Iâm so sorry if you get this question a lot or have had it before⌠but I really just feel like Iâm ready to totally 100% give up on writing. Like, my stories arenât going any where, and I feel like my characters donât work. I guess my question is, how do you know when to give up on a story? How do you know when itâs something you should keep working on? How do you know if youâll ever be good at this whole writing thing, and if itâs worth it to keep trying? Sorry, thanksâŚ
Ok, take a DEEP breath! This is a completely normal thing for writers to go through, especially early on in your writing career. I have a lot of posts that might help  you, but weâll get there in a second. First let me answer your questions specifically:
1) How do you know when to give up on a story?
Itâs hard to know sometimes, so I think when you have an uncooperative story, itâs a good idea to pick a date and say, âIf this story isnât moving forward by this date, Iâm shelving it.â That date can be a few days, a few weeks, a few months, even a year. Whatever you feel comfortable with, but it guarantees that youâll put a certain amount of effort into saving this story, and if it still refuses to budge, youâll have a dedicated point by which itâs okay to stop and start on something else. I also think the concept of shelving books is important. They used to call these âtrunk novelsâ because they were manuscripts that would get tossed into a trunk and forgotten about. But the thing about âtrunk novelsâ is sometimes you get inspired to pull them out, dust them off, and start working on them again. You never know when the solution to fixing a stubborn story will occur to you out of nowhere, so instead of just deleting a story and calling it history, save it on paper and in a digital file. That way you can come back to it at a later date if the inspiration strikes you. Once you hit that deadline, though, consider it a temporary âcase closedâ and move onto something else.
2) How do you know when itâs something you should keep working on?
If you havenât done extensive trouble shooting yet, and by that I mean really looking at why the story isnât working and trying to find a solution (or solutions), then I think you should keep working on it for awhile. Still set yourself a deadline, but give yourself some time to try some different things to see if you can get the story moving again.
3) How do you know if youâll ever be good at this whole writing thing, and if itâs worth it to keep trying?
If you enjoy writing, itâs worth sticking with it. If youâre patient with yourself and understand that it takes a lot of time and experience to get better at writing, you will get better at writing. The thing is, a lot of new writers sit down and work on a first story or a third story and they expect to write award-winning fiction, but it doesnât happen like that. Youâll get better with every story you write, but you have to build up a pretty significant volume of finished writing before you can expect to be confident in your ability. Youâll get there, though!
Here are some posts I want you to take a look at. They should help with the motivation as well as the trouble shooting. :)
What to Do When Your Story Stalls
Moving Forward When Youâve Lost Interest (In Your Story)
Take a âVacationâ to Re-Charge Your Creativity
How to Get Excited About Your Story Again
Beating Writerâs Block
Frustrated with Writing Quality
Getting Better at Writing
Staying Motivated
Struggling to Get the Ball Rolling
Too Stressed to Write
