How does your Unfinished Story count look?

[davion2308]

I love writing down ideas, jotting down story lines from start to finish, and I have a trail of unfinished stories. They range from "almost ready Valentine's Contest" stories to partially-written experiments with categories I haven't submitted in before.

I counted and I have 23 unfinished stories sitting in my Penzu account, languishing and waiting to be finished.

Is that high or low or the same for the rest of you out there? And what's stopping you (and me) from finishing them out and submitting them?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've got one work in progress started two years ago, one started a month ago, and an embryo started a week ago. And my current story, in writing. That's it.

Everything I've written in the last two years has been a side project of that first story (which is a sequel to something already published), or a side project of one of those side projects.

And half a dozen ideas in my head, with nothing written.

 

[shakna]

I started writing in Feb, '21. I've got about... Somewhere between 25 and 45 "unfinished" things languishing? Some of them are closer than others and will probably make an appearance at some point. Others are ideas that helped to grow other ideas and will probably never see the light of day.

Mostly, I'd say its either time or health that means they'll sit there. This is just a hobby, not a career. If I ain't feelin' it, then there's no reason for me to finish it.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have one that I started and lost interest, and just last week tried to get back to, added a little, but still not feeling it.
I've been stuck part way through book four of my erotic horror series for close to two years, very frustrating.
Aside from that, nothing pending story wise

However, I have four book covers made for ideas that I have I want to eventually get to. I don't count them as unfinished because never started. My cover designer loves me, I see a pic, an idea comes to mind I pay them to make it, then a week later have them make another for the one I decided to actually write.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I started writing in Feb, '21. I've got about... Somewhere between 25 and 45 "unfinished" things languishing? Some of them are closer than others and will probably make an appearance at some point. Others are ideas that helped to grow other ideas and will probably never see the light of day.

Mostly, I'd say its either time or health that means they'll sit there. This is just a hobby, not a career. If I ain't feelin' it, then there's no reason for me to finish it.

I started about the same time in Feb 21 posting my first story here on LitE. I have a story arc with 12 chapters posted and 14 chapters left to go. Of those 14, there are only 3 with just a paragraph or two describing what they will entail. The others are between 50 to 80% written.

But I sometimes get side-tracked, like when I decided to take one chapter and used it for the Pink Orchid 2022 challenge, or the one I expanded it into a story for the upcoming Amorous Goods challenge in October.

And like you, this is a hobby for when I'm feeling like writing.

 

[SimonDoom]

I added it up for the first time in a long time. I have 38 stories that I have actually started but not finished, meaning I've written at least a few paragraphs. Some of those stories are nearly complete, and some are barely begun. I have a bunch of other story ideas where I wrote the idea down on a page and saved it to my story folder, or perhaps outlined just a bit of it, but haven't actually written anything. I have 2 incomplete series for which I have significantly outlined and/or written a little bit of the unpublished chapters. One has 5 unfinished chapters and one has 3.

So, it's a lot. I come up with many ideas and I'm much less good at getting them done.

I started writing in October 2016 and submitted my first story in December 2016, so everything I've written in whole or part has been since then.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Hmm... I have well over 100 unfinished stories, most are just a beginning and a synopsis of what is to happen. Most were started with the intent of finishing them at the time but then another idea got in my head and I worked on that one to the end. Then another... well you get the idea, I did.

The plan is to finish them before I die but new ideas keep popping into my head all the time. Some I just store in my brain somewhere and think about from time to time. Other's I write down(type up) a synopsis and file it away.

 

[MrPixel]

Hard for me to answer because I have to get into the semantics of "what is a story"? Do separate chapters - 6000 to 10000 words each - count as "stories" when they're part of an ongoing series? If yes, then I have 27 in various stages of incompletion, one finished but standing by for a specific contest, and two rejected due to prohibited content that can't be rewritten to comply, at least not on LitE.

That 24 is hopefully about to become 14 once my editor finishes her task and I tweak what she has brought to my attention. I'm struggling a little with timeline issues on the 11-chapter section in that 14, but at least the bulk of the text is fully fleshed-out, I just need to pay attention to the clock. The remaining 3 stories are a mistake/not-a-mistake, "future" content written out of sequence where a major plot point has been invalidated by prior development.

 

[TxRad]

Far too many to count.

 

[NotWise]

I put my count at three: the one I'm working on, a story for the Micky Spillane challenge (someday), and a mom/son story that the I/T crowd would hate. There are others that I count as abandoned that will never see the light of day.

That's by my definition of "unfinished." Were I to leave it to the readers they'd find a couple published stories to count as unfinished, but we disagree.

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

I have 3 right now. One of which I’m confident will never see the light of day! I’ve tried to go back a few times and … meh.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I think we had this question in a slightly different form quite recently. Since then I've made some progress, completing and posting one story yesterday and completing a first draft of a first part of a longer work. My current count is currently 5.

1) The longer work which will be about 40,000 words which I'm currently actively working on. About 13,000 words in and making good progress.
2) An essay to accompany the longer work which has spiralled out of control and which I'm worried will be tedious if I complete it the way it is currently headed.
3) A story which I set aside because I thought the MC was unlikable. It's probably salvagable with some thought and inspiration, but I'm letting it sit for the moment.
4) The first part of a story which may become part of an episodic series. I stopped to plan out a series map which I now have, but ironically am now struggling to find an interesting way to finish episode 1. Given the amount of work involved, I'm waiting to complete other things before going back.
5) An Amorous Goods entry, which I'm still waiting for a response from Laurel if it can be submitted or not before writing any more.

 

[KeithD]

Quite atypically I have four stories in progress now. Sometimes my muse runs way ahead of me. Two of these I really want to be working on. The other two are longer ones without an immediate urge to forge ahead. If history holds, they'll all get done. Offsetting this is that I have two big anthologies in review at the same time.

 

[Comshaw]

I have 149 unfinished works in my "In Progress" folder. They range from ones with a few sentences, a couple of hundred words, to several with 15,000 - 20,000 words. I have a habit of, when an idea hits me, sitting down and at a minimum getting the basic plot down. From time to time I go back and read through them and if the spirit strikes me, I work on them. Some will be finished eventually, some will not. Those that will are stories that I like and can see the direction I want to go. There are others where I hit a wall in the plot, don't like the direction it's going, or don't like the characters. I may, at some time in the future, see a way to finish some of those. Others I'm sure will languish unfinished in that folder forever. Once I have words down in a story though, I am hesitant to delete it, because, no matter how it appears at that time, I might find a way to finish it.

I don't make money writing. I'm a hobby writer, I am under no deadline, nor any kind of pressure (other than the self-induced kind) to finish any story. I do it solely for pleasure and because I like to tell a story. Because of that I have the leisure of doing it at my own pace when I feel like it.

Comshaw

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Three stories are actively being worked on and hundreds of ideas are slowly bubbling to the surface of my mind, one at a time.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I have about 80 files with "for future use" in the file name or files marked with the notation "Outline" and another 40 stories that are started but not finished.

 

[Carnevil9]

I have about two dozen at any given moment, running from a simple outline or elevator pitch up to around 50% done. Once I cross the 50% line, I generally keep running until I reach the end zone and publish that bitch.

 

[RejectReality]

Only counting things that I feel are still on track and have a fairly substantial amount of words on paper:

10 as RR, 8 as Les, and 4 as Dark. All of the Dark stories are multi-chapter or long one shots.

Open all of them regularly, sometimes tweak things while reading back through them, very rarely get a couple of sentences down. I just have nothing right now. There's a wide variety of options with storyline in real world and fantasy, sex scenes in progress, big reveals that just need a transition, endings that just need written... Absolutely nothing is clicking, and hasn't for over a year.

Going to the next tier, there are about 20 more in the WIP folder that are off in one way or another and need something to graduate into what I consider a story that might reach conclusion. Not even going to put a number on the "Half Baked" folder other than to say it's probably approaching triple digits. The cover mock-ups, title ideas, notes files, and half-formed premises dwarf everything else.

 

[KeithD]

Down to two after today's write.

 

[oggbashan]

Apart from those published as the four-part oggbashan stew, I am running at between 50 and 70...

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

Fifteen. About a third have been started and the rest are planned, either with short outlines in my idea file, or just working titles with loose outlines in my head.

Looking at some of the answers here, that suddenly feels pretty manageable!

 

[the_single_gal_unconfidential]

I started one, an actual recounting of my most recent fun encounter.
we met, fucked a couple of times - then life took us in our different directions.
here's the problem -
90 percent of the conversations or dialog we had were all lite general stuff - about our lives and things.
nice conversations for us there, but absolutely boring for you guys.
like the first time, I came out of the shower w my robe on, plopped down on the edge of the bed with me freshly shaved kitty n ass there for him.
the only thing said was by me - 'wash your hands first'.
neither of us was dared say anything that would screw up what we were destined to do haha.
anyway, I guess I should I just gloss over the lite chat?

 

[Blind_Justice]

Let's see. I need to finish "Fading Stars", which has been languishing on a massive cliffhanger since 2018. That aside, I don't have any major unfinished story arcs published.

As for my plot bunnies... Too many to count, but four big ones.

First, people have been clamoring for more "Rembrandt Legacy". I have about 125,000 words written in two big chunks which I still need to stitch together into a coherent whole - and furnish with a decent resolution. I'm pretty sure the whole thing will easily reach novel length.

The next one would be another story with the cast of "Express Delivery". I have a nice start, about 35,000 words and a steamy sex scene, but that's not enough (for me) to publish as a standalone or the beginning of a new arc, so I'll keep it in my bunny pen for the moment.

Another one I'd like to revisit soon-ish is a cyberpunk story about a professional wrestler who ends up in an illegal death match. I have a huge chunk done already, but it needs to be cleaned up and reworked for internal logic and timing. Close to 75,000 words and about a third of it has to be excised I think.

Last but not least I'm throwing ideas together for a sci-fi novel revolving around a shapeshifting spy. Think a cross between "Mass Effect" and James Bond, only with more tentacle sex, telepathy and indentured servitude thrown in for good measure. Almost 100k words done, hit a brick wall and I'm still reeling from the impact.

I don't see those as "unfinished", rather they're work in progress I'll return to eventually. Right now I'm up to my eyebrows in the next story arc for the "Mud & Magic" gang and it's rough going. I need to wrap up some loose ends from the first arc, introduce a few new characters and escalate stakes and tension. Two big chunks, about 65,000 words in total.

To think that I was unable to put two decent sentences together earlier this year. How things can change.

 

[shakna]

I started one, an actual recounting of my most recent fun encounter.
we met, fucked a couple of times - then life took us in our different directions.
here's the problem -
90 percent of the conversations or dialog we had were all lite general stuff - about our lives and things.
nice conversations for us there, but absolutely boring for you guys.
like the first time, I came out of the shower w my robe on, plopped down on the edge of the bed with me freshly shaved kitty n ass there for him.
the only thing said was by me - 'wash your hands first'.
neither of us was dared say anything that would screw up what we were destined to do haha.
anyway, I guess I should I just gloss over the lite chat?

If there is one thing that stands out in what people say they like in my ramblings, it's the everyday conversations, the "real" communication. Whilst some genres might have you lean to glossing over the "lite chat"... I expect you'd find the audience would love it. They'd connect more, and that'll bring 'em back for more next time.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

If there is one thing that stands out in what people say they like in my ramblings, it's the everyday conversations, the "real" communication. Whilst some genres might have you lean to glossing over the "lite chat"... I expect you'd find the audience would love it. They'd connect more, and that'll bring 'em back for more next time.

This. I love real dialogue, even when it’s a digression. Instantly puts a story above the pack.

And it sure as hell beats the normal standard of dialogue, which often goes something like:

“I think you are sexy.”
“I think you are sexy also.”
“I want to do the sex with you.”
“You want to do the sex with me?”
“I am doing the sex with you and it’s so sexy. Oooo!”
“Yes baby, we are doing the sex with our sexy parts and it’s so sexy!”