An Author Dilemma Questions

[HappyHamburglar101]

I am sure that some of you may have a novel you once wrote that you abandoned.

Questions:
Why did you abandon your first novel?

What were its problem(s) for you to abandon them?

Would you consider your first abandoned novel to have become a big hit if only you had given it more effort?

 

[LilRora]

Third question first, no. Not unless I completely rewrote it, because it was plainly bad - and this answers the 1st and 2nd question as well.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

It wasn't abandoned per se... Two hard copies were made plus two electronic copies. One electronic and one hard copy were sent to an agent to evaluate (they rejected it), one hard copy given to an ex-girlfriend who read it, gave it to another friend to read and I have no idea what happened to it after that. Have no way to get data from an old 5.25" disk and the word processor it was written on no longer exists on the market, so it is gone. The two people who read it claimed it would have been a hit, the agent did not agree, and I suspect the agent was right but have no real idea.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I am sure that some of you may have a novel you once wrote that you abandoned.

Questions:
Why did you abandon your first novel?

I did not. I put it in hiatus.

What were its problem(s) for you to abandon them?

I realized I've went past my weaboo phase, so I put it in hiatus so I can rewrite later.

Would you consider your first abandoned novel to have become a big hit if only you had given it more effort?

Given with the attitudes of readers today? No.

Extra: it's coming out, sometime in Spring 2025.

 

[HappyHamburglar101]

It wasn't abandoned per se... Two hard copies were made plus two electronic copies. One electronic and one hard copy were sent to an agent to evaluate (they rejected it), one hard copy given to an ex-girlfriend who read it, gave it to another friend to read and I have no idea what happened to it after that. Have no way to get data from an old 5.25" disk and the word processor it was written on no longer exists on the market, so it is gone. The two people who read it claimed it would have been a hit, the agent did not agree, and I suspect the agent was right but have no real idea.

I hope you are doing well and is still a writer.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I hope you are doing well and is still a writer.

Doing well? Debatable. Still a writer? That's kind of like "OK, are you still breathing air? Are you still consuming food?" :D
Though if you're really curious as to if I'm still a writer, you can check out my stuff here:
Jack Diamond: Monster Hunter
(Book 1: Diamond in the Rough | Scribble Hub (Completed)
Book 2: Blood Diamond | Scribble Hub)
Strange Awakening | Scribble Hub
Between Worlds | Scribble Hub
or on Royal Road (True Blue | Royal Road) or HoneyFeed (The Kaiju System | Honeyfeed)

 

[Rhaps]

Because the scope got so massive it hurt to think about.

 

[Y2N1]

1. It was more than something I could handle for a moment. The reason why I started writing in the first place is because of Light Novels, and that lead me to writing my own story. But, it was not something I could write for my first story, I lack the ability and the motivation, considering how the story requires creativity.

2. Although I planned the basic premise and how the story will go, I learned upon writing it that it will be too much of a work. For context, currently there are 2 chapters, and the total words of those two chapters are 22k in total. And the problem I realized is that the story is incredibly slow paced that I don't think it will hook that much of readers. And those 2 chapters is supposed to be the only 5% of the planned story, and I can't really imagine writing more than that, because at that moment I lack the motivation and the ability to be creative enough.

3. Not sure about it being a big hit, but I think it is probably interesting enough. Lack of motivation and effort lead me from abandoning it, but I still plan on trying to get back on writing it. Currently I'm writing a work that I believe I poured my brain and effort, and if there's a chance, I will slowly write and complete my first story piece by piece.

Still, I wish motivation were something I could have infinitely, lol.

 

[Masked_writer]

I am sure that some of you may have a novel you once wrote that you abandoned.

Questions:
Why did you abandon your first novel?

What were its problem(s) for you to abandon them?

Would you consider your first abandoned novel to have become a big hit if only you had given it more effort?

I was a terrible writter

I was the problem so i abandon it

Yes, most absolutely. The genre was not that wide so i trust my whole heart that it could be a big hit with more carefull writting.

 

[MarekSusicky]

Why did you abandon your first novel?

I was 8.

What were its problem(s) for you to abandon them?

I was 8.

Would you consider your first abandoned novel to have become a big hit if only you had given it more effort?

No, I was 8.

 

[JHarp]

I abandoned my first novel due to major harassment on a different platform that led to me completely quitting writing for a few years after someone decided to make accounts named after my characters and started accusing me of illegal things as if I was some mother harassing her kids in that way.

It deeply disturbed me and I've been unable to write for some of those characters ever since.

It hitting big would have done nothing for the amount of hate someone directed at me for multiple weeks.

 

[Peter3135566]

I abandoned my first novel due to major harassment on a different platform that led to me completely quitting writing for a few years after someone decided to make accounts named after my characters and started accusing me of illegal things as if I was some mother harassing her kids in that way.

It deeply disturbed me and I've been unable to write for some of those characters ever since.

It hitting big would have done nothing for the amount of hate someone directed at me for multiple weeks.

Haters gotta hate pointlessly, and the fact you managed to get a dedictated hater is somewhat impressive in its own way... do your best to ignore that is the common advice im pretty sure dosent realy work, but i dont know eny better adrice so whatever. Prob the problem was on the hater side not yours.

 

[JHarp]

Haters gotta hate pointlessly, and the fact you managed to get a dedictated hater is somewhat impressive in its own way... do your best to ignore that is the common advice im pretty sure dosent realy work, but i dont know eny better adrice so whatever. Prob the problem was on the hater side not yours.

It wasn't even about my own story that they hated something but the fact I disagreed with a comment on some other story that they went and made spam accounts to harass me over it.

Either way I shifted platforms and other stuff and haven't bothered to even revisit the story to try to salvage anything, I let my ADHD half-write stories now and the internet to drown them out when I manage to post anything about them.

It only affected me a bunch because I did kinda consider the characters in that story my kids since I can't bear my own due to issues but I now keep those projects in my notes.

 

[K_Jira]

Currently have 117 drafts of stories, each one a different story. 130-ish if counting the ones I deleted. My first novel has long been covered in cobwebs along with their descendants which more will still come.

Yeah. I have a problem.

That's why I don't publish a story I haven't finished yet. I did once and I got stuck and I got stressed, but I pushed through to finish it because only the last arc was left. It was hell.

 

[3guanoff]

Why did you abandon your first novel?
The only copy burned.

What were its problem(s) for you to abandon them?
I was young and drunk. A mate dared me to burn it.

Would you consider your first abandoned novel to have become a big hit if only you had given it more effort?
Perhaps with a certain crowd? It was quite "indelicate". I am glad it did not. I would have been embarrassed for life.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

I only have one story up on scribblehub, but it's actually the second story I started to write. My first story is one chapter long and remains unpublished.

The reason? I didn't want to write it without any proper writing experience, so I decided to write something else to gain some experience writing first.

I'll probably go back and write it if I ever manage to finish my current story, but that really depends on what I feel once I finished writing my current story.

As for question 3: since it isn't written yet, I don't see why it couldn't do well.

 

[Lysander_Works]

I second what @LilRora has mentioned. Had a big one that I buried into a box. Do I have the capacity to revive it as a well-done and interesting rework? Of course. Do I have the motivation to do so? Nah. There are bigger and better projects, and the first full length novel I never published was merely practice in the end. I was into writing it, but I wasn't into the world that was built.

 

[sbdrag]

I was 8.

I was 8.

No, I was 8.

I was going to reply basically the same thing lol

One gem from that story: I had one character named Rooster, because he was cocky and proud. Guess what nickname I used for him instead of his name.

 

[BearlyAlive]

It sucked. I was eleven and knew nothing about writing other than copying stuff. The story was pretty much a carbon-copy of what was popular at the time, so it might've even gotten popular.

 

[l8rose]

First one... I honestly can't remember the first few things I've written.

The first thing I know I abandoned was a novella I was writing with a friend. It was about a girl who crossed over into a magical realm and made a connection with a unicorn before forgetting and returning to the human world. It got abandoned because we drifted apart. No clue if it ever would have been popular as it was pretty cliche.