The Way It Fell To Pieces

I know we have readers and writers here, but this time I'm speaking more to the writers. This discussion is about the stories you wrote that had wheels, but then they fell off.


I was working on a book, and when I began writing it I instantly thought trilogy. Because as I was writing book one, two and three popped into my head instantly. I don't want to get into what the three books would have been, because there's an outside shot that I'll resume writing that series of books. Possibly combine the three stories into one longer novel.

There's also a story that I have written, but was not satisfied with the story. My ideas never really came out into the piece, at least not how I thought they would. There have been three separate tries at doing that one, but for some reason the way I want to tell it, never seems to come out in the finished product.


Sometimes I think the characters and plot pull away from each other, and as the writer we don't always see it. I have completed several stories that came together, but not like I'd planned. You have character driven stories and plot driven stories, but it's in my opinion that both must push the storytelling along.


*Questions*

1- Have you ever had a story fall apart?

2- Has more of your stories been written or fallen apart?

3- Do you outline a story before writing it?

4- How often do you revisit a fallen story?

5- Why do you think that some stories fall apart?