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Sticking with a Project



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Wed Jun 29, 2016 5:57 am
vincentvinniealonso says...



I have the bad habit of giving up on stories and projects before I finish them. I dedicate a lot of time into my craft, so when I don't always go through with stuff, I become pretty disappointed. I was wondering if anyone had some good tips that could help me with this problem.
  





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Wed Jun 29, 2016 6:03 am
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Vervain says...



One of the best tips I know is that you don't have to write it all in one sitting.

That is to say, if it works for you, you can have a bunch of projects going on at the same time and skip between them all. When you get bored of one project but have an idea for another, go to that one and write for it until you get bored and have an idea for yet another -- and keep going until, somehow, you come out of it with a finished project, one way or another.

Personally, I've only finished a couple of novels in my writing career, and that's if I'm generous and say that those shoddy first drafts count as whole novels, haha. But I generally do consistent work on projects that I'm invested in, because when I don't want to work on them for a while, I let myself take a break and write something else. As a result, I write somewhere around 30000 words a year on each project, more if you count rewriting scenes; even if most of that ends up scrapped at some point in the future, it's consistent work that keeps me going.

If jumping around doesn't work for you, then that's fine, too! There are a number of novelists that stick to one project until it's done, rather than skipping around, but I don't personally know any tips or tricks for that method.
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Wed Jun 29, 2016 9:29 pm
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Rosendorn says...



For me, I write based on a single question: "What am I interested in writing next, based on the goals I want to accomplish in the plot?"

It basically puts a constant string of cookies in front of me, where everything "planned" is based on what I want to write. I don't really have much of a concept of what's going on past a few key events that have to happen. These are usually pretty dramatic reveals that are delicious to write.

You can also write out of order, bouncing to one cool thing to the next. There is no "correct" way to write— the only correct way is the way that gets projects written and finished.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Mon Jul 04, 2016 7:24 pm
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Kale says...



You can also jump around within a project, especially if you're looking at a series. The main trade-off here is that finishing anything takes a long time, but I've found that it helps me keep the overall work consistent and coherent from installment to installment, and by the time you're finished, you have a complete series rather than a single installment with the rest to go.

Outlining can also help you keep track/remind you of the cool things you're planning to write, and depending on whether you're more of the planning- or spontaneous-type of writer, you can have really detailed outlines or very general ones.

I'm a more spontaneous writer, so my my outlines are very loosely-organized quick-references of ideas that may or may not actually make it into the story. The longer the work you're writing, I've found, the more it pays off to have a quick-reference (or three) to make keeping track of things easier (otherwise you waste writing time searching for the answers to "Does this idea I have contradict earlier things I've set up, and how much do I have to change if it does?").

Outlines can also be retroactive, as in, you've written several chapters of the story, and you create an outline of the major events in the chapters thus far to keep track of what's happened in your story. Having a retroactive outline really helps when it comes to revisions because you'll essentially have a chapter-by-chapter summary of the events, so you can jump straight to the affected chapters instead of having to reread to find the sections in need of reworking.

Sometimes though, you've just got to push through until you have at least one complete draft. Once the draft is completed, leave it alone for a good while, and try to recall what it was about the project that motivated you to begin writing it in the first place. When you come back later to look the draft over with new eyes, keep that initial motivation in mind; it will help you see the stumbling points in the initial draft, and if you make notes of those stumbling points as you go, you'll build up an outline of how to fix the story and make it better.

By the time you get to the end of the initial draft, you'll probably have a good idea of how to get the story closer to your initial vision, and having a good idea of how to progress can be a huge boost in motivation to completing anything.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
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Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:47 pm
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Holysocks says...



You've got some great replies, but I thought I'd drop my two cents.

You really have to find what works for you. So test out the different ways of writing/planning that people have mentioned. Are you someone that does better just spontaneously writing, and scrapping outlines? Or are you someone that needs to see the plot laid out in detail before you can move forward? I used to think that I was someone that was more spontaneous, and I used to think that planning killed my novels. But I actually found through trying it out that it helped me, as Kyle said, feel motivated to continue on seeing all the cool things I got to write.

Another thing is have you ever tried something like National Novel Writing Month? Sometimes deadlines and goals really help people stay motivated- currently that's what's keeping my novel alive- that and some of the other tactics previously mentioned.

Something I've discovered that might be helpful- and is sort of what Lare talked about, but it's where you leave a work when it's just not working for you, and you might just find it works for you in a couple months, or maybe even a few years. If you're like me, and you have plenty of stories/novels that you started and never finished, than this might work. Look back at some of the stuff you tried to write a long time ago, and see if anything is itching at you. Do any of your old stories want to be written again? I know I personally just picked one up that actually was the one that got my into writing in the first place. Maybe you have one like this? An idea that made you have to write it?

What Rosey said about writing what you want is so good too. If you're getting bored of your work, change something. Switch scenes, go to what you really want to write. Or sometimes, what I've discovered in these cases, is your story might need a dragon. A dragon doesn't have to be a dragon but it could be anything from, yes, a giant monster to a car crash to a break-up to the discovery of a leak in your MC's basement.

I hope you find a way that works for you in keeping you with your work until the end! I know that frustration all to well.
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Sat Jul 16, 2016 1:24 pm
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vincentvinniealonso says...



This was just about the best advice anyone could have given me. Thanks, you guys. Seriously helped and honestly gave me a whole new look on the subject as a whole.
  








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