What makes you demotivated to not continue a series anymore?

[Airu_047]

As for me, it's probably the feedback. I won't know what's going to keep the readers engaged and also if I improved or not.

 

[Cannight]

General interest. I have problems with keeping interest on a certain topic, so I usually alleviate that by writing further so that trying to quit gets about as hard as a druggy curing his addiction

 

[AmeronWerschrux]

As for me, it's probably the feedback. I won't know what's going to keep the readers engaged and also if I improved or not.i

I dropped a novel of mine around 150 chapters. It was halfway through its runtime but since I wasn't at all satisfied with my writing style (abhorrent at the time) and because of its numerous plot holes. For that reason, the damage couldn't repaired unless I actively rewrote from the start, just as I did, with one of my novels with 35 chapters

 

[ElijahRyne]

As for me, it's probably the feedback. I won't know what's going to keep the readers engaged and also if I improved or not.

No interaction, I get bored, and/or I write myself into a corner…

 

[great_sloth]

I got lazy and there's not enough motivation.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

As for me, it's probably the feedback. I won't know what's going to keep the readers engaged and also if I improved or not.

This post gave me dejavu. What makes me not want to write actually has nothing to do with writing usually. It's the heat right now for example.

 

[Sylver]

Hmm, has to be the lack of feedback/audience interest. When people don't comment, read, or follow up on my content it leads me to believe that the story has lost their interest.

I'm well aware that it could be a number of different reasons behind why. It's natural for a story to lose views the longer it goes on, and it's not unheard of for people to pause or bookmark a story they like to catch up on it another time.

Still, it's hard to tell if people are enjoying the story so far when no one comments anymore :( recently, someone began to add comments to the start of my story as they began giving it a read. I regret not sending them a thank you message at that time, knowing that their interaction would only be temporary. But well... it was good while it lasted. I'm definitely taking a break after I wrap up Act 2 to see why my novel isn't getting much interest, too many viewers drop it after reading the introduction it seems.

 

[RainyLiquid]

I lose interest in writing when I no longer find my writing interesting.

 

[Thraben]

Technical Debt.

It's usually thought of as being a programming thing, but it applies to creative endeavors too.

Decisions you make early on in the creative process result in tiny little interests over a period of time that would eventually take more of your time and effort to correct or continue that it just isn't economical with your hours in the day any more.

I actually have an example of this at the go: Let's say you start a generic fic in a space you enjoy writing in. Something quick and easy. Without thinking too hard about it, you throw up 10, 20, hell maybe even 40 chapters. What started as a quick test of your writing ability just for fun has spiraled into something you feel an ethereal need to actually care about and put real planning and effort into. Decisions you made at the start of the fic start coming back to haunt you, writing decisions you made in the spur of the moment with no planning attached are bottlenecking not only your writing ability, but the far more important factor: Time. It takes you 2, 3, 4, 5 times as long to push out a chapter now, and you still won't be as satisfied with the result as when this was a simply test of your own skill, now it has to BE something, at least in your own mind. You've accrued enough technical debt that fixing it isn't possible without starting over, continuing it isn't economical, and there is no logical fallacy left to justify continuing.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Reader feedback.

But when I realized reader feedback depends on reader's bias, I dropped caring for it and just winged my novels.

 

[ShamelessPatheticMook]

Realising that I wanted to write my own completely original stories (was writing a fanfic).

 

[Kalliel]

Content drought.

 

[HypnoticNovels]

I've been fortunate enough to have super nice and active readers on my series they are super amazing and motivate me so much to keep writing. Seriously, they make me so happy

The thing that kills me is both my horrible lack of time to write and my absolutely horrible writing ability lol. I basically brute force quality by spending hours thinking of how to word lines . Eventually, my stockpile is going to run dry, and I will be forced to rush my writing to pump it out in time. I'm terrified of that scenario

 

[Corty]

Stagnating numbers. When the view count, even if there are no messages, doesn't really change, that's when I consider quitting and ending it early.

 

[HypnoticNovels]

Technical Debt.

It's usually thought of as being a programming thing, but it applies to creative endeavors too.

Decisions you make early on in the creative process result in tiny little interests over a period of time that would eventually take more of your time and effort to correct or continue that it just isn't economical with your hours in the day any more.

I actually have an example of this at the go: Let's say you start a generic fic in a space you enjoy writing in. Something quick and easy. Without thinking too hard about it, you throw up 10, 20, hell maybe even 40 chapters. What started as a quick test of your writing ability just for fun has spiraled into something you feel an ethereal need to actually care about and put real planning and effort into. Decisions you made at the start of the fic start coming back to haunt you, writing decisions you made in the spur of the moment with no planning attached are bottlenecking not only your writing ability, but the far more important factor: Time. It takes you 2, 3, 4, 5 times as long to push out a chapter now, and you still won't be as satisfied with the result as when this was a simply test of your own skill, now it has to BE something, at least in your own mind. You've accrued enough technical debt that fixing it isn't possible without starting over, continuing it isn't economical, and there is no logical fallacy left to justify continuing.

I was ready for this! I actually spent a stupidly long time planning out my story and pre-wrote the first like 25 chapters just to make sure I knew exactly where I was going with the story and to give myself time to fill in any plotholes :D (I actually caught several big ones and managed to make alterations before I started posting).

To give more context, I wrote the Prologue of my story in January 2021 and finally posted it in October 2023 lol. I made whole documents detailing the rules of my story's universe just so I would have it squared away to save myself from exploding later on Basically, the best way to prevent this type of burnout is to plan ahead!! Do the boring stuff first (although I actually found it really fun lol)

 

[Amrasil207]

I'm writing an Arknights fan fiction.
There are external and internal factors really.
Externally, the game is still on going and the lores are vague. When they did add more clarity to it, I already passed that threshold, which would put the story chronology in potential jeopardy.

Internally, I oftentimes had so much idea but cramming those was just unfeasible in such a short time. There is also the matter of motivation, much easier when I have something to look for but it's getting harder and harder to keep up the momentum. One huge pitfalls I had fallen into is none other than the time that was spent in planning ahead but realizing slowly how unrealistically high that was. So I had been taking a much more frequent breaks to cool off.

 

[ShipTeaser]

Fortunately my motivation is usually quite decent, otherwise getting booted from Royal Road might well have been a killer lol

 

[Rhaps]

When I used to write in wattpad, I just didn't want to stop the story. I don't want to let go of the characters I created, so much so I just stop writing out of stress and fear.

Now, its easier to let go, finishing their story is a form of justice for them, these people I created. Dnd helped me a lot, the characters I created comes and goes like grains of sand, they have their moments and ending. This is why I writes the ending before the prologue, all has to end at some point.