What motivates you to keep writing your book?

Don't laugh at me for this, but I wrote a book about 3 chapters in (2.5K words each and I haven't quite uploaded any) and after all that invested effort, I dropped the book and started planning another one.

What makes writers able to continue a book?

This happened to me when I first started writing my book too. I am always in the constant state of lethargy and procrastinating is a daily occurence to me, even to this day. The thought of 'let's just do it tomorrow' or 'the ideas aren't coming up to mind' is the excuse I use to not finish the book.

But for me, what motivates me to keep going is the thought that if I don't finish this now, I could never finish my next book. Because now that I finally released my book, I realized that writing isn't that hard. Once you finish one, the thought of 'let's do it tomorrow' becomes 'let's write a little today' and the excuse of 'the ideas aren't coming up to mind' is just me overthinking that my ideas aren't interesting enough even though I have a lot of ideas to pour into words.

In my opinion, you just need to find the flow, create the scene of each chapter in your head before you start writing, and lower your expectation. Even if no one read your book, you shouldn't be disheartened, especially if it's your first book. Just write what you want without being burdened with what the reader would expect from you.

But yeah, that's just my way of writing as an amateur author, maybe other experienced author can help with more tips. Anyway, good luck with your book. Cheers!

For eleven months, I’ve kept going, with about 400,000 words so far including my unreleased chapters.

In my free time on weekends, I usually write the most. If I’m not tired at night, I write then too.

The reason? I just like it.

WhiteSnake said:

Don't laugh at me for this, but I wrote a book about 3 chapters in (2.5K words each and I haven't quite uploaded any) and after all that invested effort, I dropped the book and started planning another one.

What makes writers able to continue a book?

Click to expand...

If you demand perfection for your first book... then you will never finish it or even cancel it. My first book was quite bad, the narrative was messy, and the visuals were hard to imagine.

However, I didn't think too much about it at first... after writing hundreds of chapters, my writing skills improved, I started rewriting the old chapters that made me restless.

So, my advice... just write it first, let whatever your thoughts are... you can revise it later. Don't demand perfection or good engagement when you are still learning to write narratives.

By the way, I also originally planned to write four books from the start... but I realized my limitations. So I decided to postpone the other three... and the one I continued with was my first book, which was full of rough sketches.

WhiteSnake said:

Don't laugh at me for this, but I wrote a book about 3 chapters in (2.5K words each and I haven't quite uploaded any) and after all that invested effort, I dropped the book and started planning another one.

What makes writers able to continue a book?

Click to expand...

Spite. Defiant spite.

I refuse to not say "i wrote a book." So fuck it. I write.
It doesn't matter if it's garbage. Most people's books suck. Especially their first books.

One day i will be 50 and i will have to answer if i "wrote a book once" or if "i always meant to write a book but never got around to it."

I know which one i wanna be.

The topic doesn't matter. Fuck it. Keep writing. I am currently greatly enjoying writing a book about a fight promotion that specializes in erotic women's MMA and boxing matches.

Find writing partners. Beta readers. Pen pals. Find friends who are excited about your book even when you're not.

But get lost in your own world, your own ideas, and keep writing.

Two things: Being unable to find the exact type of book I want to read/ The thought that people might be interested in reading it.

I've found that the more I read, the more I look for certain types of stories (The novels I'm interested in reading has shrink from a vast sea to a little kiddie pool). If I can't find that specific story I want, I'll write down a quick synopsis and fantasise about what such a novel would look like.

The second reason comes here. As much as I enjoy writing, I can't do it solely for myself. If my fantasies grow to extreme in my head, I'll write a chapter one, post it, and see if anyone else is interested in reading it. If it gains enough traction, I'll continue writing the book.

sometimes I get cool anime vision in my head about something and wanna write it out

It's not all that surprising that lots of people quit around 15-20 chapters. I used to have a problem with starting new ideas because I thought they were cool. I made some new stories since they are different ideas that don't fit the stories I had, but I barely updated that many chapters.

However, in my new book, I made it so I can add most ideas I can think of, so I don't get frustrated with it.

Over-planning everything makes the entire writing boring. Having abstract parts makes it more fun to write (not in a way that would break the plot, though).

Also, I really like my characters, so I'd be sad if there weren't more chapters. And there are more cool ideas that aren't in the story that I want to see in the future.

Having readers read the story also helps with motivation. Though sometimes I just have nothing better to do and write. I edit all my chapters, but I don't really like reading, so sometimes I just do other stuff to avoid it lol

Saw someone say in the synopsis of their book: “My grammar is shit”

Bro is hundreds of chapters in and making bank on Patreon.

I'll let you know whenever I figure it out.

Because it's fun and I'm happy doing it. ?
That's it, in a nutshell. ?
I even had fun writing this.

There's a lot of good points above; Writing for success, for money, for traction, or for fun, and whimsy, for liking your own work, writing to create a book you want to see. All things most people would want, maybe not all, but most.

For my first book here, I just wanted to see what I could get away with: S*x, death, murder, apocalyptic events. Literally pushing boundaries that would make people uncomfortable to read. What I learned is: There's some of ya'll that are freaky af lol.. and there's also some of you who are very soft hearted, and gentle. They're very nice to be around, and a gem to talk to, but every single one of them, sweet, or freaky, are all good, fun loving people who just love a good story.

I write nonsense. If you read my book, you'd agree. It's nonsense. Just look at my chapter titles.
What I'm saying is.. Just have fun. Writing is about fun. Have fun with characters. Have fun with the scenes. Just empty your mind onto the page.

If a theme doesn't fit, make it fit. If you want something to happen, make it happen. YOU are the author. You decide if the world explodes, or if every person on the planet becomes a train, or if every cat in the universe magically becomes catgirl waifu, and Ryu from streetfighter is your best friend.. It's your story to write. Take ALL your ideas, and smash them into one book. Destroy that book with ideas.

-and after you're done:
You feel more comfortable as a writer.
You picked up a few tricks.
You learned your own style of writing.
You have your own freaky, or gentle audience.
Then, your next book can have a little more structure.

I just have a story that have thought for so long that I truly treasure and want to share and hear what people think about.

It's a bit hard because I want it to be perfect.

For every joke to land to become successful, but most importantly, I want my characters to see the ending to their stories.

The story

I fell in love with the characters I created and need to get them to the end of this story.