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People, but often young people, have a hard time staying engaged with their writing. It's understandable. It's easy to get inspired once, but soon after that "one time", that inspiration often fades. You suddenly want to start something different or stop writing altogether.
My best advice? Don't feel pressured to write something you don't want to anymore. Move on and try again.
You're not on the clock. There's no editor telling you 500 words a day, 10 cents a word, chop chop. It might feel like that sometimes, but it's only your brain. It can't demote you or fire you. You're stuck together, and there's no shame in following what's fun at that age.
I didn't finish my first novel until I was 19. That novel is not published today, nor are the three or so novels that followed it. I didn't finish a novel that is final and published until I was 24, which is "Elise Runs and Dorothy Falls."
When I was a teen, I blew through new stories. Heck, a lot of my stories I didn't even write. I just designed some characters, drew them a lot, wrote about their hair colors and stuff... Their stories pretty much lived in my head.
And that's fine!
Don't worry about finishing your stories. Just enjoy writing and exploring your stories as much as you want to!
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If you haven't started writing AT ALL, though...
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It's true. If you want to be a writer, you need to WRITE. At least give it a try—if for no other reason than to figure out whether or not you like it. If you start and really don't enjoy it, that's okay! Maybe writing isn't for you. But you may find that turning your OCs into story characters is the most fulfilling creative endeavor you've ever experienced.
It's okay if you don't feel ready to take the plunge. Try it anyway. If you want to write, eventually you're going to need to give it a shot. It's okay if you don't like the result. Edit it later, and if you still don't like it, restart the whole story! Every writer has been there.
Here's a brief history of stories, written ages 16-24, that I eventually scrapped and restarted.
Kingdom Neverland - 250,000 words Kingdom Neverland (again) - 150,000 words Afraid of the Lights - 175,000 words The Solstice of Hate - 250,000 words Formula 2 Fantasy - 75,000 words The Temperature of Frost - 150,000 words Afraid of the Lights (again) - 150,000 words
Each of these stories was written, completed, edited hundreds of times, and eventually deep-sixed. But guess what? I had fun with most of them, and it was great practice. Play around with genres, styles, themes, and characters!
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Finally, if you're 18+ and you're trying to finish a novel, I have some suggestions for you as well. Stick to what you love. Don't try to complete a flighty fanfiction about a movie that came out last week, not unless you intend to finish it in a week.
You're old enough to know some things you really really enjoy, so write about THOSE things... those things that truly inspire you.
And don't get sidetracked. Don't start adding stuff you just got into, just because you're into it this second. I made that mistake when I wrote my first couple books, and they weren't cohesive. You could tell I dropped what I started with in order to chase what I felt like at the moment. Try not to do that, if you really want to finish your novel.
Your novel has a certain character, a certain structure, and a certain personality that makes it beautiful. Don't muddy its message and its beauty. Stay true to form and you'll be happier with it.
When I first started A History of Ghosts, a now-defunct series from my early Wattpad years, I only wrote it occasionally, and one summer, when I returned to it, I started adding all these crazy characters, all these way-off plots. After half a book, it wasn't even A History of Ghosts anymore, and it was terrible. Fortunately I removed it all and wrote over it, but I could have destroyed it then and there.
If you muddy your story with things that don't fit it, how will you be inspired to go back to it? How will you be inspired to finish it, when what you're writing is no longer "it"?
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And finally, write with a purpose. Some people write as survivors, some people write to tell a moral, and still more write to teach something. Today, I write to help people find happiness and to accept themselves.
If you have a good story, it is easy enough to start a story. However, to tell a story sometimes simply isn't enough to finish the story.
What matters to you? By writing about something that truly matters to you (in addition to having a great story), you'll be more likely to stick it out to the end. Purpose fuels passion, and keeps that fire alive.
