What Makes You Stop Writing?

[Philip Overby]

I don't mean writer's block. Writer's block means you are still actively trying to write, but just can't for whatever reason. I mean what makes you stop. Such as "I'm not writing this story anymore." Is your life too busy? Is your vision just not coming through the way you want? Is it a case of "I'll just start fresh again?"

For me, I look at my desktop of all the story ideas, novels I've started, and various maps, and I feel overwhelmed. Which one is going to be "the one?" As if I only have one good novel in me. One chance to break through and show everyone what I'm made of. Of course, that's not true, but one bad novel (self-published or traditional) can haunt a writer for their career.

I think the reason I stop writing is fear. Fear that I'm not putting my best foot forward. Well, from now on I'm putting forward "a foot." It will be my best one, regardless if everyone on Earth thinks it is or not. I urge everyone else to do the same thing. We can't all be best-sellers, geniuses, critically lauded.

What makes you stop writing? Whatever it is, sit down and write about it. Maybe that will help you start writing again.

The fantasy genre is always looking for new writers. Fantasy readers are some of the most voracious readers on the planet. So find your market, your target audience, and hit them with your best shot.

We can all be writers as long as we don't stop writing.

This has been another Phil the Drill Pep Talk.

 

[Ireth]

I haven't actually stopped writing a story for a long time. Most of those have been fanfictions that I got pulled away from by real life for months or even years, and when I tried to go back to them I'd either forgotten where I was going with it, or the story just didn't thrill me like it used to. The only original story I can remember starting but not finishing is something my older sister and I came up with when we were seven and six, respectively. I think we lost what we'd written in a computer crash and never got it back, or just weren't interested in the story anymore after trying to rewrite it once. I still love the creatures my sister came up with for it, though. It'd be cool to see those in a finished story.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Nothing? Do you hear me?! NOTHING!!




At least, that's what I like to think.

 

[SlimShady]

I never stop. Sometimes I go on a hiatus just to clear my head and gather my thoughts, but even then I will find myself scribbling something down. I believe it is a good idea for a writer to take a break from writing every now and then just to retain sanity.

 

[Ireth]

Just remembered about another original story I started but never finished. I got four chapters in and just lost all passion for it. It was a total cliche storm in any case, so it might be for the better. Then again, who knows, it might pop up again in a salvageable way like my anthropomorphic wolf idea.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I've found that if I don't set myself a daily word goal & if I don't enforce that goal (start taking nights off) then I will start to doubt the quality of the work, the effectiveness of the idea, etc.

If I stick to the plan, this doesn't happen & I can finish what I'm working on.

 

[Penpilot]

In the last 5 years, there's only one thing that stopped me from writing, family illness. I didn't write for 3 months until issues were resolved in the positive. Other than that, I think I've at the very least finished the first draft to every short story I've started and two novels.

I stopped editing the first novel because it was a huge 300k mess that I didn't have the skills at the time to fix. I've come to realize you have to know when something is as good as you can make it and move on. You can always go back later. Wallow in something for too long, it becomes a Chinese finger puzzle. The harder you pull at it, the more trapped you become, and the only way to get free is to rip the damn thing to shreds.

 

[Lorna]

I gave up writing my fantasy novel for a while because I thought it didn't think it had social value. I write eco-poetry as well, which is more about communicating the enchantment of nature and rewriting the 'real' myths of the landscape. However I don't get the same type of fulfilment as I get out of writing fantasy.

I've come to discover the thing I love about writing fantasy is the complete freedom of the imagination to roam down any path, the ability to quest deeper into the sheer unknown. It's more fulfilling then any other kind of writing and living the journeys of my characters casts new light upon my life.

My failure to write a poem for Preston Guild shocked me. I always fancied I'd be able to write poetry about anything. And I couldn't.

You have to go where the inspiration flows... It's in my novel at present. Using this site has helped me alot, knowing lots of other people are tin the same boat.

Like T A Smith

if I don't enforce that goal (start taking nights off) then I will start to doubt the quality of the work, the effectiveness of the idea, etc.

I lose the flow. I can't work on my novel and write poetry at once. So crack on with it...

 

[Feo Takahari]

Once I've gotten past the opening section of a story, I've never stopped until I've gotten to some point that could theoretically be an endpoint. However, this may not be the "true ending," just where I end it when I first post it online. If the response to what I've written is largely negative, I don't continue on to the true ending.

 

[Helen]

I mean what makes you stop.

All the hard work it's going to take to sell.

 

[Claire]

Time, or lack thereof. I don't intend to not write for a week (or longer), but sometimes I sit down and realize it has been a while. I just have a busy life and writing has taken a back seat for a very long time. I had three kids in less than 5 years and during the newborn/toddler years, I really didn't do any writing. But now my youngest is nearly 3 and I feel like they are all turning into little people who can do things for themselves, rather than little bundles that need constant attention 24/7. I still don't have a lot of time for writing, but I am finally *making* time, however it has to happen. When I find I haven't spent time writing, I just sit down and do it, so I never get too far away.

I have fear too though. I so relate to what you're saying - fear that if I don't write just the right thing, my chance will be over. Some days I feel like my story is coming along so well and other days I feel overwhelmed at the sheer amount of work it needs to be ready for the next step. Your point about fantasy fans being voracious readers is a great one! I need to keep that in mind.

Thanks for the pep talk! It was timely!

 

[Wynnara]

Heh, I'm probably both the right and the wrong person to answer this...

The series I'm working on I first got the spark of when I was about 18 years old. To this day I can walk you to very spot on my way to school when I was struck with the first image from this book. That was approximately 17 years ago. Now, I grant you the novel I first conceived and the one I'm writing now don't look much alike on the surface, but the core really hasn't changed during that time. I've had a number of people ask me why I haven't moved on to another story. The truth is that I tried, but I always came back. This is the story I need to write and it doesn't really matter what fate it ultimately has in store.

But I also know about being stopped and blocked in my creative process as well. I was in my final year of animation school in 2003 and got hit by a car at a crosswalk. I was already someone who used a wheelchair before this happened, but obviously this screwed me up a bit further. When I recovered enough to return to school, my ability to animate and to get into that work was never quite the same. I could physically do the work--that wasn't the problem--I just couldn't get my head back in the game. It was like the trauma of the accident had somehow sunk its tendrils into my creativity. When I couldn't put together the demo reel I wanted to after the accident and didn't get a job in animation, I felt like I'd failed. I'd lost my big shot and that haunted me for a long, long time.

Only now I'm starting to realize that it was only fear... fear of trying again and failing... fear of looking inside myself for that creative drive and being devastated when I couldn't find it... but I think even if we do write a bad book or miss the mark, it isn't the end... it is only something to be learned from... it is only something that we can put back into our writing.

A key realization for me came when I was watching Olympic skiers going for their medals. The commentators kept talking about how this or that skier was recovering from a blown knee or a broken leg... and you realize that the ones that win the medals... they've climbed back from injury after injury... failure after failure... all so that they can throw themselves down the mountain just one more time to chase that dream.

So yea... it's all about stamina.

 

[ThinkerX]

All kinds of reasons.

When I was young(er), I mostly wrote scenes, not stories. Then I'd go back and look at them, and I'd have no idea how to go from 'scene' to 'story'.

A couple got stopped because they were sort of wandering aimlessly, without a real point or end in sight.

With others, I had a...major change in understanding about how that world worked - who/what lived there, how the magic functioned, something like that, and the story revolved around the 'pre-change' version. It simply would not work, short of major amputation, with the new order of things. (A *LOT* of this involved my growing discontent with D&D style magic, races, and combat. So I switched to another system to use as a template, which helped a lot in some respects but not so much in ohers. Then I ditched most of the second system.)

At the moment, what gives me fits are logical/structural problems. I need scenes X and Y to make a story work. They *have* to be structured in such and such a way, and they have to mesh. That can turn into a real pain in the butt - a tiny tweak to scene A screws up scene B something terrible, and if I drop something 'new' into scene B, I have to account for it somehow at an earlier point. (And sometimes it seems like half an alphabet's worth of such interlinked scenes). I've taken to working out 'kludge' solutions, then going away and working on another project in the hopes I can figure out a real solution later on. Sometimes this has worked (Of course! It's so obvious!). With others...well...I've been waiting a long, long while now. Sometimes its a better kludge solution, or I figure a way to get by without that scene at all. (I might have gone on a bit much here).

There is also the 'psychological' / 'other stuff going on' bit as well.

 

[Anders Ämting]

Oh, I dunno. Everything? Frankly, I'm trying to figure out what makes me start writing.

Seriously, I think I need to talk my doctor into prescribing me ritalin or something.

 

[Lawfire]

Lack of time and lack of focus.

There are times of the year that I simply do not have much spare time. It is hard to remain focused when I can only sneak a few minutes, here and there, to dedicate to writing. I also have a problem focusing on one project long enough to see it through to the end. I come up with another idea that I end up running with and do not always make it back to earlier projects.

 

[Addison]

"What make you stop writing?" Several things, most of them with the surname of Reality. Laundry, dishes, taking care of brother and sister, brother and sister's friends, cooking, cleaning....lack of chocolate. Most times I stop just to take a break, get caught up on things in this world, and take a step back from my work so I can approach it with fresh eyes and mind.

 

[Patchwork_Turtle]

My downfall, 90% of the time, is a new, shiny story.

Here's how the writing process usually works for me:

I have an idea hit me like a semi-truck, stew on it for a couple of weeks, and finally start writing it. I get completely engrossed in the story, fall in love with the characters, and start to believe that it's the best thing I've ever written in my life. Once I've figured out my story-- gotten to know all of my characters fairly well, worked out all of the major plot kinks, let all of the epic or hilarious scenes dialogue themselves out in my head to death-- the fun of discovery is gone. When there's no more discovery, my interest starts to wane. I start seeking more and more 'discovery' moments, and when I can't find them, I get bored. This is around the same point that I start to notice the fatal flaws in my story-- too cliche, too childlike, too much like something else (etc.). Driven by a thirst for discovery, my muse awakens from her slumber and begins to churn out several new concepts for me to consider. Eventually-- and mind you, I always hate this part-- a new shiny story idea will come together in my head. I'll try to push it away, try to handicap my creative processes to keep them from building a new story, but it never works.

Eventually, I abandon the old story, believing I'll have better luck with the new one, and the whole thing starts over again. Each cycle has been known to last somewhere between one and four years. Only once have I ever gone back, and it was a special circumstance.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Laptop runs out of batteries.

Jokes aside...
I haven't been writing that much. There's really only one story I've started on that I haven't finished. The reason for that is that I realized the story had gone off track by a wide margin and wasn't going to get back to where I wanted it any time soon. I decided I'd give it up for now, let the idea sit for a while and come back to it later when I had a better idea of what I wanted to do with it.
The other reason is that the story I'm working on get finished - whether it turned out the way I wanted or not. For the most part it will take a couple of weeks until I go for another one.

 

[LOCOFOOL]

For me I just get overwhelmed with life and under confidence. As much as I love to think, dream and tell stories I can’t trust that I can make a good living off of it. I don’t like being judged by people too much so I usually keep my writing to myself; because of that I can’t get feedback or advice to improve my writing. Often times my under confidence gets the best of me and I tell myself I’m no good and I need to focus on studying in advance for classes I’ll be taking in a month. I always day dream though and I’ll always come back to my writing! That’s a huge of why I’m part of this writing community!

 

[The Dark One]

When I was just starting, it was always lack of planning that made me stop. I was constantly coming up with strong ideas for stories so I'd start writing, get to about page 50, and simply run out of ideas...

Then one day I was hit by a blinding flash - you don't have to start writing and just finish when you get to the end. You can map the whole thing out in point form!!! Finally I had learned the secret - you must know what happens at the end before you write the beginning. (You don't have to know everything about the end but you must know something.) Finally I was able to finish a novel (and now have two published).

These days, what makes me stop is that I'm always working on several projects at once so it's a kind of darwinian struggle for my attention. I like to get whatever I'm working on at the time to a sensible place to pause, and then I'll work on something else for a while UNTIL I get so fired up with a particular story that I can no longer put it aside.

In an interesting exception to my point above about needing to know the end before you start - in my recently finished story (by miles my best so far) I thought I knew the end before I started, but I think I was never quite convinced it was the right ending. The consequence was that when I finally did get to the end a far better ending occurred to me which was totally consistent with everything I'd written. The bonus was that because the story had been hinting at a particular conclusion the whole time, readers think they're being clever and can guess what's going to happen...then they're completely surprised by the major twists.

But no-one was as surprised as I.