From Adults to Teens and Everything In Between

From Adults to Teens and Everything In Between

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Unfinish Manuscripts: How Many Do You Have?

Let's be honest, most of us writers get shiny new ideas (SNIs) that we start off gun-ho about when we open that new document, but soon we let them fizzle. We close out the document when we run out of steam and leave the story sit, sometimes forever. I'm guilty of this myself. I have a whole folder of stories with only one chapter. Why do we do this to ourselves? I've often wondered how the idea seems so brilliant and then when I go to write it, blah, nothing great ever comes out. I guess you could say that's a form of writers block or maybe the idea truly wasn't as fantastic as I thought it was. Who knows. On the other hand, I've started a couple different stories where I couldn't sleep until they were completed. They kept calling to me and the characters kept talking to me (You writers know what I mean. To everyone else, I swear I'm not completely insane. It's just a writers thing.) I would get aggravated that there wasn't enough time in the day to get it finished. I once competed a first draft in roughly 3-4 weeks. Yeah, crazy. I know. That story stayed/and is still on my mind ALL THE TIME.

What I'm wondering is: What are the elements of a SNI that grabs you to where you feel like you have to finish or you just might die if you don't get it out? And what makes us fizzle out on great ideas? What can we do as writers to keep ourselves motivated? Shout it out! Maybe something you do will work for someone else. :)

Happy Writing!!

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READING, WRITING AND WAITING

5 comments:

  1. I'll openly admit that I am a WIP whore, lol. I probably have four unfinished mani's right now along with the one I'm working on right now.

    It really is a sickness....there should be a support group for it.

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  2. LMAO!! Sooo true! We could totally start one. :D

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  3. Just one. I forbid, ABSOLUTELY FORBID, myself from writing a single sentence of another story until i finish the current one. On the plus side, this gives my mind time to work out the story a little bit more and see if it is really deserving of attention or if it's just something I will get bored with after the newness fades away.

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  4. I have a few unfinished manuscripts sitting around. I always know I've found the right one to work on when it starts spawning on its own-- you know, where it goes beyond one cool idea into three others, into cool characters. Those are the ones I tend to finish!

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  5. I put it away until the characters start screaming at me. I have a lot of unfinished work, but I know that the ideas are always in the back of my head. One day, they pop up again and I go right back to it with fresh ideas.

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