How do you stick to a concept

One thing I find that impedes my writing, is that I can't hold focus on an idea for a story for a very long time. It could be any number of reasons why I abandon it, but the point is that I need to find a way to keep on track with the idea. When you have an idea that you want to work on, what do you do to keep yourself attached to the concept?

I usually put all of my stories in a verse, so one abandoned story idea and its characters might be another ongoing story's supporting characters or background storylines.

Hmmm.... That's a new one for me. I generally just keep my ideas inside my head until they solidify.

What I would do is just try to write down your ideas and try to develop them from there.

My policy is to do enough work on it that I'm loathe to simply drop it, because that'll mean the work is for naught. Basically, trap myself in my own slothitude.

edited 23rd Dec '13 11:44:35 AM by Sound

I often abandon the concept because, apparently, my stories do write themselves. That is not to say I'll abandon it completely, I'll just take parts of the concept that do fit with what I have now.

I just simply write stuff I like. If I don't like it, I won't write it. Now, that isn't to suggest Author Appeal as I do very often stick my characters in a tree and throw rocks at them, but I write what I like in terms of a good story and some meaning I want it to hold.

My current story which I've been changing and reshaping countless times for many years now is all about Growing Up and that age between teenage and adulthood years where that innocence the world has shatters and you have to decide for yourself where you stand and how you must move on from your childhood pains, regardless of how traumatic they are. Which, is actually easier to write because I am at that age so I can understand what needs to be said a bit better than, say, a message about needing to accept God or a message about how not everyone can be a hero or something.

In a way, Write What You Know.

Write short stories. Not everything needs to be novel-length.

My strategy is a mix of will power and self reflection. I force myself to stick to an idea, perhaps trying to work in elements of newer, flashier ideas I may have been tempted by in order to tide myself over until I can give them my proper attention. When that doesn't work, I go back and review what I have written so far. It helps remind me of why I wanted to start that story in the first place, and sometimes inspires new possibilities I hadn't considered when I was writing it out for the first time.

I plan the whole story. I need to know where it'll going, also I make sure there's no plotholes or other stuff related to bad writing.