt nothing, which seemed to confirm that I no longer cared enough about the story even to archive it for future completion; but now, part of me kind of regrets so casually disposing of about a dozen hours' worth of writing. Of course, now I have other writing projects underway which are more engaging, but I'm also wondering: when the creative juices run dry and/or the unfinished story just stops appealing to you, is it better to shelve the project and come back it later or dispose of it entirely?

Oof, that’s tough! Deleting a draft you’ve poured hours into can feel like a gut punch, even if you’ve lost interest. Sometimes shelving it is the better move, you never know when inspiration might strike again. But hey, if it’s truly not sparking joy anymore, maybe it’s just making room for something better. Either way, it’s all part of the creative process. Onward and upward!