Abandoning a story

I know, I done a thread like this before out of Wangst. But due to mental problems I couldn't really get my point right. Anyway, now that I can think straight again, I might as well finish what I started.

Have you ever abandoned a really good story idea before, even if there's nothing wrong with the narrative, but only because it was ruined in your eyes? Like it's something you really want to enjoy writing and share with the world(or at least as a gift to any possible person like you). But you just can't feel the same way about it anymore.

edited 3rd Oct '12 8:35:30 AM by PsychoFreaX

I abandon every story I try to write. Haven't finished one yet. Generally, the change is from me feeling inspired to me wanting to play video games / watch Netflix / read a book / go dancing / play guitar / fap / eat food / meet friends / work out / pretty much anything else that I do.

I bet I'm not alone.

...Hoo boy, have I ever.

One of my most popular works on Fanfiction.net is a God of War Script Fic (yes, I know) which gets over 1000 hits each month. It consists of about 5 chapters of original nonsense, and an incomplete 3 chapter arc abridging God of War II itself.

However, there used to be 9 chapters of nonsense. I rewrote the 5 remaining ones and literally could not salvage anything readable from the other 4. And the reason the 3rd chapter of the abridged God of War II is incomplete is because I had a major BSOD due to the way my class was treating my english teacher at the time, and because about 5 hours of work on it after a creative boost got wiped. After nearly a year of the 3rd chapter just sitting on my drive unchanged, I wrote a sappy bullshit author's note saying "sometimes life gives you copouts but you have to deal with them" and other crap. But even that was incomplete: I wrote another paragraph, but I took it out. It was me saying that I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. It was pretty intense.

Not exactly what I meant. What I mean is that you know you have a good work going and you really want to like it. But your vision of it is just too irredeemably ruined.

I know exactly how that feels. I've scrapped hundreds of story ideas, because while each had their merits and potential, they just don't seem to be worthwhile writing.

I have a lot of ideas swimming inside my head but I never committed to writing for the simple reason that I am lazy.

I don't ever truly say to myself, "I'm going to abandon this story" because I like the thought of someday taking the premise or something similar and recycling it into something better.

If you think a story is ruined forever, get rid of it. There's no way you'll fix what needs to be fixed with an attitude like that.

One, perhaps. The work was old; it had been years since I watched the primary inspiration for it, but I continued to tinker and generate more stuff, though nothing was ever posted.

Then I watched it again. And was struck, abruptly, by the realization that this show I'd loved ten years ago sucked. Hard. The work lingered on for a year (as I've observed, much of my writing is driven by a perceived gap in coverage or quality), but it never really went anywhere.

But it's not the only story that's gotten dropped as I went along.

Too many over the past few years. I come up with a new story idea and flesh it out, then realise that it's virtually the same as my other story idea that I have just scrapped...

I mostly do it when I've outgrown it. My first "big" story is scrapped, which is saddening, as I still have affectionate feelings for it, but that just means I can use the ideas later.

Rarely abandon, just put off indefinitely. To date the only story I've ever officially abandoned is a Harry Potter fanfic (Yeah, that's right, a Harry Potter fanfic. Come at me, bro. ). The idea just wasn't working out like I wanted.

Then there's an unrelated one that I was in the middle of procrastinating from (over?) and one of the major characters in the on-going canon appears to have bitten the dust, so aside from the procrastination, I have to wait and see whether or not he's actually died (well, not HAVE to, but I like to remain within canon as much as possible).

edited 5th Oct '12 12:57:40 AM by Eagal

@Cats You make it sound so easy.

Well, it's not really easy, but it is really that simple.

edited 6th Oct '12 9:33:52 AM by ohsointocats

I did abandon a story once. No regrets