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Saturday, April 6, 2013

A Pearl Worth Writing For

Recently I've finally come to realize that (shocker) if I don't enjoy writing a story, it's really not worth the loads of time and effort I put into it.

This is an unfortunate realization for the readers of Break Out. I've really only been writing it for the readers. I had my fun in The Rules, but Break Out was the more seriously-taken sequel to explain why I was able to have my fun in The Rules. Negligible amounts of my own interest went into deciding to write the sequel. The chapter with France finding Canada wanted to be written, as did the chapter with Italy taking an unexpected turn (which was originally going to be in The Rules, anyway). That's it. I haven't plotted enough to know what happens at the point I've reached, and I've realized I don't really care anymore. I've only been writing my 2,500 words every four days for the readers' sake, and so few showed much interest the last chapter posted (until recently) that I just gave up on it.

I'm not promising I'll never go back to it. If it becomes of interest to me, or if I have a lot of extra time and pushy readers, I'm sure I'd be fine with writing some more. I already have the "normal" amount of reviews for the last chapter, so I'm not feeling quite so abandoned. It's difficult trying to balance what I want to do with what I should do for readers, but I've chatted with a good handful of friends (and my mother), and they've agreed that I just shouldn't write it if I don't want to—it's my hobby, for veal's sake. (If I do give on forever on Break Out, I'll at least post a summary of what was supposed to happen next, so no need to panic too much.)

At the same time, I hope I don't end up doing this with all of my original fictions. The Long and Winding Road is getting few enough reviews that I can be sure I'm not just writing it for the readers, and I'm not seriously thinking that I might lose interest in it. As for my other (future) fictions, at this point I don't know. I'm worried that I'll find myself losing interest in things and losing my discipline in the process. Hopefully that's just another unfounded accusation I'm making at myself, but I guess only time will tell. If nothing else, I've powered through all 50,000 words of NaNoWriMo with a fiction I was at no point proud to call my own.

What do you think? Any advice for me? Have you ever been in this sort of situation? What do you think makes writing worth it?

(Also, if the title sounds somehow familiar but you can't quite place it, here's your hint. I also mean "pearl" in the metaphorical sense, though hopefully that's not difficult to figure out.)

8 comments:

  1. IfyoudontwanttofinishitIalwayscould

    Ihavesomanyideasitsnotfunny

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    1. I feel like I've shoved enough of my stories onto your shoulders...

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    2. ObiwanlivesforeverApril 7, 2013 at 5:02 PM

      I feel like I should give this a better response than I did before. While I can't say that I'm not disappointed and saddened that the story isn't going to continue, I can't exactly tell you to keep on writing something you don't want to. After all, I'm the one who keeps saying writing should be for fun and not just to please people. Moreover, seeing as I've abandoned a story that people were interested in, I feel like I'd be a hypocrite if I made a big deal.

      However, just personally, I'd far rather write the rest of Break Out myself (based on your ideas) than just have it end withan author's note. I wouldn't feel like you'd shoved something onto my shoulders. I'm not going to tell you what to do, though, in case you want to come back to it - but just know that, if you decide one day that you're really not interested in continuing at all, I'd always be willing to take it up. :)

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  2. Also, you should at least post some sort of author's note at the end of the story telling them about this. Not all of your readers read your blog or look at your profile, and from what I can tell from the reviews, most of them seem to think you're just taking a break from it.

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    1. Well, for all I know, I'm just taking a break from it. All-A/N chapters are actually against the rules (ha), so I just performed some trickery. Hopefully it works.

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  3. .....Uhh...
    Well
    If you don't like/ lose inspiration for your stories...
    Think of people like me; The silent readers.
    I read and hardly ever write a review, And I'm quite sad Break Out is on hiatus. I had a hunch that the only way to snap the barrier would be for the remaining nations to kill one of the free nations. Don't ask.
    Anyways, Uhh...Yeah.

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    Replies
    1. No problem! ^^
      (By the way the new chapter is pretty good, ^^))

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