So many ideas, so little...?

Time? Effort? Un-procrastination? I don't know, and I also don't know how to write a story without relying on Inspiration™.

Does anyone have any tips for finishing a short story?

Comments

[Randimaxis]

Usually, when I'm having a blank, I try to think of a scene I want to see later in the story, then I try to figure out how to write my characters to that scene - at times, just considering such things helped inspire answers to those questions.

[Odd_Sarge]

I think it's very 'gamey' in the sense that turning writing into a bit of a game can be a bit... unorthodox, but here's my methodology. To preface, though, I'm the same with producing tons of ideas but not writing them; I haven't been keeping up very well with writing my ideas down on paper, and that just doesn't help them stick.

A thing I've been doing for the past few years is thinking of what kind of setting I want to write in (for my case, I choose one or two verses to write in for the year), and then writing a bunch of short stories around that universe. They range from just a hundred words to two-thousand (rarely above that threshold; I write as much as I feel is needed and to the extent that I can without feeling bored), but the main thing is that it gets me invested in the universe at large, and thinking about the world-building surrounding said universe. Keep in mind this is more of an exercise to write as many unique interactions as possible, even if they're not fully realized, to keep me going until that inevitable blast of inspiration. But getting it down to a process does pay off in that investment, because one of those ideas sticks with me and I get hit with that inspiration.

Coming back to the concept of this being a very 'gamey' way to do things, you just have to go with Crystal's words: you really do just have to sit down and write. If you want to write, you have to do it, even when you're not inspired... but I write most when I'm both inspired and interested. This practice gets me interested in the world, and by writing so many different takes of the same universe, the smaller details critical to the world-building fit into place, and nothing grants me more inspiration than the feeling of these puzzle-pieces snapping into place.

It's not a surefire way to inspire yourself and get a story written for the setting you're going for—because if it were foolproof, I'd have more published stories than unpublished—but it does keep me writing, and I think that's what matters most. Just keep writing; even a few dozen words is progress towards a future story.

[Pensive]

5307890
That's basically what I do whenever I've done absolutely everything I'm about to write of in this comment but I'm still not happy.

What I do is more similar to what 5307927 said.

Whenever I'm stuck, I just go about life thinking about what I want to happen in a chapter and won't start making a new chapter until I have at least some small plan in mind. That plan can be anything as small as I want some character to say one thing. Then I go in blind and then, was reasonable when, why, and how this character would do or say this. Then I start making it happen. Sometimes, those whens, why's, and how's need their own whens whys, and hows.

For example, if I needed character A to run into character B I would need Character A(the main character) to have a reason for running, as well as why character A is running. Then I need character B to be in the way so character A can accidentally run into character B. Then I'm done... Lol not really, I need a reason for character B to be their that that moment and why. If character B is there because... let's say character B is late for her wedding, I could add in extra information to why character B was late and so on.

In short, I will continuously expand on one small idea until one thing leads to another, and oh hey! I suddenly have an idea for the next scene of the chapter or even the idea for the entire point of the next chapter.

Usually, while I'm making it, I get a little absorbed into writing and ideas start to pop left and right... I actually made a chapter that was three times longer than my 2000 and above word count per chapter in one sitting. That one sitting was 12 hours non stop. The only problem I found with the way I write is that when you have no idea what to do for a chapter. When you need a chapter just to progress time and more filling, I'm going to be stuck. I have no idea what I want to happen for the filler and thus I won't start writing.

One more thing I just thought of that was wrong that, if you don't have at the very least have and plan for the overall story, then it's a big problem because there is no goal or no idea to expand upon. For example, form before I wanted to start my story, I want characters A and B to go to Canterlot as they appeared in the zebra lands. I originally thought of something as simple as joining a caravan going town to town or something even simpler as a ship to Canterlot. I ended choosing a ship to Canterlot but then problems popped up. I expanded on those problems until it ended being a problem for equestrian to deal with.

I didn't want there to be a massive time skip of two weeks in the ship ride because that's time I wanted to use to bond and connect characters with. So I added pirates to have as an excuse to make a chapter about it. I kept expanding this point and eventually, I had 12 chapters with a total of around 30k word count and I haven't even reached my goal of getting characters A and B to Canterlot(which was supposed to be a small part of the story overall), so I'm constantly writing, not for others, but for my self as I want to see the characters reach Canterlot myself so I cant start on other goals I had after they had reached Canterlot.

Again, in short, I have goals that span over the entire story. Then I need chapters to slowly reach those goals. But because when I make a chapter that continues to expand over a small idea, it making it slower to reach the goal and thus keeping me inspired to reach that goal.

To shorten the already shorten previous paragraph, I have set goals far ahead in my story that I want to reach. But to reach those goals, I have to take it one word at a time, then one paragraph, and chapter at a time until I reach that point. It's my self-set goal to reach that point in my story that keeps me inspired.

And that's how I write my current story.

EDIT:
Dear God, I've done it again. I've made another massive comment on accident...

Sigh

I always go into more detail than I should...