How to Not Abandon a Book

Hello, seeking for advice here.

Am I the only person here who, everytime I write a book, works on it for a while and feel rather proud of it but then suddenly one day, when I look at it again, I feel like it's suddenly really bad and don't want to continue writing it?

This is something that's happened five times already, and i'm afraid that with my sixth book, it would happen again.

I've tried others' advice like writing fanfiction, but it really isn't an effective thing for me, so I hope that ya'll have a different way on doing things.

 

I only write short stories, like really, really short stories. And thus manage to finish somehow before ennui sets in. Part of the reason, I suppose, is I already have the complete outline of the story in mind, including how to finish even before I put pen to paper. All that's left is to flesh it out.

 

The real question is are you writing because you're bored? Writing off pure will with no excitement for it is asking for an unfinished story.

 

Honestly, I have heard that this is a trend with artists. With things with plot, it would be worse, but I have heard that artists sometimes can't look back at their own work simply because they can't help but critique themselves based on how much they have improved. Basically, I know nothing that can help you with this issue, you're just being too hard on yourself. All I can say is that it's not something that is a unique problem to you, and I've seen various webcomic artists with in-story character avatars basically display a similar complain about their drawings. Usually with a "comedic" addition of the avatar setting fire to the drawings they drew a few years ago in order to purge their art history.

 

Not really. (Well, most of the time.) Most of the time it's either me feeling the itch to write a story and come up with an idea I like in the spur of the moment, before investing my time on it or me coming up with a cool idea that I jot down afterward.

Huh, so that was the case. Funnily enough, I draw characters too but never encountered this problem, unlike my issue in writing novels.

 

I split the story into sections once a section is finished I don’t look back. My husband doesn’t write in order. He only works on the sections he is interested in that day. I can’t do this. I feel lost if I don’t go in order. I have completed 4 novels this way. And though I am not the best writer, I felt a deep sense of accomplishment finishing each story. I also learned a great deal about myself doing it. Honestly speaking, I would recommend to anyone to write and finish a book, even if it’s annoying and you don’t think anyone would ever read it. It was well worth it. The things it taught me about myself was well worth the time and frustration.

 

Guess that's what I mean, perhaps in not so clear words. Being excited to try and get a basic idea written and develop it takes pure will. Creating an actual theme for a story that you believe in and want to see as a basis for the writing is a whole different kind of drive. Perhaps not easy to find it (I expand on this in the link in my signature), but when you get something you're excited for, your mind does the work of pushing out ideas rather than you forcing them out.

 

Might I ask specifically about what this supposed 'section' is?

 

That's easy avoid writing when emotions comr along, you should netral (logic only) not hype, heat, hungry. Stay calm and write again

 

I would recommend you before you dove right into writing as soon as you get an idea, you actually spend some more time to actually think and outline the whole story. After that, break down the details and outline the major events in the story. Get to know your story and your characters first before you write. Befriend with your characters and love your characters. Attachment will make you reluctant to abandon them.

I was just like you before. However, I tried this method and it had been working for me. It made me so excited to write about my characters.

 

write the ending~
yeah concept it beginning and it ending, something like short story consist of summary~ even open end like Narnia, it just beginning of their adventure is ok~
if it episodic comedy then don't bother~

 

I'm pretty sure it's because most of us aren't continuously developing a drawing more than we're continuously developing words. I have a habit of deleting old images, but once a drawing is complete, it's already complete and there's no editing it any longer.

For written works, though, we're always retroactively making changes. I know I still edit old errors on both fanfiction and original works months after publishing.... or even two years after publishing...

 

When you're hyped try writing down the story's sketch with bullet points with as many details as you can think of. Once you're satisfied, just keep filling the plot and don't look backward.

 

read somewhere a long time ago...

If you start writing from the Epilogue backwards you'll find it way easier to finish. Or even the next sequel book.

By that i dont mean word by word, i mean the basic sketch.

the key point is that writing a story is hard, you just need to give it time..even if you are not consiously thinking about it, you brain will have it in back burner..take some time off and check again.Good luck

 

It changes depending on the book. I started with it being only a chapter. And through difficult parts of a book, that’s what I use. Often times it’s a whole arch. I just needs to be small enough I can get through without running into negative thoughts. If I start having self defeating and depressing thoughts the book is almost guaranteed to be abandoned. The short answer would be that it’s what ever I can do without being too hard on myself. After the book is entirely finished I’ll go back and read/edit.
My fist complete book was ruff and editing taught me where my mistakes were happening. The second book was worlds better. Then I’ve seen an improvement for each subsequent book. My science degree required very little writing in college. So I’m mostly self taught. My husband just kept telling me to do it. I didn’t have to be a masterpiece, I just needed to think about the story and write. As I got better the amount of time I could focus increased.

 

How exactly do you feel attached to your characters though? Is it just adding your preferred personality or adding your own personality to them? There are times I enjoy writing about my characters, but i'm not really attached to them.

 

That is your problem then. If you don't love or want to throttle your characters, you aren't invested. I don't know bout you dear, but I will drop novels as a reader if I don't get attached to the characters, lot alone spend time building a story and a world around them.
As an example, one of my stories includes a young lady whose original base was "tragic little lady gets neglected by family and abandoned only to get picked up by an odd couple her own age that decide to be her new parents and she grows from there" and for the longest time I had a problem with it because the leading little lady was boring in comparison to the "parents" who were created first and and were more beloved by me cause they were way more interesting. I couldn't write it. So I waited and developed lonely little leading lady more until she had enough depth to actually make me excited about watching this lovely little lonely lady become a lead character in her own right.
It takes time and thought to develop them, and they grow as you do and you understand more about how people work. These are your babies, to nurture or to torture is up to you, but if you don't love them no one will.

 

I agree 100% with what the person above me, IReadWhenBoredSoWhat said.

I believe, the only way for you to get attached to a character you created is to add depth to the character's personality/backstory. You're the creator of your own story. You can change stuff to your liking. If you don't get attached to the character, it must because you haven't spend your time to actually build the character. Just try it and you will know the difference.

Personally, I couldn't relate not getting attached to a character when I've built them properly. When I know my character well enough, they become a part of my life. I couldn't help but think about them whenever I have a spare time in my mind. They make me excited.

Just like IReadWhenBoredSoWhat said, your characters are your babies. If you don't love them, no one will. If you cannot even bother to actually build them, you don't have to wait till you get bored and abandon them. The readers will be the first to abandon them.

 

There is no magical formula for this tbh. And just so you know, the vast majority of wannabe authors out there never finish their stories, so don't worry. What you're going through is perfectly normal.

I can give you some basic tips, but in the end, they'll only help out a bit, there is only one way to write a book until the end, and I'll say how at the end.

• Make short stories: Like... Make a one-shot at first. Then maybe try a 5 chapter story... Then maybe a 10 chapter story... And then slowly try upping your goal. It's easier to finish if the finish line is right around the corner.
• Prepare the ending before you start: It doesn't need to be set in stone, it doesn't even need to be very detailed, but... You need to have a planned ending before you write the first chapter. An ending helps you give a clear direction to your story, so that you can know where you're going and where you want to be when you want to finish the story. You'll lose focus if you don't have a planned ending.
• Practice your writing: This is similar to the fanfiction advice you received, but practicing your writing by doing some light work that doesn't require much brain power helps build confidence and helps you improve. Especially if you have friends that are willing to give you feedback.
  In my case, I wrote a lot in online Roleplays before I started working on the first book I actually finished... And my quality rose a LOT between my first attempt to write a book (that I stopped midway) and my first finished book... And I owe that mostly to how much I wrote for Roleplays, as I got more practice and could better find what style suited me.
• Write the way you like writing and write about what you like to write about: This is pretty simple... You won't be able to finish your story if you hate what you wrote, so... You gotta do something you like. Even if you think a different story would be much more popular, you should still write the things you enjoy writing about, otherwise you'll just drop it midway.
• Publish it online as you write: This is a simple motivational boost. If you get regular comments from readers that seem to enjoy your story, it gets a lot easier for you to keep writing because the readers' comments will make you happy, and it's easy to write when you're happy about what you're writing. Granted, this won't allow you to plan the story as much as you would if you wrote it all beforehand, but that much is a fine compromise to make, especially for your first book.

... Those were all the advices I could think of that could help you finish your book... They can help to some extent, but they're not really guaranteed to work in any way... The only thing that is guaranteed to make you finish your book is: Sit down and write. And then keep writing.

That's it. You gotta force yourself to write if you wanna write until the end. Everyone has their downtimes and the times their motivation disappears or the times they wanna work on a new story... Ignore them. Ignore them and do what you told yourself you would do. If you don't sit down at your chair and make yourself write regardless of how you're feeling, you'll never finish anything.

You can also help yourself by making a proper schedule that specifically allocates time for writing and then force yourself to rigorously follow said schedule, but from my personal experience, following your own schedule is stupidly hard for tons of people, so the usefulness of this method is limited.

In any case, that's the gist of it. Do your best and I hope this helps a bit! ^^)/

PS: Personally speaking, I can't write without getting emotionally attached to my characters. I sometimes cry while writing because I kinda live through my characters' lives as I create their stories (my plans are always very loose because the way I create stories is by living through them as if I was the character), but uhn... That's just my own personal method. I had some friends in roleplays that were totally detached to their characters and they still played for a long time and had loads of fun doing it.
So I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with you not getting attached to your characters, I just can't imagine writing without bleeding into them myself.

 

i would go for @otaku31's idea, go for shorter stories,

i'm the same as you when it comes to writing, i get a big amount of energy into working an idea that i feel in my heart is something that i can dedicate my time into writing, only to get bored after a while. the thing is, no matter how much i loved that certain plot at the start, i got bored of it after writing it for a while. what you need to do is compress your writing and finish it in a shorter amount of time while ur interest is still there. for sure, its going to be hard to compress all of your ideas into a short story, but what you want to do here is to finish, so you just gotta plan it out and make it work.

another thing i can suggest: try to do quick transmigration stories or something of the like. seriously. quick transmigration story plots involve several different worlds which means different plots which also means you can consider it as a different story to the one you've been writing even if they're the same mc/fl/ml.