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Unfinished Omo Stories and Motivation - Thoughts?


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Since joining this site 5 years ago, I've written a few fictional stories and I made a significant amount of progress on some of them, going at full power, until eventually, I became burned out and lost the motivation to finish them. The encouragement and feedback at the time of writing helped me to complete what I was able to get done, but still, I ran out of steam. A possible reason for this is that beforehand, I either didn't plan out where the story was headed, or if I did, I deviated from the outline so much that it became obsolete.

While I'm aware that there are likely a lot of unfinished stories on this site (hundreds of pages worth, probably), I have some questions for all of the other authors on this site. Have you run into this problem and left stories unfinished? If you did somehow regain motivation and manage to continue the story several months down the road (or longer), how did you regain this motivation? When you did, did you just continue where you left off on the old thread, or start a new one? If you somehow managed to avoid this problem altogether, then how did you keep things rolling? I am interested in your thoughts on this topic.

As of today when posting this, I am currently working on an interactive story and I'm still going at full power with it. As for the others, for those of you who happen to remember them, is there still interest in their continuation? If so, I would like to know what you have to say about this. The two that received the most positive feedback were "Thieves" and "The Assistant", with the latter of the two being the only one I've even thought of continuing at all. The first one, I might do it if there is demand for it, but otherwise, probably not.

Edited by Anubis
Corrected some things (see edit history)
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I'm a very weak-willed writer, which is why I have stuck to the interactive stories section. I guess my motivation is based not on people telling me that I don't suck, but demonstrating that I don't suck though continued participation. Or maybe I fell below the sanity line years ago and just nobody continues to notice because so has the world. I know fiction pieces get the highest upvote-to-post ratios, but I'm not here for that. I'm here to participate and tell a good story. Positive rep is but a symptom of good citizenship. I may not have the stick-toitiveness to write a standalone fiction myself, so I'd suggest maybe hanging out in the interactive section, do a little worldbuilding, and maybe write a spinoff story of a popular character, or a fixed version of a complete interactive with any tweaks you would have wanted to add.

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I myself loved Thieves and The Assistant and would love to see them continued, but I understand your plight. 

I have wanted to update Mulberry Mansion for a while now but haven't been able to summon the will or creativity to do so...it's quite frustrating. I'd say, if you want, skim over what you have written and see if it sparks something. If it does, great, but never try to force it. You and your readers will be able to tell.

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I am sorta kinda like...Well I have/had an interactive story that I started, had die, revived, and am currently on hiatus from for two big reasons:

1.  Unfortunately when I get into my really depressed side of my bipolar, I don't want to do anything at all.  Like my life is sleeping all day and wishing for death.  For a better part of the past year since I've shelved my Interactive Story.  I want to bring it back but I feel like I've let people down who were interested in it and stuff.  When I either stabilize or get manic, I REALLY think about firing the story back up again, but I dunno.

2.  I'm not 100% sure people are even really interested in the direction its going.  My story started in one universe and has sort of transcended into another universe that I've started building and customizing as an almost alternate setting for the anime I based it off of.  Borrowing from other animes and hobbies I like, the name it carries only pertains to certain events within the story.  But again I don't even know if people are interested in it anymore, so it stops me from updating as well.

 

But if I did start it back up I think I'd only update the story once a week or so.  I was doing every other day almost and sometimes maybe twice in one day and I felt obligated to keep that schedule and it added to the stress of burning out on it.

My motivation comes from I guess the desire to even know that people want me to write.  Otherwise I feel like my writing is garbage and I'd perma-shelve this project.

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Aye. Finishing Desperation Dungeon was one of the hardest things I've ever done. In the beginning it was supposed to be a small series of short stories, but once I started developing those characters and that world, I knew how much potential it had. I scrapped the original idea and started working on what it is now. Looking back, I'm glad that I posted it in parts. Outside of this forum, I'm a writer and performer, and in that part of my life I just don't get to suddenly stop. On here, I don't face such restrictions, so finishing what I start is entirely dependent on my own willpower rather than getting punished by the people I work for or punishing the people who work for me.

Posting the first part of Dungeon kept me going to write the rest, and the incredible reception it got just added fuel to the fire. It was hard, it was painful, it took over a year, but I finally finished my greatest omorashi story, a story that in its entirety is the full length of a small novel.

When you write, you need to make sure that you're passionate about the subject. You can't just suddenly say "X is kind of cool, I'm gonna write a story about X!" You need to think about X, you need to envision where X will end up, you need to introduce Y and Z to make the story more interesting.

Basically, don't start writing a story until you can tell yourself the story first. And then, once you have it straight in your head and you know you care enough about it...

maxresdefault.jpgJUST DO IT!

 

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5 hours ago, Bulge_Lover said:

Aye. Finishing Desperation Dungeon was one of the hardest things I've ever done. In the beginning it was supposed to be a small series of short stories, but once I started developing those characters and that world, I knew how much potential it had. I scrapped the original idea and started working on what it is now. Looking back, I'm glad that I posted it in parts. Outside of this forum, I'm a writer and performer, and in that part of my life I just don't get to suddenly stop. On here, I don't face such restrictions, so finishing what I start is entirely dependent on my own willpower rather than getting punished by the people I work for or punishing the people who work for me.

Posting the first part of Dungeon kept me going to write the rest, and the incredible reception it got just added fuel to the fire. It was hard, it was painful, it took over a year, but I finally finished my greatest omorashi story, a story that in its entirety is the full length of a small novel.

 

I remember reading Desperation Dungeon back when you first started it and damn, I thought it was great back then. After leaving the site for a year again and leaving the story I was working on unfinished, for the second time, I have yet to read the rest of it. That must have been difficult, just scrapping everything you had planned for it like that and changing it into something else. At least it was worth it though.

For me, I did have that fire, at first, and the reception I was receiving certainly kept me going until it seemed to die out and I couldn't go anymore with it. It would be great to finish my "greatest omorashi story", whatever that happens to be, whether its some new and improved version of an old one, or something brand new that comes along later.

5 hours ago, Bulge_Lover said:

When you write, you need to make sure that you're passionate about the subject. You can't just suddenly say "X is kind of cool, I'm gonna write a story about X!" You need to think about X, you need to envision where X will end up, you need to introduce Y and Z to make the story more interesting.

Basically, don't start writing a story until you can tell yourself the story first. And then, once you have it straight in your head and you know you care enough about it...

JUST DO IT!

 

What most likely killed my stories though was not planning it out well enough beforehand, if at all, and then having to make up a lot of the content on the spot. This turned it into a chore, rather than a passion, and that snuffed out the fire that I had with each of them. If anything, I'd still like to finish the Assistant, if I can, but it's been nearly 5 years since I started it and its scattered across two different threads, with no progress having been made in either one for a very long time.

This is excellent advice and something I wish I would have done in the beginning, but it's what I'm doing from now on. Thank you for the input. It's great getting advice like this from someone who does this for a living, outside of this site.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/6/2018 at 6:50 AM, PWG said:

1.  Unfortunately when I get into my really depressed side of my bipolar, I don't want to do anything at all.  Like my life is sleeping all day and wishing for death.  For a better part of the past year since I've shelved my Interactive Story.  I want to bring it back but I feel like I've let people down who were interested in it and stuff.  When I either stabilize or get manic, I REALLY think about firing the story back up again, but I dunno.

It's been a while since there has been any activity in this thread, but I want to take a moment to reply to your post. I definitely understand the depression and having it get in the way of finding motivation to keep writing. It's been an issue for me for as long as I can remember. I can't imagine what it must be like to be Bipolar though, since I don't seem to have manic episodes, and don't fully understand the struggle.

Perhaps the next time you find yourself in a stable situation, you could give your interactive story a jump start.

On 6/6/2018 at 6:50 AM, PWG said:

2.  I'm not 100% sure people are even really interested in the direction its going.  My story started in one universe and has sort of transcended into another universe that I've started building and customizing as an almost alternate setting for the anime I based it off of.  Borrowing from other animes and hobbies I like, the name it carries only pertains to certain events within the story.  But again I don't even know if people are interested in it anymore, so it stops me from updating as well.

Recently, I started a story back up that has been dead for 5 years and I've found that there is definitely still interest in it. I thought no one would be interested in it either, but I have found out that I was wrong and it's been receiving quite a lot of attention recently. Honestly, if you do decide to keep your interactive going, then I say, you should give it a try. No matter what, there will always be someone on this site that will be interested. Even if your old audience falls away because it's moved into another universe of your design, a new audience will pick it up.

I'll stop in and give it a look if there is a chance that you might update it again. Since it's been a year, I've likely missed it because I was away from the site for a year myself, up until the end of April.

On 6/6/2018 at 6:50 AM, PWG said:

But if I did start it back up I think I'd only update the story once a week or so.  I was doing every other day almost and sometimes maybe twice in one day and I felt obligated to keep that schedule and it added to the stress of burning out on it.

My motivation comes from I guess the desire to even know that people want me to write.  Otherwise I feel like my writing is garbage and I'd perma-shelve this project.

Scheduling one day a week for yourself to update the story is probably the best way to avoid getting burned out. I've been in that place before where I'd go a few months at a time, updating every 2 - 3 days, until eventually, it would be once every 2 - 3 weeks, before being left to die. If it helps to motivate you, perhaps I can take a look at your story and leave a comment. It's up to you, what you decide to do with it. I don't want to pressure you into anything, but if I can help somehow, then I would really like to do so.

I apologize for not replying to this sooner, but it took me a bit to figure out just how to put my thoughts into words. Thank you for your reply to this thread, even if it has been a month since then.

Edited by Anubis (see edit history)
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I mostly write stand-alones. And aim for 800-1500 words. I can do that in a couple of hours, particularly if I’ve “written” it in my head first. At least a skeleton of the story.

While it’s tempting to embark on a larger project that isn’t really a good idea for me. Occassionally though, a few people might ask me to do more with a story, so I usually will. But I always wrap things up well enough that the story could satisfyingly end at any time. 

 

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Not sure I can add much to the advice already given.  I have never tried to write an interactive story and I can imagine that the pressure to keep the story rolling, even when you have run out of ideas, must be intense.

I can only suggest doing what I do, focus on the Fiction and Fanfiction section where you can write a story when you feel like it, with no obligation to follow up quickly or at all.  I thought I had run out of ideas for my Valerie series and signed off with Epilogue but a couple of months later I had some new ideas.  Just about to publish one more but no idea (at the moment) what to do after that.

Also, I would not be too worried about positive feedback, or lack of it.  Omorashi covers several different areas of interest and works for me does not necessarily work for everybody else.  We are all different so as long as some people think your stories are worth reading, that's enough to make it worth writing.

 

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On 6/28/2018 at 12:06 AM, WaityKaty said:

I mostly write stand-alones. And aim for 800-1500 words. I can do that in a couple of hours, particularly if I’ve “written” it in my head first. At least a skeleton of the story.

While it’s tempting to embark on a larger project that isn’t really a good idea for me. Occassionally though, a few people might ask me to do more with a story, so I usually will. But I always wrap things up well enough that the story could satisfyingly end at any time. 

 

For most people, this is probably the safest option. I've even considered going that route myself, but writing the longer stories is so much fun for me, as long as I can keep them going. Lately, I've found that making an outline for the story and sticking to it, helps a lot. If there is a reason to deviate, then the outline will have to be changed first.

Aside from knowing where the story is headed, I've noticed that having an outline prepared helps with motivation as well. Whenever the excitement of writing eludes me, if I look at the plans I have for the rest of the story, it gets me excited about it again. It's like planning a trip and using a map to look at all the stops I plan to take along the way to the destination. It really gets me fired up.

On 6/28/2018 at 4:07 PM, Ondinist said:

Not sure I can add much to the advice already given.  I have never tried to write an interactive story and I can imagine that the pressure to keep the story rolling, even when you have run out of ideas, must be intense.

The bonus to writing an interactive story over normal fiction is that the audience helps to decide where the story should go. I've been doing quite well with my current interactive, so far. I do hope that it stays that way, but I have a plan for the general direction it will be taking, so I am feeling optimistic. The pressure to keep the story going seems to be about the same for both, in my experience, but being able to collaborate with the audience keeps things interesting.

Edited by Anubis
corrected typo (see edit history)
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I am perhaps more guilty than anyone of leaving stories unfinished, but I would like to share my thoughts nonetheless. I have certainly lost interest and motivation in stories in the past, but I like to tell myself that my time constraints are the rate limiting step, rather than motivation.

Another possibility, which I had not considered until starting to write this post, is that there may be some aspect of Self Handicapping involved. The subconscious thoughts that: "If I don't try, I cannot possibly fail." For in the instances where I have an entire story outlined, but only manage to write half, there may be a psychological aspect where I fear to disappoint if the story does not live up to my or my readers expectations.

In all, I am not in a position to offer advice, but I can repeat advice that was given to me.

Motivation is a flighty thing that will come and go with the wind. Rather than fighting for motivation which may not last, dedicate yourself to the task. Dedication is not easy, but it is lasting. Even if you do not feel motivated, try dedicating yourself to your task every day. In the case of writing, dedicate to writing at least 1000 words everyday, or whichever amount works best for you. In my experience, dedication will remain in those times where motivation flags or fails.

 

Again, I cannot say if any of this will be any use to anyone else, but I will share it, if only as a reminder to myself.

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6 hours ago, Garrus said:

Motivation is a flighty thing that will come and go with the wind. Rather than fighting for motivation which may not last, dedicate yourself to the task. Dedication is not easy, but it is lasting. Even if you do not feel motivated, try dedicating yourself to your task every day. In the case of writing, dedicate to writing at least 1000 words everyday, or whichever amount works best for you. In my experience, dedication will remain in those times where motivation flags or fails.

This sounds like excellent advice. I also have noticed that even now, my motivation comes and goes. I went to work on one of my stories just today and I've typed one sentence, in the last hour or so. The rest of that hour, I've just been browsing the site. Dedication is the solution, I suppose. It's time for me to put it into practice.

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