[krazykataave]

Could just be the crappy mood im in today but has anyone else had a problem with being interested in a story and then not; even though the writing is still excellent? I mean waiting anxiously for the next chapter and then all of a sudden not wanting to read more.

Perhaps my interests and tastes have changed.......has anyone else experienced this? It's fretful! I don't like it at all! AM I STILL SANE? Don't answer the sane part.

Kat

[DarkElfChilde]

You're not the only one...I also have the same problem with my own stories.

- DEC

[Shanalir]

I get the same problem. And not just with fanfic! Try getting into a fifteen book series, with more books being released every six months or so, and losing interest after you've put a few hundred dollars into building your collection. That's happened to me with several authors. Fortunately, in my experience, it's rarely permanent. Usually I've lost interest due to stress, lack of sleep, or other outside factors that take all of my energy so that I don't have any to spare on being interestied in certain things. (It only gets scary for me when I lose interest in food. And one time, my breath rate and pulse slowed to half of their normal rate because I lost interest in breathing. )

Anyway, It's probably temporary. If all else fails, try doing something else that really bores you for a while.

[LuthienTinuviel]

Well... I guess it depends. Sometimes you feel like reading to the point of madness and sometimes you don't. Right now I have a long list of world history crap to read and my ardent reading habits has kinda cooled off. I'm a temporary couch potato (the idiot box rocks?)

[SpaceWeavil]

I think most of the people reading my stories get that...

Anyway, I haven't really had that effect on OSA, but I have with books, as Shanalir says. I am beyond help when it comes to second hand books, and I tend to grab anything that looks interesting, but some of them, I read about a quarter, and then just don't have the urge to pick the book up again, and it isn't anything really to do with the story itself.

Sometimes though I have come across books that do start off really well and set everything up in a really interesting way, and then just lose it once it comes to the main bulk of the story. (and again, I am very guilty of that in my own writing as well).

As for writing, I had the same sort of thing, where recently I just haven't been interested in my plots or characters, no matter how hard I tried to motivate myself. I think you guys could be right in that it's stress related, as this happened round about the time I got quite ill, and then work picked up quite severely. Now that I'm on a week's holiday, and university has gone into exam leave, I've found myself updating and actually 'wanting' to go write again.

My advice would be not to try and force yourself to get back into the mood or to worry about it. I would think if it was a story you really liked, you might find yourself ages from now just suddenly taking a fancy to it again. I know that's what happens with me, for what it's worth.