What should I do with my unfinished stories?

[K_Jira]

I have in my laptop like around 20 stories which I made when I got an idea or inspiration. Unfortunately, they are not finished and might never be finished since I often jump from one story to another, leaving the previous story into dusts. Recently, I'm getting curious as what others opinion are on them and getting this itchiness to publish them. I was thinking to just dump them in a series of uncompleted stories.

What do you think? Should I do that? Should I just keep them to myself? Or do you have any better suggestions?

 

[Deleted member 58005]

No one's stopping you, publish if you want! If not, then you can maybe send it to a couple of trusted readers who might, idk, review it, in turn allowing you to improve your writing. Even if you don't do that, there's other ways to put it to use.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Finish them.

 

[RepresentingSilence]

this was the best "meme" I could find in under 3 mins for this

 

[Cipiteca396]

Posting them might give you the motivation to finish some of them. That could be good or bad if you have other things to do.

It's unlikely, but someone might also decide to finish some of them, if you list them out.

Also, nice. 6 views and 5 comments. Everyone who saw it had something to say.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

I have in my laptop like around 20 stories which I made when I got an idea or inspiration. Unfortunately, they are not finished and might never be finished since I often jump from one story to another, leaving the previous story into dusts. Recently, I'm getting curious as what others opinion are on them and getting this itchiness to publish them. I was thinking to just dump them in a series of uncompleted stories.

What do you think? Should I do that? Should I just keep them to myself? Or do you have any better suggestions?

publish them as a series of short stories

 

[K_Jira]

Wow, thanks for the reply guys! I might go ahead with publishing them under one series then…

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

One thing I did with my unfinished/thrown away stories is take their base concept/idea and turn them into a side character in a story I'm actually working on. It's not really a continuation persay, more like a homage to the forgotten.

I may even make a dungeon-delving story where each floor is a forgotten story with the boss being an MC.

Dunno if you'd be up for something like that, but just an idea.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Give it to other writers who are willing to continue your works.

Have them reference you.

 

[Viator]

Sometimes ideas from my unfinished stories make their way into alternate works in some fashion. A little changed to fit the new tale, but the heart of the idea survives. No matter what I think it is useful to keep your old work for possible future inspiration. Or just entertainment to see what you used to be like when you have forgotten in a few years.

Personally, I wouldn't publish them unless you're sure you won't expand upon the idea later, but that's me. You do you.

 

[Zirrboy]

Sacrifice them to the dark lord

 

[greyblob]

put them where they belong

 

[Werelure]

Choose one and stick to it, maybe mark a few most promising too for the future when choosen one ends. Turn the rest of them into templates, separate scenes and drafts that could be reused later.

 

[Mordrake]

I have in my laptop like around 20 stories which I made when I got an idea or inspiration. Unfortunately, they are not finished and might never be finished since I often jump from one story to another, leaving the previous story into dusts. Recently, I'm getting curious as what others opinion are on them and getting this itchiness to publish them. I was thinking to just dump them in a series of uncompleted stories.

What do you think? Should I do that? Should I just keep them to myself? Or do you have any better suggestions?

Post them, and see what kind of reactions your readers will have, and you might find motivation to continue some of the stories if you get good feedback.

 

[owotrucked]

Analogy from Brandon Sanderson: Reading a story and investing time in it is like doing a circus acrobatic jump with the author. The author catches the jumping reader when he delivers the satisfying pay-off.

If there's no payoff, you're just allowing people to jump off a cliff for no reward.

If there's a payoff, you might be able to work around it to make a small open-ended pilot story that can work on its own. Like those oneshots manga that are made to gauge reader's reaction. Even if there's no sequel, the small story itself has a sense of closure that gives the illusion that the characters go on a happy adventure for the rest of their life or whatever.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

You could cannibalise them for a bigger story.
But, ultimately, you do you and publish them however you want, if you want

 

[2021]

Make them all self awar. And then mash them together

 

[Temple]

You could cannibalise them for a bigger story.
But, ultimately, you do you and publish them however you want, if you want

Agree with this one. For example, Wildbow with Worm. He used tons of his earlier drafts of various stories to make as side characters in Worm.