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Not feeling a work anymore.

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veinglory

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Because overall it is a good expetience, it just has it ups and downs. If I gave up on everything that pissed me off I probably wouldn't even get dressed in the morning, let alone have written 20 book of which I am proud and that pay a good proportion of my bills. For that reason I feel utterly fortunate. If other people achieve as much and more in a state of bliss, good on them. But I am not one of them.
 
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chompers

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That's unfortunate because every story I finished was a great experience. I loved writing my first novel, and the second was even funner to write. Why have a hobby that feels like a chore?
Are you saying that you sustained interest the entire time you were writing these, from start to finish? If so, WOW. You are the first person I've heard to do that. It's rather normal for interest to wane, because it gets hard.

Anyways, to answer your question, keep going if you're just bored. It means that something is not quite right with the story. So fix it and things will be interesting again.

If you absolutely hate the story, then abandon it.

You know, like marriage. If it's boring, try to spice it up. But if you've got this deep hatred for your other half, best to let it go before something truly unfortunate happens.*

*I am not advocating divorce outright. Try therapy first or something before calling it quits. ;)

I've got many unfinished stories, but that's only because I'll get an idea while I'm in the middle of one and need to set it aside to finish what I'm already working on. But I always plan to eventually finish all of them. Except maybe one, but that's more because research shows the premise might not be feasible. I will try to do what I can do to save it though, because I actually really love the concept.
 

rwm4768

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I have written about 20 books and there is not a single one that I was passionate about past half way through, and I actively hated most of them for the last quarter of writing the first draft. I just don't let that stop me.

I don't get this at all. My problem is finding the passion before the halfway point. I've loved every story I've finished. If I'm not connecting with a story, it never even gets close to the halfway point.

Most of the time, I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book.
 
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Are you saying that you sustained interest the entire time you were writing these, from start to finish? If so, WOW. You are the first person I've heard to do that. It's rather normal for interest to wane, because it gets hard.

Anyways, to answer your question, keep going if you're just bored. It means that something is not quite right with the story. So fix it and things will be interesting again.

If you absolutely hate the story, then abandon it.

You know, like marriage. If it's boring, try to spice it up. But if you've got this deep hatred for your other half, best to let it go before something truly unfortunate happens.*

*I am not advocating divorce outright. Try therapy first or something before calling it quits. ;)

I've got many unfinished stories, but that's only because I'll get an idea while I'm in the middle of one and need to set it aside to finish what I'm already working on. But I always plan to eventually finish all of them. Except maybe one, but that's more because research shows the premise might not be feasible. I will try to do what I can do to save it though, because I actually really love the concept.

"Are you saying that you sustained interest the entire time you were writing these, from start to finish?"

Absolutely! My first novel of 80,000 words was written in two months. I would stay up all night sometimes. I could not get to bed because that's how fun it was to get the story on paper. My second novel was even funner (a blast). This has been the case for many stories I've written. If I love a project, and the words are flowing, I'm actually afraid of stopping some nights. Hemingway said, "Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next." (http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/seven_tips_from_ernest_hemingway_on_how_to_write_fiction.html).

I have found this does not work for me. If I stop while I'm hot, it'll be hard for me to crank back up when I'm cold, like an old Buick.

I'm entering a few short stories in my university's writing contest. I had a hard time finishing a 10 page research essay for my CS class because I was up all night, every night, writing and revising my short stories. It was fun (like writing should be). I'm just saying I don't like to write a story if it's not fun, and what can one do to revive that fun? This begs another question that's been asked a 1000 times by amateurs like me: When is it time to abandon a story?

I agree with your answer, you abandon a work when you hate it.

I'm going to take your advice and try therapy first. I still love her, although she's not the woman I originally thought she was. :)
 

Cypher

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I don't get this at all. My problem is finding the passion before the halfway point. I've loved every story I've finished. If I'm not connecting with a story, it never even gets close to the halfway point.

Most of the time, I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book.

Honestly, it seems that the best method to finding out whether or not you have passion for your work is by writing it. Time will tell how you feel about it. It might not be the most favorable method but its really the only so yea...
 

Jamesaritchie

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Yes, you're probably right, but the reason I started this thread is because I've been writing for four years and yet to have sold a piece. I have finished two novels and probably around thirty short stories. I feel if I'm not going to get published, it makes no sense to write if it's not fun. In fact, the day writing fiction isn't fun anymore is the day I quit writing. It makes no sense to work on a boring project if it's not going to sell, but I suppose I'm being pessimistic.

I'd quit if writing stopped being fun, too, but the fun has to be in the writing, not in the selling.

Honestly, two novels and thirty short stories isn't very much writing. I know some sell the first novel they write, or the first short story. I'm one of them. I wrote the novel in three weeks, and it sold first time out, and I wrote the short story in two days, and it sold first time out but this is not the norm. And I received plenty of rejections after those sales.

I sometimes wish all writers would try something like painting before they started writing novels. It's easier to see progress with painting, and you expect to ruin hundreds of canvases before you paint anything worth selling.

Two novels? Even when you do sell a first novel, you may have to write six, or more, other novels before the second one sells. Nora Roberts sold her first, and then had to write eight more before a second sold, but she's done pretty well since then.

And with short stories, thirty is just getting started. One of my favorite writers, William Saroyan, received more than four thousand rejections before selling his first short story.

I know one short story writer who, much like Nora Roberts, sold his first short story, but then wrote more than a hundred before selling another. Now he's a full-time writer.

Sometimes success does come fast, but the most common route is to write a bunch of novels, or a boxcar full of short stories. Though in today's world, saying a "gigabyte" of short stories might make more sense.

I think you just have to concentrate on the writing, not the selling. The writing is under your control. For the most part, the selling isn't. There are things you can do, several things, to make you stories more salable, but it's the writing that matters. You must enjoy the writing, not what happens after a story is finished and submitted.

Easier said than done, I know. I really don't get bored writing any story, though. I get afraid often, thinking there's no way I can make a short story work, or no way I can make a novel reach the right length when I hid the midway point, but I don't get bored because it's all a creative challenge.

I suspect the project isn't boring you, but that you're suffering the old "dejection from rejection" syndrome.

I don't know what to tell you except try to have fun with what you're doing at the moment, with the creative challenge of turning whatever you're writing into the best possible piece of work you can, not with all the things completely out of your control.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Are you saying that you sustained interest the entire time you were writing these, from start to finish? If so, WOW. You are the first person I've heard to do that. It's rather normal for interest to wane, because it gets hard.

Anyways, to answer your question, keep going if you're just bored. It means that something is not quite right with the story. So fix it and things will be interesting again.

If you absolutely hate the story, then abandon it.

.

I never lose interest in a story, and I finish everything I start. I don't believe abandoning a story is ever a good idea. Like chewing tobacco, it's a nasty habit that leads to bad things.

If hard made me lose interest, or made me bored, I'd never finish anything.

I have all sorts of worries and fears about being able to pull something off, being able to turn what I'm working on into something really good, but I don't lose interest or get bored because the challenge is what makes it fun, not the particular project I'm working on.
 
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