I find myself embroiled in a story that I don't particularly like anymore. Unfortunately, I have a pathological need to FINISH THINGS AT ALL COST. This just leads to me finding other things to do besides write. Meanwhile, the 8,000 word manuscript grows 500 uninteresting words at a time and is taking way too long.
Anyone else have this issue?
Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :
You need to get over the need to finish anything you start; not every story will work out. I used to have the exact opposite problem - started loads of stories, never finished any. It was working with critique groups and deadlines that got me over that. I'm not sure what the best way of learning NOT to finish a story is, though!
Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :
It's strange, I want to move on, but I have the unfinished one just hanging over my head.
Maybe I'll just finish it abruptly and badly. Hopefully that will satisfy my subconscious.
Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :
I used to read everything I started. Then, after a few miserable books I instituted a 50 page rule. If I still didn't like it after 50 pages I didn't have to finish it. That was when I was younger and had more time. Now I have a 30 page rule.
With writing stories I don't have a set rule yet. But I don't believe that you should finish it just for the sake of finishing. What I might suggest is to review the story and ask yourself why you don't like it anymore. Can you twist it or change it to make it more interesting? If you don't like your character, why not? What interesting thing about their personality led you to not like them and how can you use it?
But if the story just isn't working don't be afraid to let it go. Maybe you keep it in a pile and come back to it when you have a better answer. But it's okay to let go.
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
If it bores you, move on. A bored apathetic writer might translate into a boring apathy-inducing narrator.
Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :
I agree with everyone, and have known I needed to move on. Sometimes stating it aloud and receiving validation are what is needed.
Thanks everyone. New story started and posted...
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Possible ending for stories you hate:
quote:Suddenly the world exploded, and everyone died.
Posted by Wolfe_boy (Member # 5456) on :
True story: NaNoWriMo, my third year. My attempt at a western novel was crashing and burning (the quiet, strong cowboy I was writing had turned inexplicably into an Emo-cowboy with borderline personality disorder) and I used the world exploded, everybody died tool to extricate myself at around the 20K word mark.
My next eight words? Meanwhile, in a distant part of the galaxy... 30K words later, success!
Posted by alliedfive (Member # 7811) on :
Kathleen, I did actually open the story file at lunch and ended the story with "Then they fought and someone won, and they lived happily ever after." I needed closure that bad.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
I'm proud of you, alliedfive. Sometimes it really is a matter of "whatever works."
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
To a certain extent, working on something you don't much like is part of being a professional. At least that's the way it plays out in my work-that-gets-me-money-in-my-pocket, but, so far, not writing. I suppose, if I ever do graduate to getting paid for writing, I might get stuck in that situation...I suppose I'd grin and bear it (or maybe bitch and complain about it, like I do at the w.t.g.m.m.i.m.p mentioned above) and then finish the damned thing.
Besides, five hundred words a day is pretty much my regular way of writing.
Posted by thayeller (Member # 8745) on :
Kathleen I love your suggestion. I really do.
What I usually with stories that aren't going anywhere is summarize them in a couple of pages. The story gets out of me and I can leave it be.
Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :
I hate quitting a story. For me, writing takes effort, and to finish anything I have had to learn to write even when I'm not quite feeling up to it or not jiving with the current events of the story. Kind of like my day job, really. Maybe it's fear of failure.
But I did walk away from a story earlier this year. It sits unfinished, stillborn, muted, filed away in my drafts folder waiting for that extra idea, that third note that will change it from a minor harmonic into a major chord which really resonates with me.
After all, if I'm not interested in writing it, who's going to be interested in reading it? And there are other stories I want to tell in the meantime.
[This message has been edited by BenM (edited November 24, 2009).]
Posted by Dark Warrior (Member # 8822) on :
Just shelve it, as it sit's a completely seperate story idea may come to mind, and, as OSC suggests, combine the two ideas into one story. Maybe then you will like it. You may come up with the 2nd idea next week or next year, but it isn't going anywhere.
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
I just consider unfinished stories as extended story ideas and file them in an idea folder if I can't get my arms around where the story is going to go.
Posted by rich (Member # 8140) on :
No one likes a quitter.
Actually, just say that you and the story had "creative differences", and then talk about the story behind its back--how it hit on your wife, and never showed up to work on time.
Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :
I have tons of stories I've started and never finished. Mostly that's because I didn't develop the characters and world enough for the stories to go anywhere before I lost interest. Some of them I knew how they were going to end and was bored/dissatisfied enough that I decided I didn't want to write the end (which is probably a worse habit than the first one!) But what I did for those latter stories is I wrote a one or two page summary of where I saw the story going, so that if I ever go back to it I know what I thought the ending was going to be.
Posted by babooher (Member # 8617) on :
I've recently been self-diagnosed with writer's block and part of that comes from being unwilling to let a story go. I even have about three 10,000+ word drafts of it. I finally told myself I can try to finish the blasted story or be a writer. I normally sell at least 1 short story a year ever since I've decided to write and now I've gone just about an entire year without completing a single story.
So I let go. I took a few weeks and puttered around with some story ideas and then came back to an earlier draft of the blasted story which I now think I will finish before December.
Sometimes you just have to lose control to gain control.
Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :
My favorite:
quote: The hero looked down at the ground. Curiously, a dark shadow loomed about him, the shape oddly familiar. Fascinated, he leaned down and traced the outline... only to be stopped by the Fallen Humpback as the lordly whale slams into the sidewalk.
When the dust settles, the bystanders look around, baffled as to what may have happened. All they see is a giant crater where a man once stood. They went home, curiously hungry for fish.
And yes, I know whales are not fish.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Attribution for that quote, please, Rhaythe?
Posted by Brad R Torgersen (Member # 8211) on :
If run into this sometimes.
Usually I just put the story aside and move on to something else. Usually, months go by, then I come back to the unfinished story and can see it fresh again. Almost always, I am surprised to find I like it a lot more than I did than the first time, and the ending usually leaps out and becomes clear to me.
NOTE: both my Finalists for WOTF were like that; stories abandoned for awhile, and to which I later returned.
Posted by MrsBrown (Member # 5195) on :
Similar problem with scenes in my novel: let's say it doesn't really fit and isn't moving things the direction they should go; but I wrote it and don't want to part with it. I can't trash anything. My solution? Cut the scene and past it into a "trash" file for cut scenes. Who knows? Maybe I'll want it some day... but I can forget about it and move on.
Whatever works, right?
Posted by Gan (Member # 8405) on :
On the contrary, I think finishing a 'bad' piece of work can occasionally be a good practice. See, I have the exact opposite problem that you have. I can't ever finish anything. And while it's not good to spend hundreds of hours writing things you don't have any passion for, doing it a little bit can help you in multiple fields, such as:
Persistance and dedication; something I feel all writers need.
Middles and endings. Because I'm such a chronic non-finisher, I can conjure excellent beginnings. Unfortunately, my middles and endings are never so great. This is largely due to the fact that I don't finish anything.
Weaving a story. As in, making everything fit together.
I completely agree that if you've lost interest in a novel 10,000 words through, that it'd probably be best to put it on the backburner. Maybe you'll even find inspiration to fix it one day.
But finishing short stories that you aren't fond of can be a very beneficial process. At least, in my own opinion.
Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :
I can't tell you how valuable it is to keep those stories which you don't finish.
A few moments ago, I glanced over a story I felt altogether too tiresome to finish. Now my passion rekindled. It's a strange thing.
It's like eating chocolate everyday to the point of being sick of it, only to relish in its sweetness later. Just like that. Okay fewer calories maybe.
Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
I didn't scour all the responses in the thread, but of course there is the option of examining the story to pinpoint what you don't like about it, and change it. The first part might be worth doing to perhaps avoid a pitfall somewhere else down the road. It might be best to put it aside for a while and work on something else before doing that.
I occasionally set stories aside when I have trouble with them. Sometimes I return to them later, sometimes I don't, but I leave the status ambiguous because I have an aversion to permanently abandoning an unfinished task.
Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :
I just finished a story I came to loathe. Intellectually, it seemed fascinating, but a very busy month and so periods of writing maybe 300 words then skipping three days and trying to write again meant that I lost whatever emotional connection with it I might have had. In the end, writing it became a chore and I think it will be a chore to read it.
But, I finished it all the same - because I wanted to keep writing despite the busy period, and every word I write is (hopefully) training my brain to formulate stronger prose.
And my first reader (Mrs BenM) says its not a total loss, so maybe there's some stuff there that can be polished later. Time to bury it for a while and move on.
{Edited to add - and in saying all this, I see that I've contradicted my earlier post - which only goes to show how fickle I really am, I suppose*
[This message has been edited by BenM (edited December 10, 2009).]
Posted by Rhaythe (Member # 7857) on :
quote:Attribution for that quote, please, Rhaythe?
Something I just pulled out of thin air as I posted that message. Wasn't taken from anywhere except the cobwebs in my skull.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Thank you, Rhaythe.
Posted by johnbrown (Member # 1467) on :
Here are a few things to think about. If a story is boring you, if you're hating it or hating a character you're supposed to like, then it might be a few things.
(1) You're burned out, in which case you just need a break.
(2) You're feeling performance anxiety, which means you actually are enjoying it but fear it's not going to blow everyone away, in which case you just need to tell the internal editors that you like it and everyone else can be jiggered.
(3) You're under some life stress that needs to be fixed first.
(4) You're writing against your passion, writing against what you care about and believe in.
If it's the last reason, I would suggest you NOT continue to write until you get the passion for the story back. Finishing a story you hate may teach you to perservere through troubles, but I don't know that it will teach you to write a story that will actually entertain someone.
Your lack of interest is a signal you must listen to. It's not writer's block or anything like it. It's your story sense. It's your magic.
And following it (as opposed to ignoring it) is a CORE SKILL many new writers need to learn. You need your mojo. Reacting wrongly to it was one of the things that kept me back. When I finally did learn it, my productivity and quality jumped dramatically.
I've found the best way for me to listen is to ask myself questions. Am I not liking it because the story is just boring or because I don't believe in the events or characters?
Boring. Where did I start to lose interest? Is it the characters? The situation? Do I need something a bit more suprising in the character, plot, setting? Am I stuck with no real plot threat or question? What's so blah?
When I pinpoint what I think is the root of the issue, I brainstorm until I come up with something that excites me. I've found that as soon as I do (and sometimes it takes a while and a few false starts), the lights will kick on and I'll be writing scenes again likety split.
This just happend last week with the current novel I'm under contract to write. NO WAY am I going to press on with stuff I hate. It means something's broken. And if I proceed to build on something that's broken, I WILL have to come back and tear all that crap out and start over. And that will only screw up my deadlines. What a colossal waste of time!
So I asked questions and brainstormed and after two mis-diagnoses, I finally found the real problem. I brainstormed some solutions and, bam! The scenes are flowing again.
Now it might be you've lost interest because you don't believe in something. Stop. Pinpoint exactly what it is. If you need to, research. Brainstorm. Just as with the boredom issue, as soon as you resolve, the writing should flow.
The best advice I've received from old pros is to write what you care about and believe in, and if you don't care and believe to change things until you do.
