# Anyone else have trouble finishing stories?



## WolfNightV4X1 (Aug 24, 2014)

I've written and created several stories, only managing to get some of the plot written and then the red is written in my head. 

It makes me a little sad that I can never seem to get my stories off the ground and coming to life. 

The only thing I've ever finished to an ending was a short five part fanfiction. 

I feel like I should do more of those...but again, I created at least two stories with the intent of being short but still they haven't been finished


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## Silvak (Aug 24, 2014)

I have that problem as well. What I do is bounce around from story to story writing a bit of each here and there but never ending one. It's frustrating as hell.


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## Conker (Aug 24, 2014)

The problem is every story wants to be a god damned novel, and we don't have time for that shit.

I'm stubborn though. When I start something, I force myself to finish it before going onto something else. The end result isn't always good, but done is done.


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## Jayke (Aug 24, 2014)

I start writing, but then if I don't finish in a week then it never gets finished...


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## SkyboundTerror (Aug 24, 2014)

It's a common problem among writers. I've been working on a story for nearly three years now, and I still have trouble putting down a pen when I have the entire plot, story, and characters planned out. Time constraints is part of the problem, as well as general laziness. 

I do not have this problem with short stories, thankfully.


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## Jay_Foxx (Aug 24, 2014)

You know, I have quite a few stories on the go at the moment. I keep promising myself that I'll finish them all some day, but it never seems to arrive. I am thankful, though, that I've managed to finish three of my stories, and even published them as ebooks.

My advice would be to not push yourself to finish something. Let it come to you. For if you force it, it might not turn out as good as if you had been inspired to write it.


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## Xerox2 (Aug 26, 2014)

Personally, I start all my stories with the intention of making them short one-off fap-fests. They inevitably turn into trilogies, but I don't move onto the next idea until I'm completely done with what I'm working on. 

Then it's just a matter of relaxing my standards of quality just a bit. If I set out to write a perfect story, it never ever ever gets done.


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## SkyeLansing (Aug 26, 2014)

If you get stuck at a point in your story it generally means that you have failed to think enough about the plot or characters or setting and don't know what to do any longer. In these cases there are two ways to get past this type of block in my experience:

1) Start asking yourself "What if..." for different possibilities. In fact just grab a sheet of paper, write What If at the top and then start listing different ideas no matter how silly. Maybe set a timer and do it for 10 minutes, just writing everything that pops into your head. This works because it gets you thinking about the story and stops you from focusing on the problem and instead imagining different paths the tale can take.

2) Write background, just starting with what you know. Write about a character involved in the scene you haven't detailed yet. Or write about background to the world. Or just write background about what is so difficult for you. This works better for people who dislike making a simple list and instead want to write about a single subject, but has much the same effect.

Another possibility is that you lose steam during the project. You aren't stuck exactly, you just can't bring yourself to sit down and write any longer. I find there are several sources from this that are possible to address:

1) You spend all your excitement talking to everyone about the project instead of actually working on the project itself. It is very easy to talk about your story, but much harder to actually work on it. Frequently people seem to talk about their stories as if they are already written when they should instead be writing them down. Most of the times the finished projects I have seen came from friends I didn't even know were writing something. So instead of talking about your story... WORK ON IT.

2) Someone who takes the above too far and simply sits down and writes and writes and writes until they are sick of writing (or that particular project). This is a horrible idea and will burn you out. Seriously, you will soon start to think of it as a chore and then you are lost. A better approach is to write for a set period of time (half an hour, an hour, maybe two) and then when that time is up STOP no matter what is happening. Even if it is the middle of a sentence. ESPECIALLY if it is the middle of a sentence. By leaving things unfinished when you force yourself to stop you will leave something that eats at your thoughts so you are already primed to continue when you pick up again.

3) Tackling a project that is too large for your given experience. This is a big one. Thinking up a story is honestly pretty damn easy. Getting it out and making it interesting to read is much more difficult. Ask yourself, honestly, how many projects you have really finished. If that number is less than your number of fingers then I would suggest you try to focus your efforts on short stories to begin, something 5k-10k words. Get a dozen or so of those out of the way and now try to write something SHORTER. It is counter intuitive but a shorter story is much harder to make seem complete than a longer one. Aim for 1000 words. Get a few of those out of the way and try for 500. Then 100. Then go for novella length (20k-50k). Do a couple of those then realize that 3 or 4 novellas make a novel.


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## Sylox (Aug 31, 2014)

If its a story that I know is good or if I'm pressed for time, I'll work at it and finish it, no exceptions. That being said, I currently have a backlog of 7 stories that are half-finished because I just can't write about them anymore; and these are mostly short stories, some of them are pretty long. So what I've done is started leaving myself notes in the stories as a way to remind myself what I need to write about and/or what can be fleshed out a bit more. 

So far, it's worked for me and I'll be able to complete 3 of those 7 stories in the week or so.


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## Bonobosoph (Sep 3, 2014)

I have 2-3 page sections of stories all over the place. My brain creates 500 page epics but my hands are like "can't be arsed".


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## SkyeLansing (Sep 5, 2014)

Bonobosoph said:


> I have 2-3 page sections of stories all over the place. My brain creates 500 page epics but my hands are like "can't be arsed".



Try writing something that is shorter first. Short stories are the best place to start, you won't be able to jump right in and create something that long your first go. If you find it difficult to limit yourself to a story that is only going to be 5-10 thousand words long then maybe try writing a series of short stories. This type of thing is easy to set up so that you can stop the project at any time and still have it feel fairly complete.

An example of this could be a story that follows a squire through his training to be a knight. Every story would deal with something new he learns, either a skill or some event that changes how he thinks about being a knight, or even the way his relationship evolves over time with his mentors and the other squires.

Doing things this way lets you get practice writing and teaches the discipline needed to write something longer. You'll also learn about how to structure a story effectively and find you get much better at story telling as you keep writing.


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## RedLeFrench (Sep 5, 2014)

The thing I do when I encounter a hurdle in the main book is that I usually clear my mind on other stories. Then again, in order to not lose interest in the main plot, the short stories are side-stories that are related in some way or another to the main-book that offer insight on itsy bitsy plot points... I now know what Tetsuya Nomura feels like when writing Kingdom Hearts...


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## Bonobosoph (Sep 5, 2014)

SkyeLansing said:


> Try writing something that is shorter first. Short stories are the best place to start, you won't be able to jump right in and create something that long your first go. If you find it difficult to limit yourself to a story that is only going to be 5-10 thousand words long then maybe try writing a series of short stories. This type of thing is easy to set up so that you can stop the project at any time and still have it feel fairly complete.
> 
> An example of this could be a story that follows a squire through his training to be a knight. Every story would deal with something new he learns, either a skill or some event that changes how he thinks about being a knight, or even the way his relationship evolves over time with his mentors and the other squires.
> 
> Doing things this way lets you get practice writing and teaches the discipline needed to write something longer. You'll also learn about how to structure a story effectively and find you get much better at story telling as you keep writing.



Thanks for the tip!
I do find writing short stories a lot easier, so I've done quite a few short pieces all set in the same universe with the intention of linking them up some how. It's a more satisfying way of getting rid of annoying daydreams.


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## SkyeLansing (Sep 6, 2014)

RedLeFrench said:


> The thing I do when I encounter a hurdle in the main book is that I usually clear my mind on other stories. Then again, in order to not lose interest in the main plot, the short stories are side-stories that are related in some way or another to the main-book that offer insight on itsy bitsy plot points... I now know what Tetsuya Nomura feels like when writing Kingdom Hearts...



This is some other good advice I hadn't thought of.


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## RedLeFrench (Sep 6, 2014)

It also can be a surprising little exercise in the sens that the main story can change ever so slightly with details you'd never thought of, while also developping secondary characters, which is good for you to determine his attitude towards certain situations and for the reader to like/loathe him more. 

For example, I really intend to write a side-story of the main bad guy, because we only have invisible tidbits of his suffering in the main storyline and he just looks like a psycho without the side-story.


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## Ninjou ka Giri (Sep 27, 2014)

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but...

Writing is hard, don't let anyone tell you different. When I write I have to set a goal for myself daily. I look at the clock and say, "It's 9:34 right now, I'm going to sit here and write until the clock says 10:00 today." And then I write. 

Don't be concerned with how much you write, just write something, anything. Even if you only get a paragraph, you've made progress! Even one paragraph a day will eventually form a story if you keep at it. Today I woke up early and managed to get three done in a half hour. Then I took a break and played League of Legends. That might be all I get done today, but progress is progress.

You might also fall into the trap that many writers snare themselves on. You'll write something. You'll read what you wrote. You'll hate it, you'll reword it. You'll like it. You'll try to type the next sentence and suddenly realize you have no idea where to go from here. Don't edit your story while writing, just write, even if it looks like shit right now. Nobody but you is reading it. Set aside time for editing later. Once you have a good chunk of text it's a lot easier to edit it to flow better when you know where its going.

So to sum it up, set daily goals and chip away at it. Don't look at the big picture and think, "My gosh, I got a lot of writing to do before I can get even half my ideas down." If you take a step back and look at it in its entirety and think about how insurmountable the task is, you'll feel disheartened. It's better to just ignore that and focus on the chapter in front of you. Keep at it a little at a time until it's done. Then the next, and the next, and the next. It might take you a month, it might take you a year--but you're a writer, you have no deadlines. You have all the time in the world to get it done, so get to it so we can read your ideas come to life!


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## Inkswitch (Sep 30, 2014)

Hoo boy, do I know that feel. I recently went through some of my old writing folders and was shocked at the number of stories I'd started and then forgotten about. As it stands now, I'm working on three stories, one of which I started about two/three years ago and still haven't made much progress :-(


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