Okay so my writing work tends to go like this: I get an awesome idea for a new book and I plan it out and begin writing and I'll be really into until i think of a new idea, not necessarily a better one, but because it's new I'm more into it so i end up abandoning my old novel and starting a new one and the whole cycle just goes round again no matter how hard I try. Anyone got any tips cause I would be so grateful!
"An artist never finishes his work, he merely abandons it" - can't remember who said that.
And it's true. But in order to make money, or at least satisfy yourself, you need to have a somewhat finished project.
I agree with Jonathan and Jennifer. You need to set yourself a schedule and flesh out your idea before writing. I've abandoned many storylines but the ones I've worked hard on before wiritng are the ones that stuck (even when getting new ideas)
Getting a new idea doesn't rule out your old one. You can always flesh out the new idea while writing the old one, but you have to brace yourself with patience.
That's all I can say. Patience, flesh it out, and stick to it
If I might suggest something?
Get a new idea? Write an outline. I don't mean just a rough (though that might be enough to start with), I mean detailed, chapter by chapter. Work out the beginning...and the end. Give it a title. Then stop.
Go back to your WIP and carry on writing that. Writer's block? Go back to your outline and fill in more blanks (there will be plenty) or start a new outline. Then go back to your WIP. And so on.
I'm writing my third novel but the fourth is outlined and almost complete in my head. And it's going to be better than the one I'm in the middle of now. Okay, my WIP will take longer to write than if I worked straight through, but having done it this way through two previous books I now have another eight stories in the pipeline, all at least part-plotted.
I'm writing a series, so that makes it easier. But it also means I MUST finish each one before going on to the next to ensure all running plotlines tie up.
Just a thought.
I would second Jennifer's comment.
Try writing a short story and see how that goes, if the issue is that you are loosing interest mid-way regardless of planned length then the issue might be that you need to structure your writing.
For my first novel I abandoned around 20,000 words because I wanted to tell the story from a different angle, in my first draft I then re-used around 1500 of those words, the others have been left in another document, and may at some stage form another project as part of my series.
I will admit to having 3 other projects in progress: one is book two in my series (5,000 words written), the other two are very stand alone projects, one sits at just shy of 20,000 words and the other, which I had started (intended for NaNoWriMo) is a little over 2,000, but I started late, and there will be no chance I will get to 50,000 words on that by the end of November, especially with my home move and new job - though I think it will likely to be a short story, which I may put out as an eBook to test the waters with my writing in the public eye - we will see. I still am yet to finish editing my first novel.
I will say though, having lots of ideas is a good thing, as the more you write the better you get at it, and you will look back at each of those started stories one day and just 'know' what to do with them, so I'd say keep going, things can only get better.