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When to give up on a story?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 4265
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Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
I like to write what excites me. I was writing a male MC in a superhero genre. When my brother saw someone carrying my book at the NY Comic Con in 2011 and heard great comments (I guess the reader saw the last name and assumed he was me), I thought, "Yes. Time to write the sequel." I joined MS to learn from other aspiring writers.

But... like CM, I started writing in and hosting contests here, and playing and hosting RPGs. I don't know why, but my main characters (here on MS) were female more often than male. At first they were, well... men in a dress, to be brutally honest. But eventually, I hit a point where women were more interesting leads than men. Maybe because it prevents me from going into Self-Insert Mode, or maybe because I have daughters and I want them to relate. (My current MC is even biracial like my kids... but not a Self's-Kids-Insert.) Maybe they're just plain better characters because I've had more practice.

Whatever the case, I write better when I'm passionate about the characters and story. I'm not sorry I wrote a practice novel, but still, I abandoned that old thing and will never look back. I'm not saying you can't look back, but I know that doesn't work for me. (I tried rewrites... several times! They bore me.)

So my advice is...

Write what you're passionate about. If the ideas flow faster than you can possibly write, then you've hit your sweet spot. Keep going while the going is good. If a month down the road you're still going strong, don't look back.
 
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