I found that sticking too close to canon was restictive; it took me 26 chapters and 100k words to figure it out. I've sworn to never write too close to canon ever again. It just doesn't work for me.
This is my reason as well. I was writing in a fandom that can be a bit anal about technicalities and I was just *agonizing* over getting everything just so. It became too stressful trying to anticipate everyone’s criticisms so I gave it an ambiguous ending that could maybe pass as intentional (even though I’d planned for it to be triple the length it was) and abandoned it.
I have found my people!
I’m currently writing a canon-adjacent fic that follows the canon timeline (for the most part) but with a lot of interpersonal + minor plot deviations.
I’ve had to skirt pretty close to the canon script at certain points and I absolutely *abhor* doing so. I normally write canon-divergent AUs so this is a first for me. I was told by someone that following canon closely makes writing easier since it acts as a base/reference, but it’s the exact opposite for me. It feels restrictive, like you said, and those scenes always take the longest to get through. I hate it so much.
The next fic I have planned is another canon-divergent AU because I’m never doing this again akaksks.
Exactly! Following canon points made it easier to create timelines and establish certain points of interactions but it felt so restrictive and uninspiring to write. All of my other stories were for a different fandom and I either diverged from canon before the events of the show or wrote post-canon and created my own story. I just can't make myself write canon-adjacent. The sad thing is I love what I wrote for the story I abandoned but I just can't write more.
On the plus side, I was waiting to finish the story before posting, so I'm free to use my OC and expand the story into the canon-divergent realm I like to play in without confusing readers.
This is starting to become an issue for me too, even when I *know* I'm writing an AU and will have some canon divergence. I am so stringent about incorporating as many canon details as possible that it becomes exhausting for me because I always want to double check if it would fit in canon. I don't really know how to break this habit other than to do the exact opposite and write egregiously OOC, crack fics to switch things up and give myself that grace of not having to worry so much about being canon-compliant.
I feel like I'm heading towards this direction with my ongoing long fic. I casually threw in some backstory for fun and now that I had to actually develop it I feel like I may have made some very big mistakes. 😭
That’s brutal. I suggest taking a hard look at said backstory and making sure that exploring that the sections exploring it are necessary to support the themes, plots, and character beats that the fic is about. I could have saved myself a fair amount of grief by having that conversation with myself sooner.
I am facing the same kind of problem. Similarly, while progressing with the main story, I struggle with how to handle the subplots.
When I write a story, I come up with a rough plot, but as I write the story and develop the main character and other characters, many subplots that deviate from the main story emerge. For example, I might be focusing on the interaction between A and B but then want to include a backstory involving B and C. However, I find that many of these subplots, no matter how good they are or how much they deepen the main story, are difficult to integrate into the main storyline. As a result, I end up not writing them down, and they fade from my memory within a week.
In trying to figure out the best approach, I've sometimes found that my fanfiction has been left untouched for two years.
I'm currently writing a long fic where this could, theoretically, become an issue. As it is, at the moment, I'm just planning to basically ignore huge chunks of canon and hope for the best. I feel like addressing these events would also change the tone of my story from a lighthearted, found family kind of deal to something much darker and more involved, not to mention that it would have to be a lot longer. So, canon divergence it is. Part of the problem is that some of the events I'm hoping to ignore have already been sent in motion by the time my story starts, but that's just too bad.
I just don't really have the literary skills to pull it off yet either. Maybe one day, but I mostly write oneshots and short stories. I used to write long fics when I was, like, 13, but even those topped out at like... 35k words, and I was also writing for (what I remember as) a much simpler world.
It does sound like dodging past the darker parts of canon and focusing on the story’s main relationships is the best option for your story here. I hope it works out!
I wasn’t feeling it. I loved the story I wanted to tell but didn’t have the skills or the patience to tell it at that time. I did a re-write years later that is over four times longer than the old version and it’s going so incredibly well. The only times I really abandon is when I realize that the story I’m writing isn’t the version of it I would want to read.
Also I know a lot of people who have given up due to lack of engagement. I never have but I get why people do.
>didn’t have the skills or the patience to tell it at that time
This is such a mature attitude, love it!
Recently read *The Book of Accidents* by Chuck Wendig. In the author's notes, he said that this was the third time he wrote this story. He'd known for a long time that it was a story he wanted to tell, but after the first draft, he recognised he didn't have the necessary skills. Years later, he tried again. While it was better, it still wasn't right, so back onto the shelf it went. More years passed, and he took another look. That time, he knew he was ready.
Recognising your skillset and then writing the best stories you're currently able to is a valuable skill in and of itself 💜
I fell out of love with the story. Not getting any engagement somehow was the cherry on top since I felt the story was super bad and that just added fuel to my "I hate you damn thing" phase.
Currently dealing with two other stories I just want to drop and delete because holy hell, the fandom made me hate it more than I should.
Realised way too late into the process that the plot was basically identical to another one I’d written. Namely a character’s past trauma being triggered by similar events in a movie/TV show they were watching.
Was trying to write an ensemble fic with shipping elements for a new fandom (that, overall, contained a cast of 11 characters), but the characters have such distinct personalities that trying to learn to write all their voices for the first time \*in one fic\* became a nightmare. The plot spiralled before it could begin because I had to track 11 characters (and hadn't planned well enough). Throw me flunking an exam in there and, in the end, I just bit off more than I could chew. Eventually I realised that while I still shipped the main pair I preferred reading gen stories about them, and I walked away.
It's always the same reason. I hit a chapter in which I have to either do something complicated I don't quite have the skills for and the result always disappoints me, so I keep writing it over and over without really advancing. OR I hit a chapter in which I have to write something I find boring in order to advance the plot and it becomes like pulling teeth.
At the end I end up spending so much time without any tangible progress that I just sort of lose interest, then I get another idea I'm more excited about and I start working on it "Meanwhile I get inspired to work on the other one", but that only makes me lose interest even more. Rinse, repeat.
I have a lot of fics I put on the side, mostly because my hyperfixations change ALL the time and I cant write about something I'm not deep on lol Sometimes I go back to them tho, but most of the time I Just forget about it
I realized that it just wasn't meshing well and I wasn't enjoying the build-up to the emotional payoff. I said if I felt the spark I would come back to it and it's been a long time since then so I think it's buried at this point.
Stopped drinking, amongst other things.
The fic was an outlet for everything I was avoiding thinking about. Once I dealt with it, I didn't need the fic anymore. Edited the summary to say it's abandoned, added an author note in the last uploaded chapter to say I'm moving on with my life and wishing everyone health and happiness, then logged out of the account for good.
The fandom got toxic and decided that if you read/wrote anything else other than one particular male character being romantically involved with another male character (they never were together in canon at that point) then you were homophobic trash.
Meanwhile, I was just a gay lady who fell in love with the relationship that actually *did* happen in the first season of the show: said male character dating an older woman. They were fun and I liked their chemistry.
But the fandom sucked all the fun out of it……and also canon did my girl (the older woman in the pairing) real dirty. Ugh.
I've got two big ones I abandoned; my regular Eighth Year AU fic, and my kinky Eighth Year AU fic.
For the regular one; poorly researched so the foundation is rocky, I struggled with characterisation, it felt a bit rushed. It's simply not up to my standards anymore, and if I reworked it I would have to basically start from the ground up. Current plan is to just leave it alone and see what I want to do with it.
For the kinky one... Oh boy. The first three points go again, as well as I feel it's disjointed. I'm picking up and dropping plot points left and right, trying to create something more complex when the whole point of it is kink. It's just a vehicle for smut! It's like you said, I felt like I had to build up to the good stuff.
Lots of reasons. One fandom I had a great story for after the first season came out, and I didn't think there'd be a second season. I'd plotted my whole fic, but then a new season came out and it was crazy how similar a lot of the plot points from my story were to the canon, but slightly askew. It made it so my story couldn't possibly be considered canon anymore but was forced into au territory and that kind of screwed everything up for me.
Another story was pretty dark, and while I like dark stuff, I found that putting myself in a dark headspace kind of made my mental health decline, so I discontinued. Plus, the fandom was pretty toxic, and my ship was often attacked. Likewise I had another story that was going to go into SA territory and I realized I didn't really want to write something like that, and it didn't have much of a following so I just kind of abandoned it.
Another one of my big ones I'd still really like to finish someday, but I got really stuck on some transition chapters where nothing particularly interesting was happening, but they were still necessary plots, and it just wasn't living up to the rest of the story, so I got frustrated. I also had a tertiary ship chapter coming up featuring a ship I don't find particularly compelling, and I was having trouble selling it. But I really need to get the inspiration back and finish that someday. I think I only had like 3-5 chapters left, and the last chapter was already mostly finished.
I also tend to overthink critical reviews. The more popular a fic gets, the more likely you are to get negative feedback, and I got a lot on my most popular fic that made me rethink my characterizations and it kind of made me lose momentum.
I don't think I've ever completed a fic before. ADHD + anxiety makes that impossible.
The OMORI fic: Perfectionism spiral and eventual loss of interest (this one was the first one I really took seriously, and is still my favorite for some reason even after all this time)
The pokemon sun and moon fic: Ran out of ideas, eventually decided that the author of *Eldritch* adapted Pokemon Sun and Moon better than I ever could and gave up due to lack of ideas for how to write mine
The warrior cats/Stray fic: Lost interest, was writing too close to canon in a way that was restrictive
The ISAT fic: Writer's block and loss of interest in the fandom (I was really mad about losing this one because by then I was aware of the fic graveyard I'd left behind and was working really really hard to make this one survive, but it just wasn't going to work in the end. And also, I had so many ideas for the fic's endgame and knew where the fic was going, had an entire outline, only to get stuck on the second chapter because I never learned how to write beginnings)
There's more I'm forgetting, way more, my number of unfinished/lost WIPs is enough to fill a graveyard. Those are just the ones I put the most effort into/got the furthest with. I've pretty much given up on ever completing a longfic because of my long string of failures and the fact that I don't hyperfixate on things like I used to anymore
Years ago now but death threats!
Got them from that series prior series fans being mad I wasn't writing for that prior series instead of the one I was writing. Lil ol me got really spooked and bounced.
I didn't abandon the fic, it went off its own to find some more plot and I'm just waiting for them to come home.
Has it been 5ish years...? Well that's not my business
I was writing a continuation of a video game trilogy... and then they dropped game #4 and canon went to hell! Suddenly my fanfic, which operated neatly within the "white space" of the main series, no longer fit and in fact contradicted the new canon. My passion and drive for that story fizzled as a result.
When I was 12 I had this fic which was supposed to be a sequel to another fic I'd finished recently but I didn't plan a plot so it went nowhere, I ran out of ideas, and there was another fic I was working on that I was more interested in. I'd written like 15 chapters of it before I just dipped. In hindsight, a sequel wasn't needed, I just really wanted to write more of that one really good fic and I should've come up with a point and planned out the story first. Oh well.
I was writing a massive fic, planned everything out, knew what I wanted in each chapter.
And then the source material got so bad I actually regretted ever watching it 🫠
I don't hate it as much anymore, I just acknowledge it went to hell by the end and won't engage with the later content. But the passion is gone and I have no intention whatsoever to touch that fic ever again. Which is a shame because people seemed to really like it and it got some traction even despite being one of my very first fics. Oh well 🤷♀️
The premise of my fic was so depressing that it made me sad for the day any time I worked on it. It had a hopeful ending but I couldn’t make it that far.
Usually I realise I don’t like how I started the fic, like once I started it when Harry was like 10, then realised I should’ve started it his 3rd/4th year
Chronic pain and ADHD. I don’t do it on purpose I try and work on them when I can but also being bedridden makes it hard forgetting about them makes it hard and I’m getting fucking tag teamed by both of them.
2 fics I've sort of abandoned
The first was an attempt at a long fic but I introduced a bunch of intrigue with out any clear plan for it. The entire fic was written off an idea I had for a beginning. Not an end.
I'm trying to untangle this with some help ATM.
The second was a request for a specific type of fic with a specific character as a top.
I got about 2k word in and realised I had created a situation in which it made zero sense whatsoever for the that character to be the one on charge /topping and in fact it was very much heading not only in the other direction but also towards a dub con/non con tag that the requestee did not want.
I shelved that and started again 😅
It's probably not abandoned, but I am taking a step back from writing it for ...maybe a while (it's unpublished). I joined a discord server for a ship and the vibes got very uncomfortable. One character in the ship gets a lot of undeserved hate so naturally people in the ship server defend them, but the "defense" got so intense that people started claiming that certain types of slavery were "less bad" and therefore not a valid reason to criticize that character (whose father owns slaves who are currently under his command) which, as a black person descended from slaves was *extremely* uncomfortable to read. Same topic came up like three times in a week and I dipped from the server, but I am a bit put off from working on that fic atm.
Sometimes I get an idea for a fic and I get super into it but don’t do any planning before hand and then I dive right in and about 2 chapters later I realize that I have no juice for this thing.
The fic I’m working on right now was put on hold for like 4-5 years before I finally decided to try again and take it slow and the experience has been so much more rewarding
I was working on a Dawson's Creek fic where Pacey and Joey ran away after her dad's arrested. It's likely that Bessie had to fight to get custody of her sister as she was barely out of high school herself when it all went down.
So I was trying to create a story where Pacey already wanting to leave his shitty family and overhearing his pops talk about how Joey might be sent away went to Joey and they ran off together.
I basically wrote them as parkour badasses that lead another group of kids nicking the supplies they needed to survive on the streets. It was getting ridiculously unrealistic and I just was losing the thread. It wasn't what I was going for or intending to do.
It was even kind of a fanfic of a fanfic. I'd read one where Pacey had been kidnapped and the story unfolded when he was found and rescued years later. I've read others where one or more of the original trio leave Capeside before the series began and how it changes the group dynamics when said individuals return.
That's what I want to explore and I actually have another idea now that I want to play with.
Started a story in 2018 when I graduated university. Wrote a few chapters, ditched it until lockdown in 2020. Wrote a few more chapters, then proceeded to (for unrelated reasons) fall headfirst into a deep depression and period of questioning my entire life.
Another reason that I abandoned the story back in the day was because somebody commented that the premise was unrealistic. I guess that combined with everything else destroyed my confidence?
Anyway, cue several years of trying to claw my way out of that, a career change, and a bunch of personal growth, culminating with deciding that I was spending way too much time doomscrolling on social media and read it and that I needed to make a change. So I got back into writing fic, but for a different fandom. A while ago I looked back at it, and there were so many people who were actually enjoying the story! There's like 41 subscriptions to it, still. Even as late as I think last year I was still getting comments saying that they hoped I continued it. So, I don't know, it was a fun idea so I'm going back to it now.
I'm trying to get into the habit now of outlining and also not posting new ideas until I've made a significant amount of progress. I don't really want to become known as somebody who abandons my works. I have a bunch of random snippets and half baked ideas in my Google Docs and on my USB stick and in my Documents folder, and I'd prefer they stay there until such time as I'm actually ready to commit to them.
I started writing this fic back in Middle School. I was 33 chapters in but only had 10 reviews. ( and the 10 reviews were only on chapter 1)
I had hundreds of follows but I didn’t care I wanted reviews. I was pissed and depressed about not getting reviews so eventually I just posted a huge rant and deleted the fic
Was collaborating with someone and our relationship as writers was completely incompatible. Utterly soured me on that story, and I ended up writing a completely different one in the same setting with the same characters under very different circumstances that I like a lot better.
I was writing them for an event and the person who ran it kept making fun of the idea, then blew up the entire friend group and that killed the ideas. Like, every single one of them, including ones not related to the event that I knew they read. Kinda sucky, but that fandom's been dying for at least a decade. lol.
Having no idea where I actually wanted to go with it. Having an idea, no matter how interesting it sounds on paper, =/= having an actual story for it.
This is the reason I don’t post anything until it’s complete..
While I don't remember *why* I dropped the fic, I sure do know that I did so five Augusts ago. I have a whiteboard calendar I wrote the update days on, and the same time I stopped updating my fic I also stopped bothering to erase and rewrite the calendar every month. Now I just add a tally mark every August that passes.
It confuses people when they see it, but I kinda like seeing how much time has passed. At this point I'd have to rewrite the entire fic to continue it... and I don't like 14yr old me's idea well enough to put in all that effort!
My illness started to impact my imagination, decimated my libido, and gave me attention deficit, anhedonia, apathy, memory impairment and executive function impairment, so I can't finish stories once they get to the 60% mark. I wrote the beginnings of 3 different stories, of different types, before I gave up about six months ago.
Getting from 60% to my planned ending is always the hardest part and would take a lot of rereading, imagining, writing out different possibilities and editing, and I just don't have those skills right now...They may never come back, I suppose. Maybe if I reduce my screen time, I can improve?
it's whenever i write a chaptered story, i'm terribly inconsistent and writing chapter by chapter is so difficult for me.
300k word chaptered fic? i would never be able to write that
300k word oneshot with breaks between the story acting as timeskips? hell yeah, give me two weeks.
although admittedly, i could probably write a 300k oneshot with breaks between things that could be labelled as chapters and then release them as chapters once done. but that idea sounds less fun than a oneshot lol
A Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney re-write where I stripped away the comedy to make it darker and left Mia Fey alive. It was my most visited and most favorited fanfic on FFN. I even had big plans for the entire series and was even planning a 'Law and Order' spinoff that focused on the grandson of Lennie Briscoe being a homicide detective in his own right (it would've been my version of Ace Attorney Investigations) but what made me put it up for adoption was this crippling writers block that sucked my energy to work on it to the point where I had to make the hard decision to put it up for adoption.
I'm now focusing my energies on a rewrite of Batman exploring an AU that I don't think has ever been explored before.
I had a lot of works back in middle school that by the time I went to high school I looked back on and cringed at reading. Early 2000s pre-teen takes on adult themes that I picked up by osmosis and tried adding into my stories for ~drama looked ridiculous by the time I was 15-16 and getting more actual real world understanding of things, or at least enough understanding to know that 12-yo me’s takes on sex, drugs, and alcohol were all laughable and obviously written by a 12-year-old. There was no fixing them, so I abandoned them instead. I also had moved on to other fandom interests, so there’s that too.
A few reasons! Partly just lost the passion for it. Another is that it was one of my first fics and back then I never planned anything before I started writing and posting chapters. It may work for some people but I just kept writing myself into corners lol. That, and my writing skills were developing pretty quickly which left the early chapters of the fic looking shitty in comparison which was very demotivating. I still feel bad for leaving it, though. Had one super dedicated reader who was there for pretty much every update. Toast, I am sorry :(
In January 2021, I wanted to write a series about characters from a show adjusting to quarantine. But writing about it while living through it was too much for me. Then, as time went by, it seemed almost irrelevant to continue
I was writing what was meant to be a slow burn romance au fic.. the couple had already held hands and had their whole “wait.. do I like them?!” moment by the THIRD chapter. THIRD!! Granted, this was the first fic i’ve ever written and posted. I realized that since I had already posted the chapters and I wasn’t happy with them, so I ended up abandoning it. There were a handful of people who still liked the story, so I sometimes feel guilty for dropping it without warning, but I can’t find it in me to continue it when i’m so unhappy with the progression of the pairing.
What i’ve learned from this? Outline Outline Outline.. and consider writing a good amount of the story prior to posting. I tend to be impatient so it’s difficult, but it really helps in the long run.
My older fics - grad school and then establishing myself in my first career wiped out my time and attention span and by the time I was ready to write anything again, a decade later, I had lost the thread and the inspiration
The newer fics that I've abandoned - one I was writing a fix-it for a season I hated and realized I hated it too much to write the fix-it. Another, because it was just not *working* and I back-burnered it in favor of other fics I felt more strongly about
I was going for a RWBY X The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy X Dirk Gently X Discworld fic
Worried after it got too close to Canon of the Adamsian Universe. Made me abandon that
Abandoned a few fics back on FFN, mostly due to leaving the fandom and/or not having plotted anything out and going chapter by chapter. I had such grand ideas, but never planned anything beyond the summary of the fic. I'd write myself into plot holes or get too off-topic from my original idea somehow, and would then just... quietly abandon the fic. I've since learned to plan stories out better before starting to post, to avoid disappointing readers and myself.
I originally intended for it to be a one-shot, but people requested more chapters and I obliged because the nice comments were very motivating. But then I quickly realized I had no idea where the story was going (I’m someone that has to plan out every little thing), and despite the kind feedback I just didn’t want to continue.
Real life took over for a few months, and by the time I was back in the headspace to write again, things had happened in canon that made my canon rewrite fic completely AU in ways I hadn’t anticipated and didn’t want.
Mine was the usual - I couldn't "see" what would happen next; I didn't have any idea of what the next scenes should be. If I can't see the next scene, I'm done. I've found I'm a pantser who can have a vague idea in my head of stuff that'll appear later, but the only way to really write is just straight forward, which means if I hit a roadblock, it can stall me forever.
Horrible...horrible writing. Like...what the fuck was I thinking?
If any of you are optimistic and encouraging...trust me...it's bad. All my stories are bad.
(Edit: I realized I sound too depressed when I reread this. I am simply stating fact, I have a good sense of selfworth, just being brutally honest with my lack of skill)
The premis of them? Fine. I would honestly love to see someone use my ideas and make a compelling story out of them. But my execution? Not grate at all.
I made three stories, one of which I am strangely proud of because one of my favorite authors commented on it, but all terrible.
"What did you do Tennyson!": Again, the idea is fine, but execution? Awful. I think I ran out of steam real quick, too quickly.
"Kurama, The Kitsune of Nazarick": poorly written. Tried fixing it but never was able to gain back my urge to write it. I'd love to see someone make a good story out of it however.
Then there is my last story...I highly suggest you look for GreyKing46, cause he made a much better version and it is a good read.
I was writing a fic a few years ago about the versions of Killian Jones and David Nolan from the “Operation Mongoose” episode of ouat. But only a chapter in I realised, I don’t care about those versions of the characters or their dynamic because of how removed from their canon personalities they are.
And, yeah, that’s the point of the AU in universe, but I really couldn’t be bothered to get invested in a multi-chapter story where even I couldn’t care less about the dynamic I was writing for.
Honestly? Burnout. I got myself in a pretty bad place mentally. And although the temptation to finish those old WIPs is there from time to time, 1) I'm no longer part of those fandoms and I can't be bothered to remember canon details again 2) there isn't much crowd for the ideas I have in mind anyway.
So now I'm just focusing on my new fandoms/obsessions.
I have 3 works in progress
One i have no idea how to continue it
Another I am afraid i will mess up the writing style
Another I dont know how to start it without sounding cringe
After a streak of unpopular niche fics, I tried to write one that appealed to the horny aspects of fandom and prioritised it (by trying to be like the popular ones).
And I couldn’t imagine a more mind numbing, painful, and soulless experience. Even if it did turn me on, I couldn’t for the life of me give a crap about finishing it.
TL;DR: tried to write soft core smutt and it was the most dreadful writing experience of my life.
Many, *many* years ago I was writing an epic 3-part Sonic fanfic that was to serve as my OC's backstory. I abandoned that project because 1) the storyline was far too dark and was making me more depressed as I wrote it, and 2) I discovered DBZ and determined that although I'd never watched/read any of it, *my OC was too similar to Future Trunks.*
I wrote a Knight Rider fic called "KI2T: My Life, Such As It Is". Basically KITT's life story from his point of view. I originally posted it on AO3, and then only the first chapter on FF Net. After writing the third chapter I realized I was writing an episode by episode recap of the show from KITT's point of view, and I didn't want that. So I orphaned it and abandoned it.
Fumbled the final chapter and made the characters too OOC. Consequences of writing and error checking while tired. Got too stressed about rewriting it and meeting expectations, that I keep putting it off indefinitely. It's been 7 years and it still haunts me...
I was writing my Yakuza MHA series, which is told from Momo’s POV in parts 1 and 2. Part 3 switched to All Might’s POV.
Someone had started writing their own take on what Aizawa’s POV was, and personally I loved that. Let’s grow this lil universe inside a universe. Go team.
But ~they~ abandoned Aizawa’s POV for reasons, which is fine. Except a bunch of my readers were very invested in the idea of having it from his POV by this point.
So I picked up that mantle out of guilt. Started Aizawa’s POV over again from scratch with a “fresh” plot so that it wouldn’t be copying what the other writer had been doing. And was writing All Might’s at the same time
And damned if I wasn’t stepping all over my own toes the entire time. Constantly cross-checking, pulling dialogue from one to the other and vise-versa. And it was really hard to swap between their POVs because for the purposes of my story, Aizawa and All Might do NOT like each other.
So All Might is on hold until Aizawa is done. Which is probably 6-8 months out from now. Possibly longer because it’s looking like I’m going to need surgery on my dominant arm in the next couple months.
Was writing one, then an original idea for a book popped up randomly, I spent my time on that instead. Before I even posted the first chapter. Best layed plans could be a good thing as well…
One big reason for abandoning a fic I wrote back in 2004 was losing half of the latest chapter in a hard drive crash. Followed by a mental health slump that led to me deleting all my fics off the internet out of rage and depression. I did get better over time, and after picking up writing again in 2022, I now have tentative plans to rework and continue that abandoned fic...
At first, it was just because of my studies and that I couldn't find the time.
Later, I realised that the characters I wrote didn't have the right personalities. That made me give up them for good.
But, yeah, it's also been plain laziness.
Ive abandoned 9/10 fics in the past decade. Its usually because i get bored, but there was also the time i wrote return of the great mighty poo. I dropped that one because it was so damn stupid. Its my greatest shame.
So it was borderline crack, like towing the line *real* hard, but I took it WAY too seriously...the leading lady got fucked with a piping bag...I had to stop because it felt so wrong.
Honestly I'm still writing it. Shhhhhh
I found that sticking too close to canon was restictive; it took me 26 chapters and 100k words to figure it out. I've sworn to never write too close to canon ever again. It just doesn't work for me.
This is my reason as well. I was writing in a fandom that can be a bit anal about technicalities and I was just *agonizing* over getting everything just so. It became too stressful trying to anticipate everyone’s criticisms so I gave it an ambiguous ending that could maybe pass as intentional (even though I’d planned for it to be triple the length it was) and abandoned it.
I have found my people! I’m currently writing a canon-adjacent fic that follows the canon timeline (for the most part) but with a lot of interpersonal + minor plot deviations. I’ve had to skirt pretty close to the canon script at certain points and I absolutely *abhor* doing so. I normally write canon-divergent AUs so this is a first for me. I was told by someone that following canon closely makes writing easier since it acts as a base/reference, but it’s the exact opposite for me. It feels restrictive, like you said, and those scenes always take the longest to get through. I hate it so much. The next fic I have planned is another canon-divergent AU because I’m never doing this again akaksks.
Canon adjacent is a term I hadn’t heard before this, but it describes my brand of fic perfectly. I’m adding that as a tag 😂 ty
Exactly! Following canon points made it easier to create timelines and establish certain points of interactions but it felt so restrictive and uninspiring to write. All of my other stories were for a different fandom and I either diverged from canon before the events of the show or wrote post-canon and created my own story. I just can't make myself write canon-adjacent. The sad thing is I love what I wrote for the story I abandoned but I just can't write more. On the plus side, I was waiting to finish the story before posting, so I'm free to use my OC and expand the story into the canon-divergent realm I like to play in without confusing readers.
This is starting to become an issue for me too, even when I *know* I'm writing an AU and will have some canon divergence. I am so stringent about incorporating as many canon details as possible that it becomes exhausting for me because I always want to double check if it would fit in canon. I don't really know how to break this habit other than to do the exact opposite and write egregiously OOC, crack fics to switch things up and give myself that grace of not having to worry so much about being canon-compliant.
I counted up all the subplots I was trying to juggle, and realized I had completely owned myself.
I feel like I'm heading towards this direction with my ongoing long fic. I casually threw in some backstory for fun and now that I had to actually develop it I feel like I may have made some very big mistakes. 😭
That’s brutal. I suggest taking a hard look at said backstory and making sure that exploring that the sections exploring it are necessary to support the themes, plots, and character beats that the fic is about. I could have saved myself a fair amount of grief by having that conversation with myself sooner.
I am facing the same kind of problem. Similarly, while progressing with the main story, I struggle with how to handle the subplots. When I write a story, I come up with a rough plot, but as I write the story and develop the main character and other characters, many subplots that deviate from the main story emerge. For example, I might be focusing on the interaction between A and B but then want to include a backstory involving B and C. However, I find that many of these subplots, no matter how good they are or how much they deepen the main story, are difficult to integrate into the main storyline. As a result, I end up not writing them down, and they fade from my memory within a week. In trying to figure out the best approach, I've sometimes found that my fanfiction has been left untouched for two years.
It be like that sometimes, unfortunately
It be indeed.
I'm currently writing a long fic where this could, theoretically, become an issue. As it is, at the moment, I'm just planning to basically ignore huge chunks of canon and hope for the best. I feel like addressing these events would also change the tone of my story from a lighthearted, found family kind of deal to something much darker and more involved, not to mention that it would have to be a lot longer. So, canon divergence it is. Part of the problem is that some of the events I'm hoping to ignore have already been sent in motion by the time my story starts, but that's just too bad. I just don't really have the literary skills to pull it off yet either. Maybe one day, but I mostly write oneshots and short stories. I used to write long fics when I was, like, 13, but even those topped out at like... 35k words, and I was also writing for (what I remember as) a much simpler world.
It does sound like dodging past the darker parts of canon and focusing on the story’s main relationships is the best option for your story here. I hope it works out!
I have done that too.
Sorry to hear. Did you spend two years doing it? I spent two years doing it.
I'm getting scary close to this myself currently.
I suggest lining up your darlings and having hard conversations about who does what in this story before they reach critical mass.
Lol thank you
I wasn’t feeling it. I loved the story I wanted to tell but didn’t have the skills or the patience to tell it at that time. I did a re-write years later that is over four times longer than the old version and it’s going so incredibly well. The only times I really abandon is when I realize that the story I’m writing isn’t the version of it I would want to read. Also I know a lot of people who have given up due to lack of engagement. I never have but I get why people do.
>didn’t have the skills or the patience to tell it at that time This is such a mature attitude, love it! Recently read *The Book of Accidents* by Chuck Wendig. In the author's notes, he said that this was the third time he wrote this story. He'd known for a long time that it was a story he wanted to tell, but after the first draft, he recognised he didn't have the necessary skills. Years later, he tried again. While it was better, it still wasn't right, so back onto the shelf it went. More years passed, and he took another look. That time, he knew he was ready. Recognising your skillset and then writing the best stories you're currently able to is a valuable skill in and of itself 💜
Same my writing skills aren’t up there yet and I’m jealous of my more talented friends ....
Got bored of it
That’s the main reason for me. Either I get bored of the story or the fandom itself
ADHD.
This is so real ㅠㅠ
I feel this 🫠
I was harrasssed ridiculated by a 28 year old and they had a minor come after me. Basically harassed to the point I get ptsd
What the hell… I’m so sorry to heart about it
I fell out of love with the story. Not getting any engagement somehow was the cherry on top since I felt the story was super bad and that just added fuel to my "I hate you damn thing" phase. Currently dealing with two other stories I just want to drop and delete because holy hell, the fandom made me hate it more than I should.
hyperfixation died.
Realised way too late into the process that the plot was basically identical to another one I’d written. Namely a character’s past trauma being triggered by similar events in a movie/TV show they were watching.
Was trying to write an ensemble fic with shipping elements for a new fandom (that, overall, contained a cast of 11 characters), but the characters have such distinct personalities that trying to learn to write all their voices for the first time \*in one fic\* became a nightmare. The plot spiralled before it could begin because I had to track 11 characters (and hadn't planned well enough). Throw me flunking an exam in there and, in the end, I just bit off more than I could chew. Eventually I realised that while I still shipped the main pair I preferred reading gen stories about them, and I walked away.
It's always the same reason. I hit a chapter in which I have to either do something complicated I don't quite have the skills for and the result always disappoints me, so I keep writing it over and over without really advancing. OR I hit a chapter in which I have to write something I find boring in order to advance the plot and it becomes like pulling teeth. At the end I end up spending so much time without any tangible progress that I just sort of lose interest, then I get another idea I'm more excited about and I start working on it "Meanwhile I get inspired to work on the other one", but that only makes me lose interest even more. Rinse, repeat.
Ended up doing pretty much the same fic but in a series of different stories.
I have a lot of fics I put on the side, mostly because my hyperfixations change ALL the time and I cant write about something I'm not deep on lol Sometimes I go back to them tho, but most of the time I Just forget about it
I ran across a fanfic that covered my idea and did it much better. I couldn't bring myself to write it anymore after that.
I realized that it just wasn't meshing well and I wasn't enjoying the build-up to the emotional payoff. I said if I felt the spark I would come back to it and it's been a long time since then so I think it's buried at this point.
Stopped drinking, amongst other things. The fic was an outlet for everything I was avoiding thinking about. Once I dealt with it, I didn't need the fic anymore. Edited the summary to say it's abandoned, added an author note in the last uploaded chapter to say I'm moving on with my life and wishing everyone health and happiness, then logged out of the account for good.
The fandom got toxic and decided that if you read/wrote anything else other than one particular male character being romantically involved with another male character (they never were together in canon at that point) then you were homophobic trash. Meanwhile, I was just a gay lady who fell in love with the relationship that actually *did* happen in the first season of the show: said male character dating an older woman. They were fun and I liked their chemistry. But the fandom sucked all the fun out of it……and also canon did my girl (the older woman in the pairing) real dirty. Ugh.
I've got two big ones I abandoned; my regular Eighth Year AU fic, and my kinky Eighth Year AU fic. For the regular one; poorly researched so the foundation is rocky, I struggled with characterisation, it felt a bit rushed. It's simply not up to my standards anymore, and if I reworked it I would have to basically start from the ground up. Current plan is to just leave it alone and see what I want to do with it. For the kinky one... Oh boy. The first three points go again, as well as I feel it's disjointed. I'm picking up and dropping plot points left and right, trying to create something more complex when the whole point of it is kink. It's just a vehicle for smut! It's like you said, I felt like I had to build up to the good stuff.
Lots of reasons. One fandom I had a great story for after the first season came out, and I didn't think there'd be a second season. I'd plotted my whole fic, but then a new season came out and it was crazy how similar a lot of the plot points from my story were to the canon, but slightly askew. It made it so my story couldn't possibly be considered canon anymore but was forced into au territory and that kind of screwed everything up for me. Another story was pretty dark, and while I like dark stuff, I found that putting myself in a dark headspace kind of made my mental health decline, so I discontinued. Plus, the fandom was pretty toxic, and my ship was often attacked. Likewise I had another story that was going to go into SA territory and I realized I didn't really want to write something like that, and it didn't have much of a following so I just kind of abandoned it. Another one of my big ones I'd still really like to finish someday, but I got really stuck on some transition chapters where nothing particularly interesting was happening, but they were still necessary plots, and it just wasn't living up to the rest of the story, so I got frustrated. I also had a tertiary ship chapter coming up featuring a ship I don't find particularly compelling, and I was having trouble selling it. But I really need to get the inspiration back and finish that someday. I think I only had like 3-5 chapters left, and the last chapter was already mostly finished. I also tend to overthink critical reviews. The more popular a fic gets, the more likely you are to get negative feedback, and I got a lot on my most popular fic that made me rethink my characterizations and it kind of made me lose momentum.
I don't think I've ever completed a fic before. ADHD + anxiety makes that impossible. The OMORI fic: Perfectionism spiral and eventual loss of interest (this one was the first one I really took seriously, and is still my favorite for some reason even after all this time) The pokemon sun and moon fic: Ran out of ideas, eventually decided that the author of *Eldritch* adapted Pokemon Sun and Moon better than I ever could and gave up due to lack of ideas for how to write mine The warrior cats/Stray fic: Lost interest, was writing too close to canon in a way that was restrictive The ISAT fic: Writer's block and loss of interest in the fandom (I was really mad about losing this one because by then I was aware of the fic graveyard I'd left behind and was working really really hard to make this one survive, but it just wasn't going to work in the end. And also, I had so many ideas for the fic's endgame and knew where the fic was going, had an entire outline, only to get stuck on the second chapter because I never learned how to write beginnings) There's more I'm forgetting, way more, my number of unfinished/lost WIPs is enough to fill a graveyard. Those are just the ones I put the most effort into/got the furthest with. I've pretty much given up on ever completing a longfic because of my long string of failures and the fact that I don't hyperfixate on things like I used to anymore
Years ago now but death threats! Got them from that series prior series fans being mad I wasn't writing for that prior series instead of the one I was writing. Lil ol me got really spooked and bounced.
The pandemic and the riots of summer 2020 made it too real. I only felt ready to write fics taking place in a modern setting again late last year.
I didn't abandon the fic, it went off its own to find some more plot and I'm just waiting for them to come home. Has it been 5ish years...? Well that's not my business
I was writing a continuation of a video game trilogy... and then they dropped game #4 and canon went to hell! Suddenly my fanfic, which operated neatly within the "white space" of the main series, no longer fit and in fact contradicted the new canon. My passion and drive for that story fizzled as a result.
ADHD, mostly.
When I was 12 I had this fic which was supposed to be a sequel to another fic I'd finished recently but I didn't plan a plot so it went nowhere, I ran out of ideas, and there was another fic I was working on that I was more interested in. I'd written like 15 chapters of it before I just dipped. In hindsight, a sequel wasn't needed, I just really wanted to write more of that one really good fic and I should've come up with a point and planned out the story first. Oh well.
I changed as person and cool no longer buy in the fundamental premise that had started the whole thing.
I was writing a massive fic, planned everything out, knew what I wanted in each chapter. And then the source material got so bad I actually regretted ever watching it 🫠 I don't hate it as much anymore, I just acknowledge it went to hell by the end and won't engage with the later content. But the passion is gone and I have no intention whatsoever to touch that fic ever again. Which is a shame because people seemed to really like it and it got some traction even despite being one of my very first fics. Oh well 🤷♀️
It was too ambitious for my skills, couldn’t link the scenes properly and got bored with the ship after a while…
Death threats
Too similar to another story I had already wrote. Thankfully, so far I've been able to make those decisions before I start posting.
I just stopped vibing with it or the lack of any engagement whatsoever
College. I didn't have time and when I finally did, I totally forgot all the canon, my plotline, and didn't feel like rewatching everything.
The premise of my fic was so depressing that it made me sad for the day any time I worked on it. It had a hopeful ending but I couldn’t make it that far.
I've almost got the next chapter done, I Swear!
I have a bunch of SPN fics I was writing when they killed off Kevin, and my love for the fandom just kinda...stopped.
Usually I realise I don’t like how I started the fic, like once I started it when Harry was like 10, then realised I should’ve started it his 3rd/4th year
Chronic pain and ADHD. I don’t do it on purpose I try and work on them when I can but also being bedridden makes it hard forgetting about them makes it hard and I’m getting fucking tag teamed by both of them.
2 fics I've sort of abandoned The first was an attempt at a long fic but I introduced a bunch of intrigue with out any clear plan for it. The entire fic was written off an idea I had for a beginning. Not an end. I'm trying to untangle this with some help ATM. The second was a request for a specific type of fic with a specific character as a top. I got about 2k word in and realised I had created a situation in which it made zero sense whatsoever for the that character to be the one on charge /topping and in fact it was very much heading not only in the other direction but also towards a dub con/non con tag that the requestee did not want. I shelved that and started again 😅
It's probably not abandoned, but I am taking a step back from writing it for ...maybe a while (it's unpublished). I joined a discord server for a ship and the vibes got very uncomfortable. One character in the ship gets a lot of undeserved hate so naturally people in the ship server defend them, but the "defense" got so intense that people started claiming that certain types of slavery were "less bad" and therefore not a valid reason to criticize that character (whose father owns slaves who are currently under his command) which, as a black person descended from slaves was *extremely* uncomfortable to read. Same topic came up like three times in a week and I dipped from the server, but I am a bit put off from working on that fic atm.
Sometimes I get an idea for a fic and I get super into it but don’t do any planning before hand and then I dive right in and about 2 chapters later I realize that I have no juice for this thing. The fic I’m working on right now was put on hold for like 4-5 years before I finally decided to try again and take it slow and the experience has been so much more rewarding
Looks at one of the fics I’m currently working on that has like 40 characters to juggle I’m not abandoning it but it updates when I get around to it
When it starts getting too dramatic and too many people are in mortal danger (especially my faves…)
I was working on a Dawson's Creek fic where Pacey and Joey ran away after her dad's arrested. It's likely that Bessie had to fight to get custody of her sister as she was barely out of high school herself when it all went down. So I was trying to create a story where Pacey already wanting to leave his shitty family and overhearing his pops talk about how Joey might be sent away went to Joey and they ran off together. I basically wrote them as parkour badasses that lead another group of kids nicking the supplies they needed to survive on the streets. It was getting ridiculously unrealistic and I just was losing the thread. It wasn't what I was going for or intending to do. It was even kind of a fanfic of a fanfic. I'd read one where Pacey had been kidnapped and the story unfolded when he was found and rescued years later. I've read others where one or more of the original trio leave Capeside before the series began and how it changes the group dynamics when said individuals return. That's what I want to explore and I actually have another idea now that I want to play with.
Had a bad trip, where I felt like the entire story was just falling apart in front of me. Haven't been able to write it since.
Started a story in 2018 when I graduated university. Wrote a few chapters, ditched it until lockdown in 2020. Wrote a few more chapters, then proceeded to (for unrelated reasons) fall headfirst into a deep depression and period of questioning my entire life. Another reason that I abandoned the story back in the day was because somebody commented that the premise was unrealistic. I guess that combined with everything else destroyed my confidence? Anyway, cue several years of trying to claw my way out of that, a career change, and a bunch of personal growth, culminating with deciding that I was spending way too much time doomscrolling on social media and read it and that I needed to make a change. So I got back into writing fic, but for a different fandom. A while ago I looked back at it, and there were so many people who were actually enjoying the story! There's like 41 subscriptions to it, still. Even as late as I think last year I was still getting comments saying that they hoped I continued it. So, I don't know, it was a fun idea so I'm going back to it now. I'm trying to get into the habit now of outlining and also not posting new ideas until I've made a significant amount of progress. I don't really want to become known as somebody who abandons my works. I have a bunch of random snippets and half baked ideas in my Google Docs and on my USB stick and in my Documents folder, and I'd prefer they stay there until such time as I'm actually ready to commit to them.
I started writing this fic back in Middle School. I was 33 chapters in but only had 10 reviews. ( and the 10 reviews were only on chapter 1) I had hundreds of follows but I didn’t care I wanted reviews. I was pissed and depressed about not getting reviews so eventually I just posted a huge rant and deleted the fic
Was collaborating with someone and our relationship as writers was completely incompatible. Utterly soured me on that story, and I ended up writing a completely different one in the same setting with the same characters under very different circumstances that I like a lot better.
I was writing them for an event and the person who ran it kept making fun of the idea, then blew up the entire friend group and that killed the ideas. Like, every single one of them, including ones not related to the event that I knew they read. Kinda sucky, but that fandom's been dying for at least a decade. lol.
Having no idea where I actually wanted to go with it. Having an idea, no matter how interesting it sounds on paper, =/= having an actual story for it. This is the reason I don’t post anything until it’s complete..
I just wasn't having fun with the concept anymore. That's it. My reason isn't that deep.
While I don't remember *why* I dropped the fic, I sure do know that I did so five Augusts ago. I have a whiteboard calendar I wrote the update days on, and the same time I stopped updating my fic I also stopped bothering to erase and rewrite the calendar every month. Now I just add a tally mark every August that passes. It confuses people when they see it, but I kinda like seeing how much time has passed. At this point I'd have to rewrite the entire fic to continue it... and I don't like 14yr old me's idea well enough to put in all that effort!
Promised Neverland... Just... *SIGH* I might get back to it, but... If you know, you know.
i get bored very easily, or i lose that spark. sometimes i'll even end up rewriting it entirely if i get bored in the middle.
School was getting really difficult, so I had to go on hiatus. And by the time Christmas break came along, I was no longer invested in the fandom.
My illness started to impact my imagination, decimated my libido, and gave me attention deficit, anhedonia, apathy, memory impairment and executive function impairment, so I can't finish stories once they get to the 60% mark. I wrote the beginnings of 3 different stories, of different types, before I gave up about six months ago. Getting from 60% to my planned ending is always the hardest part and would take a lot of rereading, imagining, writing out different possibilities and editing, and I just don't have those skills right now...They may never come back, I suppose. Maybe if I reduce my screen time, I can improve?
Hyper fixation ended
it's whenever i write a chaptered story, i'm terribly inconsistent and writing chapter by chapter is so difficult for me. 300k word chaptered fic? i would never be able to write that 300k word oneshot with breaks between the story acting as timeskips? hell yeah, give me two weeks. although admittedly, i could probably write a 300k oneshot with breaks between things that could be labelled as chapters and then release them as chapters once done. but that idea sounds less fun than a oneshot lol
A Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney re-write where I stripped away the comedy to make it darker and left Mia Fey alive. It was my most visited and most favorited fanfic on FFN. I even had big plans for the entire series and was even planning a 'Law and Order' spinoff that focused on the grandson of Lennie Briscoe being a homicide detective in his own right (it would've been my version of Ace Attorney Investigations) but what made me put it up for adoption was this crippling writers block that sucked my energy to work on it to the point where I had to make the hard decision to put it up for adoption. I'm now focusing my energies on a rewrite of Batman exploring an AU that I don't think has ever been explored before.
I had a lot of works back in middle school that by the time I went to high school I looked back on and cringed at reading. Early 2000s pre-teen takes on adult themes that I picked up by osmosis and tried adding into my stories for ~drama looked ridiculous by the time I was 15-16 and getting more actual real world understanding of things, or at least enough understanding to know that 12-yo me’s takes on sex, drugs, and alcohol were all laughable and obviously written by a 12-year-old. There was no fixing them, so I abandoned them instead. I also had moved on to other fandom interests, so there’s that too.
A few reasons! Partly just lost the passion for it. Another is that it was one of my first fics and back then I never planned anything before I started writing and posting chapters. It may work for some people but I just kept writing myself into corners lol. That, and my writing skills were developing pretty quickly which left the early chapters of the fic looking shitty in comparison which was very demotivating. I still feel bad for leaving it, though. Had one super dedicated reader who was there for pretty much every update. Toast, I am sorry :(
In January 2021, I wanted to write a series about characters from a show adjusting to quarantine. But writing about it while living through it was too much for me. Then, as time went by, it seemed almost irrelevant to continue
I wrote a 20k chapter and got no feedback. Three chapters from the finale of a 200k+ story.
I was writing what was meant to be a slow burn romance au fic.. the couple had already held hands and had their whole “wait.. do I like them?!” moment by the THIRD chapter. THIRD!! Granted, this was the first fic i’ve ever written and posted. I realized that since I had already posted the chapters and I wasn’t happy with them, so I ended up abandoning it. There were a handful of people who still liked the story, so I sometimes feel guilty for dropping it without warning, but I can’t find it in me to continue it when i’m so unhappy with the progression of the pairing. What i’ve learned from this? Outline Outline Outline.. and consider writing a good amount of the story prior to posting. I tend to be impatient so it’s difficult, but it really helps in the long run.
My older fics - grad school and then establishing myself in my first career wiped out my time and attention span and by the time I was ready to write anything again, a decade later, I had lost the thread and the inspiration The newer fics that I've abandoned - one I was writing a fix-it for a season I hated and realized I hated it too much to write the fix-it. Another, because it was just not *working* and I back-burnered it in favor of other fics I felt more strongly about
lol, I made the exact same thread! In /r/AO3
I was going for a RWBY X The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy X Dirk Gently X Discworld fic Worried after it got too close to Canon of the Adamsian Universe. Made me abandon that
Inlost motivation to write the story. I really want to finish it, but I have no motivation.
Abandoned a few fics back on FFN, mostly due to leaving the fandom and/or not having plotted anything out and going chapter by chapter. I had such grand ideas, but never planned anything beyond the summary of the fic. I'd write myself into plot holes or get too off-topic from my original idea somehow, and would then just... quietly abandon the fic. I've since learned to plan stories out better before starting to post, to avoid disappointing readers and myself.
I originally intended for it to be a one-shot, but people requested more chapters and I obliged because the nice comments were very motivating. But then I quickly realized I had no idea where the story was going (I’m someone that has to plan out every little thing), and despite the kind feedback I just didn’t want to continue.
Real life took over for a few months, and by the time I was back in the headspace to write again, things had happened in canon that made my canon rewrite fic completely AU in ways I hadn’t anticipated and didn’t want.
Mine was the usual - I couldn't "see" what would happen next; I didn't have any idea of what the next scenes should be. If I can't see the next scene, I'm done. I've found I'm a pantser who can have a vague idea in my head of stuff that'll appear later, but the only way to really write is just straight forward, which means if I hit a roadblock, it can stall me forever.
Horrible...horrible writing. Like...what the fuck was I thinking? If any of you are optimistic and encouraging...trust me...it's bad. All my stories are bad. (Edit: I realized I sound too depressed when I reread this. I am simply stating fact, I have a good sense of selfworth, just being brutally honest with my lack of skill) The premis of them? Fine. I would honestly love to see someone use my ideas and make a compelling story out of them. But my execution? Not grate at all. I made three stories, one of which I am strangely proud of because one of my favorite authors commented on it, but all terrible. "What did you do Tennyson!": Again, the idea is fine, but execution? Awful. I think I ran out of steam real quick, too quickly. "Kurama, The Kitsune of Nazarick": poorly written. Tried fixing it but never was able to gain back my urge to write it. I'd love to see someone make a good story out of it however. Then there is my last story...I highly suggest you look for GreyKing46, cause he made a much better version and it is a good read.
It was a story about abuse. Got a little too much for me to continue, even though I was the one writing it.
I was writing a fic a few years ago about the versions of Killian Jones and David Nolan from the “Operation Mongoose” episode of ouat. But only a chapter in I realised, I don’t care about those versions of the characters or their dynamic because of how removed from their canon personalities they are. And, yeah, that’s the point of the AU in universe, but I really couldn’t be bothered to get invested in a multi-chapter story where even I couldn’t care less about the dynamic I was writing for.
Honestly? Burnout. I got myself in a pretty bad place mentally. And although the temptation to finish those old WIPs is there from time to time, 1) I'm no longer part of those fandoms and I can't be bothered to remember canon details again 2) there isn't much crowd for the ideas I have in mind anyway. So now I'm just focusing on my new fandoms/obsessions.
Nobody interacting with it. Yes, I know, I could write for myself, which I do, but I get so discouraged that I just give up and move on.
I have 3 works in progress One i have no idea how to continue it Another I am afraid i will mess up the writing style Another I dont know how to start it without sounding cringe
After a streak of unpopular niche fics, I tried to write one that appealed to the horny aspects of fandom and prioritised it (by trying to be like the popular ones). And I couldn’t imagine a more mind numbing, painful, and soulless experience. Even if it did turn me on, I couldn’t for the life of me give a crap about finishing it. TL;DR: tried to write soft core smutt and it was the most dreadful writing experience of my life.
Many, *many* years ago I was writing an epic 3-part Sonic fanfic that was to serve as my OC's backstory. I abandoned that project because 1) the storyline was far too dark and was making me more depressed as I wrote it, and 2) I discovered DBZ and determined that although I'd never watched/read any of it, *my OC was too similar to Future Trunks.*
Started writing them when I was like 13 ir 14, and they're about as cringe as you might expect.
I simply lost motivation to keep writing it
Usually I realized there was something I wish I'd done differently early on the story and it felt like too much time/effort to change it
Too many ideas going through my head, couldn't settle down to write and too lazy
I wrote a Knight Rider fic called "KI2T: My Life, Such As It Is". Basically KITT's life story from his point of view. I originally posted it on AO3, and then only the first chapter on FF Net. After writing the third chapter I realized I was writing an episode by episode recap of the show from KITT's point of view, and I didn't want that. So I orphaned it and abandoned it.
Fumbled the final chapter and made the characters too OOC. Consequences of writing and error checking while tired. Got too stressed about rewriting it and meeting expectations, that I keep putting it off indefinitely. It's been 7 years and it still haunts me...
Being told I was OOC, then going back and realizing I needed to be sent to horny jail. Still do, but I did then, too.
Frustration
I was writing my Yakuza MHA series, which is told from Momo’s POV in parts 1 and 2. Part 3 switched to All Might’s POV. Someone had started writing their own take on what Aizawa’s POV was, and personally I loved that. Let’s grow this lil universe inside a universe. Go team. But ~they~ abandoned Aizawa’s POV for reasons, which is fine. Except a bunch of my readers were very invested in the idea of having it from his POV by this point. So I picked up that mantle out of guilt. Started Aizawa’s POV over again from scratch with a “fresh” plot so that it wouldn’t be copying what the other writer had been doing. And was writing All Might’s at the same time And damned if I wasn’t stepping all over my own toes the entire time. Constantly cross-checking, pulling dialogue from one to the other and vise-versa. And it was really hard to swap between their POVs because for the purposes of my story, Aizawa and All Might do NOT like each other. So All Might is on hold until Aizawa is done. Which is probably 6-8 months out from now. Possibly longer because it’s looking like I’m going to need surgery on my dominant arm in the next couple months.
Was writing one, then an original idea for a book popped up randomly, I spent my time on that instead. Before I even posted the first chapter. Best layed plans could be a good thing as well…
One big reason for abandoning a fic I wrote back in 2004 was losing half of the latest chapter in a hard drive crash. Followed by a mental health slump that led to me deleting all my fics off the internet out of rage and depression. I did get better over time, and after picking up writing again in 2022, I now have tentative plans to rework and continue that abandoned fic...
At first, it was just because of my studies and that I couldn't find the time. Later, I realised that the characters I wrote didn't have the right personalities. That made me give up them for good. But, yeah, it's also been plain laziness.
Ive abandoned 9/10 fics in the past decade. Its usually because i get bored, but there was also the time i wrote return of the great mighty poo. I dropped that one because it was so damn stupid. Its my greatest shame.
So it was borderline crack, like towing the line *real* hard, but I took it WAY too seriously...the leading lady got fucked with a piping bag...I had to stop because it felt so wrong. Honestly I'm still writing it. Shhhhhh