Young Writers Society

Have you ever started writing a story, only to get a few chapters in and realize that you had this other really cool idea for another story? So you try to write both at once? Bad idea. How many times have you done that and actually finished both? Never? Really? That's not surpising, because most people (note: I say most), who try to do that pick the new story over the other and a few chapters later have yet another idea.

How do you avoid that? There are actually a lot of things you can do to help you get on the right path to a finished novel.

-Keep a list of all your good ideas. All the books flowing in and out of your head that you want to write. This should make you feel better for writing down your idea, and when you do finish your novel, there wont be an awkward period of time when you have no idea what to write.

-You just have to make your idea real, do you? Okay, well, if writing it down doesn't help, then turn it into a short story. Chances are, when you came up with the idea, you only had vague scenes, a few lines, a character or two and an ending. The middle, and the lengh of it hasn't been decided yet. Turn your idea into a short story. That way, you wont feel as compelled to drop your novel and write another one you may or may not finish.

-Show the book your writing to a close friend. If they like it, they wont stop bugging you to write more, and that way, if you tell them you're writing another book, chances are they'll slap you. Yet another inspiriation to keep on one track. =D

So, Good luck with your novel! I hope some of these idea's help!

-JC

Girl, to me at least, you're preaching to the chior. I've been doing that for years now, and only recently have I actually been able to narrow it down to a singel novel, which annoyingly doesn't have a title yet.

Okay, I lied, I have four books planned that follow the same timeline/characters/events, to varying degrees. But they're all more or less stand alone novels, to a point.

Often times those individual ideas, while often cool, simply don't have enough substance to carry on their own. Once you start getting all the ideas down somewhere, look over them from time to time. Many ideas are bound to have synergy, or connections to each other. That's when you start combining ideas together (How I got my four novel connection). Sometimes these half-cocked ideas serve simply as stepping stones to better ideas that are more workable. You'd be amazed at the ideas you can come up with by looking at your ideas.

And for those of you longer writers who have difficulty pulling in the reins for a short story (guilty as charged) just do brainstorming sessions. There will always be times when you have to walk away from a peice, so run with your other ides for a bit. Don't seriously write anything, just keep coming up with ideas, develop characters, and such. Who knows, you may cure your writers block that way.

Nice tip JCobsesed, I'd never thought to put that out there. Keep up the good focus, and maybe you'll actually finish your work. Now, back to my stubborn novel that's ground to a halt despite knowing almost all the important scenes...

XD I don't think I've ever actually finished a story longer than 2000 words.