Do you often leave work incomplete?

[gruntingslime]

I have a compulsive habit of beginning a writing project then leaving it unfinished. At the best of times I will force myself to plough through to completion, and after a couple of rough days (maybe a week, depending) the feeling will pass... but often I will actually abandon the project.

Anyone else have this problem? I'm pretty sure it's a common one.

[Dodo25]

Yup, I started a story like two months ago, wrote outlines and two pages, and no I have literally no intention of every writing on it again. It's not even that bad of a story, I just hate it and have a problem with the plot..

I won't throw it away though, maybe it can serve as inspiration or something for later..

[gruntingslime]

It's not even that bad of a story, I just hate it and have a problem with the plot..

That's a funny line, and it feels so true to how I feel much of the time.
I don't mind what I write for the most part, but a lot of times it feels like I'm not writing what I'd like to read, or in a style I would enjoy reading which really bothers me. It feels like there's a mental divide between what I want and what I do.

[hillwalker]

I also often start writing stores/poems that seem to lose their way and end up sidelined.

But like Dodo I never bin these - it's surprising how a short story idea eventually ends up as a remarkable poem, for instance.

What I would stress is that writing should never be a chore. Once it gets to that stage let it lie, and ferment, and gestate into something worth picking up again sometime in the future. It's surprising how often letting a piece rest pays off - because surprisingly I find my subconscious never lets go..... it's always working there in the background finessing in its own quiet way.

H

[Sea in Side]

Once again Hillwalker swoops in with the perfect comment. I have this problem essentially every time I write. I'll start with just one line of inspiration, and maybe I'll squeeze a page out of it. But almost inevitably I hit a block like I squeezed all the juice out of the orange and don't have anymore to work with. I have a story that has just been sitting for about a year now and I refuse to touch it because fixing it requires deleting a whole character, complete with thoughts and dialogue.

[scaltz]

There are times when I'm like an illiterate monkey (well they ARE in general). So that obviously makes me wanna procrastinate on writing. Ugh, I can't get my ideas straight right now.

[Dodo25]

Yesterday I finally had an idea what I can make out of my (forever) unfinished story. I took out the two very small but essential elements and will use them in a completely different story. The rest is now worthless and I'm done with it, no feelings of regret for I have learned something and taken the important things with me.

I now realize that I had made a mistake. I had a great idea about one scene, and I thought this scene would be awesome enough to justifiy bending a whole story for including exactly that scene. It really was an awesome scene, but now I know this just can't be done. The most important thing is the story itself with it's themes, so no scenes should appear to be 'forced' into the story.

Finally I'm writing productively again, it's a great feeling. I wrote a whole page today, that's a lot for my standarts!

[Emil Miller]

There are some interesting insights into the psychology of writing on this thread. One of the most significant comments I heard about writing was on a TV detective series where the teacher at a writing school tells the students that a writer needs stamina. I think we all know that means the ability to fight with one's doubt, to ignore the difficulties, no matter how difficult, and to press on regardless. The areas of discouragement are numerous but a writer must overcome feelings of inadequacy and distractions, such as LitNet, to struggle on. Should it be a struggle? I don't know, but it most certainly is, at the end of which lies a product that needs to be refined and re-refined until it reaches something broadly acceptable. Perfection is not on the table. If it were, we wouldnt need LitNet as a forum.

[Delta40]

This happens to me. Now I carry a journal round where I can write when the feeling takes me. It is especially useful because I use the fragments to piece together a tale I may not have otherwise revealed.

[cgrillo]

It's funny, I've never finished anything I've tried to write. I think it's because I read about so many interesting books and immediately think, "That's so cool, I want to write something like that!" It happened with Riders of the Purple Sage, Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West, the Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War, Mardi and a Voyage Thither, blah blah blah... The only thing I've always been interested in is Moby-Dick, but I lack the experience and skill to even try and write something inspired by that... Besides, 'inspired by' almost always means that my story is plagiarism. I'll usually write a story and then decide that it is so similar to an already existing work that I just cannot proceed; I always feel terrible when I realize this. I feel like I have a good idea now, and I'm taking my time writing it, but I fear that soon I'll see too many similarities and give up on it as well. Even if it is not plagiarism, I guess I'm afraid that there are other similarities which I don't see, and other readers will notice them.

So, yes, I have dozens of fifteen-page long attempts at novels and five-page long attempts at short stories that I've never finished.

[Caderyn]

Being the perfectionist I am, I don’t think there’s a project that’s never truly “finished.” Most of the time I’ll end a story just to keep my readers (mainly my creative writing teacher) happy. When I do finish a story on my own accord, it lacks closure. I tend to leave many questions unanswered and my readers annoyed.

[xtianfriborg13]

I often times experience this kind of dilemma with my writing. But just like Hill I don't just trash my works and sometimes, I actually get to finish them without meaning to when I get back to them.

[cacian]

Yes I do it all the time. In fact I do it as a matter of fact. It is good practice to write to intend not to finish it just means I can lay off a bit and not worry. I have pages of unfinished work that I can revisit from time to time and sometimes pull out one finished piece.