Motivational issues!

I don't know if anyone else gets like this, but, sometimes when I'm writing a story I don't feel like writing more of the story at all, and have doubts that its a good story/idea. But, I know that it is somewhat a good idea, and i really don't want to drop it - because I wrote a long story once and ended up just dropping it because I didn't like it, now I regret it but don't really want to finish it anyway.

Sorry for the rambling, but, basically I have motivation issues and want to know how to stay motivated with my stories.

Please help!

- Onceuponatim3xo

Everyone experiences their ups and downs in novel writing. It's to be expected.

The best thing that I've found is to walk away for a few days. Just let it sit for a little while, and then re-read the whole thing once some time has passed. It gives your mind a bit of a break so you're not thinking "Oh sweet potato, not this rap again" or anything of the like.

You can also share what you write with a few close and trusted friends or family and ask them to give you a periodic kick in the rear. I find that having people I care about hounding me about something helps loads.

That's just what I do. Different things work for different people, of course.

-St. Razorblade
The Official YWS Pirate

Put it down and pick it up in a week.

thank you soo much for the help!!

Oh man. This has happened with EVERY story that I have written except for one I recently started at the end of September.
I have high hopes for it.
I don't have much advice, just had to put my two cents in =]
=P

There are a couple of ways to do this. Sam's way makes sense, but doesn't always work for me....sometimes, if I leave something, I never come back to it. Another way to do it is to set yourself a target of words. That makes it less daunting and it's so specific that you feel like you have to do it and that you have no excuse not to. For this, don't think, just write. Edit later. (Or never, in my case ....really should get round to that....) Hope that's some way useful. Don't stop. I finished a project and stopped, and now I'm having trouble writing anything...

thank you sooo much for all of the help!

Like Minniax, I have motivation problems with every story I write (recently). It's really annoying because its probably even worse than writers block! But, your advice helps a lot!

Yeah don't stop--keep writing, edit later, usually works for me too ;D

Also I find skipping along in your story helps sometimes too. There are times where I just don't feel like writing a specific scene, so I'll skip it and write the next chapter, until eventually I go back to it.

I know exactly how you feel. I am going through the same thing. Well I guess you could push that aside and keep writing. Or do what I am doing. Witch is pushing the whole story aside temporarily and writing something els for now...

I hope I helped! XD

Yeah, same for me.
What I'm doing now is just putting together profiles and plot lines etc for my story, since I go braindead every time I try to write it.
But yeah...just put it down for a while, write something new, and eventually you'll start it again.

NaNoWriMo!

It just ended, but the only time I've ever successfully completed a longer story ("longer story" here meaning "novella") was by doing NaNoWriMo. It just finished, of course (it's held in November), but I know that a bunch of places to SuNoWriMo and related activities. (You could also just set it as a personal goal to write X words per month, but then some of the camaraderie is missing, and that's half the fun.)

It's easy to think of stories, but writing them can be discouraging. Things perceived by the mind don't always translate well into reality. Ever tried drawing an image you had in your mind, but it turned out to be a sickly conglomeration of not-so-straight lines and loud disproportions? ...But maybe that's just me...I've never been a good artist...

Let it evolve in your mind for a while. An idea is alive, growing inside you (wow, this is getting sappy). Don't stop nurturing it out of impatience.

If you keep abandoning stories, you'll never get anything finished. Stay with it, and it may become something greater than you anticipated.

And if it comes down to it, tie yourself to a chair until you finish it. Shock therapy is another effective cure