forum Writing This Damn Novel

Started January 15, 2018 by @Syztem_Error828

tune

I've always wanted to write a novel but i always end of leaving it and starting a new one.
Does anyone else have or has had this problem and could try and help me through it??

Duuuuuuuuuuuude. I could tell you stories. I have started and abandoned…
wow.
at least eight or nine books?
I wrote out all the characters and did all the worldbuilding and everything.
Maybe I could start a little store for unfinished stories…

If you could start a store I could start a chain XD

I do the same thing, Error. Some tips are just to write a sentence a day, just enough to keep you thinking about it. You're not always going to be in the mood to write for an hour, so don't force the inspiration. If you write a little bit a day and a lot when it comes, you'll have a novel before you know it.

I think Holly Lisle has a lot of good resources and advice for finishing stories. Some highlights that I personally try to keep in mind are:

Only world-build as needed; world-building is supposed to help you write, not stop you from writing.
Write in 10-minute segments. If you want to write, you can find 10 minutes to sit down and write.
When doing tasks that don't require much brain power, think about your story so that when you're in "writing mode," you're actually putting words down.
Practice writing flash fiction so that you know you can write a beginning, middle, and end.

Love your characters, treat them like people capable of making their own descisions, and let them lead you. Be less of a puppetmaster, manipulating their every move for what you want to achieve, and be more of a writer, writing their actions, their pain, their triumph. Do that, and you will feel morally obligated to finish. You don't leave real people stuck in the balance, do you?

Eight or nine books? Lol, you guys are like children. Try over NINETY unfinished projects. You have to find something you're really passionate about and whenever something else comes up just write it down in a notebook or a word document and leave it for later. Do not touch it. I still haven't finished anything because I have terrible work ethic, but I've been getting farther and farther since I started doing this.

I have more than 100 story drafts at the moment, there is only one finished book… (I didn't finish the sequel and the third one though lelel oops. had it aalll planned out but yeh). One story has about 74 chapters now but is still not done, and aside from that uhh yeah idek a lot of stories only have a few chapters, some just a description. oops.

Oh btw, I've been writing the one with 74 chapters for almost 3 years now lool. Sometimes months pass without me actually writing that story.. Oh well ./shrug

@Tyjo what is the trilogy about?

I have so many half finished stories that I don't even know where to start anymore. I have one story I'm actually writing on and I've been on it for about 3 months now. It's not boring and I haven't quit it yet, but I probably will end up doing that. I hope not, though.

I have a habit of abandoning stories because I get new ideas. I like to go back and re-write my older stories. Mostly just to see how I've improved, but also because I can see why I abandoned them at the time, this way I can edit them to be better and make necessary adjustments to make me want to keep writing them.

I do something similar. I don't abandon my stories, but I do bounce around. I will work for days on one project and hop to another just cause that's the one I could see the progress for. If you keep your projects around, there isn't anything wrong with going back to them when you have more to write. This is what I do, and then when I am on a roll with one story I just keep going til I hit a wall. That's just my suggestion, but I'm sure you have plenty already.

SAAMMMEEE, @Straightliquor

I have at least seven novels that I haven't finished lol

I begin a story with just a small idea and write the first chapter…then immediately hate it. I rewrite the first chapter until it's nothing like the original idea and I have no clue if it's any better. Repeat process for next chapter……….its agony and ive never finished a novel

@TryToDoItWrite I feel your pain, but I learned from a friend that when you read your own writing over and over, you start to see so many "imperfections" in your writing that are really what make it your style. We tend to see something we did as something that only we can perfect, but I found that having an honest friend, whether a reader or a writer, read over what you have, you can move forward without having to scrap an entire idea. If you would like, I would be willing to read and give you feedback, as I'm sure many others on this website would be as well. Just my two cents, but I thought I would share what I had to learn myself.

@Straightliquor thank you for the encouragement…honestly just being on this website has helped me gain confidence by talking to lots of people who have the same struggle!!

I need some help. I'm fine with writing dialogue between characters but it's so hard to add their thoughts into it or the she said he said. Can you help?

Yeah! I find that the dialog tag is only necessary for knowing who's speaking (obv) and pacing. The faster the dialog, the less necessary the tag becomes, especially if it's between only two people. Banter is a good example of that. Like this:
"What are you doing?"
"Sitting."
"That's not what I meant."
"What did you mean?"
"You know!"
"Do I?"

As for thoughts, I mostly write in first person so I weave thoughts into the narration naturally. I've seen some people use italics to add thoughts into limited 3rd person POV, though I have mixed feelings about italics, but it's up to you there. If not italics, if writing in third person, you'd add a dialog tag to the thought so the reader knows its a thought.
Ex: Hm. That's a pretty good idea she thought to herself.

Thank you. @TryToDoItWrite Thoughts are just hard to put between the dialog because I put in a lot, but this really helped.

Usually I write stories based off the things I currently like, and I'm currently working on my longest novel yet, so I try to stay interested in the thing that makes me write. My current novel is based off the game "Prototype" and I'm staying interested in Prototype.
If I told you about all the stories I've written and abandoned, we'd be here till the day we died. XD

Man, you're all really inspiring actually (74 CHAPTERS JESUS), I also have the problem of never finishing anything, dragging projects on for YEARS but only getting up until 13 chapters (my record). But it's an issue based in not knowing how to right a satisfying plot, thus never really having an ending to strive towards, so there's nothing encouraging me to finish because I don't know what the hell I'm trying to finish. I can create all the side stories and descriptions and AUs I want, it doesn't move the actual story along. The one sentence a day or ten minutes a day is good advice! I just wish creating a plot was as easy as creating characters haha ^^"

I know right, I have the problem where I'll re-read what I've wrote over 25 times (even if it's just like two sentences) and then I'm like "welp, trash" cause I think it's not good enough and I'll keep repeating that and I don't get anywhere with anything, It's frustrating man…

@"No,Imurderforfun" The reason why we think our stories are boring is because we've read them so many times. I actually never go back to look at what I wrote unless I need to fix a continuity error or correct the time I switched from first person to third and stayed in the third person.