Okay, I have a strange imagination. I come up with a novel idea that I think is really good. I'll work diligently on it for maybe two weeks, then I get a new idea and I start on that one. It's gone on so long I have at least twenty novels that I want to start/finish.
Does anyone else have this problem? And if you do, how do you deal with it.
Finishing Novels
27 posts in this topic.
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hey, * waves hand* I'm in the same bout as you Jamie. I have 6 novels going and I can't seem to complete any of them, cause while I'm working on one that i really enjoy I get so caught up in the flow I end up making different projects.
It gets annoying sometimes, cause I really want to finish my novel Trouble (working title) but I have like ten different versions of it and i can't seem to find the one i want to go with. -
You guys and just about everyone else. I have at least twenty (if not more) unfinished stories on my laptop and a hundred more on papers and in notebooks (the days before my laptop or during class). Two of my unfinished stories (well, chapter 1 and chapter 2 of the same story) are published in Other Fiction, the other one in my blog (which is on YWS). I was just rereading some of my old ones (I do that every few months) and I just realized that it was actually a good story. Now, my problem is how to go back to writing as good as I thought it was. I'm not stuck anymore, at least. Point is, more than half the people on this site are like that. Probably a good 3/4. So no, its not just you.
How I deal with it? I don't really. I do exactly what you guys do.
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I only have four things going on right now. One is a musical, and that's not materializing yet. I'm going to let that sit.
Then there are my three novels. Irritating, to say the least. I'm taking a break on one, working on another, and haven't gotten to the third.
I'm trying to focus my attention on the one I'm working on and not to get more ideas just yet. When I'm done with my current projects, I'll come up with more. -
Ah, I do have the same problem! I don't have that many, though, only about two that I consider projects worth finishing. But it's still too much. :>
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Er, usually I do eeny meeny miny moe and see where that takes me. ^^ If I disagree with my results, I know that isn't the novel I want to write and I put it aside for later. If they're all equally good ideas though, you should just stick with one and see where it leads you. I know one project that I did eventually led to FREAK, which is my novel. It just takes a lot of effort and persistence.
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This is something I get except after a while I'll get confused and bring myself to writers block has anyone actually gotten writers block? IF so tell me did you have it worse than me? FOr three years I couldn't come up with anything and I became depressed for that long...THis is also the reason why my stories now are as depressing as I can make them because its all I can think of just torturing my hero Aein....
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Thanks everyone.
I got it once, really bad case. I find that when that happens, I get out some short books laying around and rewrite them. That way my creativity doesn't spark out and I get writing practice until an idea finally comes. -
Yeah, I think it happens to everyone. Some, worse than others. Right now, I'm working on a series of novels, and it's really difficult to keep working on them. But I'm really attatched to the characters, so it's much easier to stay focused. Okay, okay. I lied, not much easier, but a little bit. I still get ideas for other short stories and novels, and I make sure I write them down on my computer, but I don't start on it just yet. I'm really trying hard to stick with my main project for the mo.
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The only story I ever finished was about three years ago, when I first started writing. It was the first story I ever wrote in the classic story form (You know, 3rd person or whatever it is). I think I only finished it because I had to for a class and that it was 2 pages...
What I'm saying is that I have the same problem. I usually completely abandon some, but I have one that I may continue later. I think the main reason for this is because I start stories while I'm really into a certain genre, only to find the idea stupid once I get tired of the genre. Like me second story. I'd just finished the book Eragon. I was really into it at first, but then I got out of the obsession. Then I became re-obsessed with Harry Potter and started up my fantasy phase. Then I really got into Indiana Jones again, which spawned the story I may continue. Now I'm in my science fiction/terrorist organization/modern warfare phase, which I think will hold out a bit longer than the others.
What's the solution? I think we should do what Snoink says. She knows what's up, and it makes sense. Just grin and bare it through the hard times. -
I have the same problem as you Jamie. Except, after diligently working on it for two, maybe three, weeks, I don't start another one. I gradually stop working on this one, and then I give up novel writing at all for a long time. And the thing is, I get really disenchanted with my novel ideas. As soon as I stop working on them so much, I get completely disinterested in even trying to figure out what comes next. Because I've no idea what comes next. It's not like short stories which for me I don't need to plan out. I just get a starting idea and let it carry me where it will. But with novels, I get a starting idea and then have to plan out everything before it happens, or nothing happens. After a little while, nothing happens.
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Ah I have the same problem as well! I used to start one novel, and switch to another a couple of weeks later. However, there was always that one idea that I knew was the best and that I should work on it. I just couldn't get myself to start it. So, I decided to take a year off... an entire year without writing a single word in my novels. I just came up with ideas, and jotted each one down onto a sheet of paper...soon I had a lot. So, as the summer began I knew that it was now time to get to work, tying together all of the loose ends. My family and I went on a month trip to Italy, proving to be great inspiration for the scenery n my book. It really felt like I was in the same place as I had my character, and I wrote for hours each night. I cranked the book right out, completing the first draft on the plane ride home. By the time I got home my brain was fried, literally. So I took a week or so off, then began the tedious process of editing. Now, agents and publishers have started to get into the mix.
So basically what I'm saying is that I found it very helpful to try and focus on one idea, not writing just thinking about it. After you have come up with a lot of ideas that you can use for that book, you begin to get very excited over it and you won't be able to stop. It worked for me! Hope this helped! -
Dude....I don't think I've ever met one writer without that problem!
TMIS: Too many ideas syndrome. haha. aka "blinded by the light."
I usually pick four or five ideas to work on, and alternate. I geat bored with "Los Malos," so I start "The Black Stone." I get bored with "The Black Stone" and I pick up around "Lines of Fire." Then I get to "Once and For All," and the whole process begins again. Haha. That's how I deal with it. Haven't finished anything yet, but I've gotten pretty far in most of them....*shrug* -
Considering that I have four going, nope, you're not alone.
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My sister can't stick to anything for long. At one point I had several books going, but I chose the one I was most interested in and thought I could do most with and discarded the others. I guess I'm just a really bad judge of that sort of thing! I either choose the book Ive written most of or the one I like best.
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