Save Your Unfinished Stories! Why Creative Projects Stall—and How AI Can Revive Them

Few Know the Joy of Creating—Which Is Exactly Why It’s Worth Starting

Many people go through life saying, “There’s nothing I particularly look forward to.” Others find enjoyment only in services provided by others. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

But one thing is certain: those who truly experience the joy of creation are a rare breed.

Among all forms of creativity, I believe story-making holds a unique charm:

• The thrill of shaping an idea from scratch
• The joy of giving form to something that once existed only in your mind
• The satisfaction of viewing your finished work from a distance

Each stage brings its own intense delight. But let’s be honest—this isn’t something you can whip up in a short workshop. The hurdle to completion is fairly high.

If you don’t develop a “completion habit,” you’ll end up with a pile of unfinished works, which can chip away at your self-esteem. And beware: ideas left to simmer too long tend to rot before you know it.

“I Want to Do It All Myself” — The Trap That Halts Creation

I’ll admit it: I’m a perfectionist when it comes to creating. And not in a good way.

I think I have a deep-seated desire to shape my ideas entirely on my own and take full credit for the final product. Since childhood, I’ve struggled with collaborative work.

Now, if you’ve got the drive to match that solo-creator mindset, you’ll probably finish your projects just fine. Some one-person films, for example, are made under a kind of creative dictatorship—and while they may be rough around the edges, they often have a unique charm.

The real problem arises when you want to do it all yourself but lack the energy to follow through. When you’re working solo, any delay in your process brings the whole project to a halt. And once a project stops, restarting it takes more energy than you’d expect—raising the risk of it fizzling out entirely.

How to Keep Ideas from Rotting: Using AI as a Creative Catalyst

Lately, I’ve been spending my nights organizing old idea notes. I’ve got a mountain of material—story outlines, half-finished plots, and novel drafts I started nearly 25 years ago. They’re scattered across notebooks, memo pads, index cards, and manuscript paper.

If I just keep hoarding them, they’ll eventually get tossed without ever seeing the light of day.

I’ve revisited these notes many times, wondering if I could use them as seeds for new stories. But they never quite sparked enough energy to bring a project to life.

That’s where AI comes in—and honestly, it’s no surprise that it’s a perfect fit for stitching these fragments together.

Here’s what I do: I type the idea notes into my computer as bullet points. Most of them were written with a specific story in mind, so I feed them into the AI and say, “Please use all of these bullet points to structure an entertaining story.”

The AI responds instantly. I read the result, point out what I don’t like, and ask for revisions. If I asked a person to do this, it would either cost a fortune or strain the relationship. But AI? It calmly handles as many revisions as I need—it’s the ideal assistant.

Once you try it, you’ll see: AI isn’t a magic wand that creates something from nothing. It’s more like a mirror that helps you draw out the answers already inside you. At least when it comes to building story structures, that’s how it feels.

So I don’t feel like using AI makes the story any less “mine.”

Once I’ve got a solid bullet-point outline, I move on to fleshing out each point. This mechanical process can also be supported by AI—letting the writer focus on choosing between options or getting inspired by the AI’s suggestions.

There was a time when I read a lot of short stories with a slightly surreal vibe, and I tried writing several of my own in that style. One of those drafts, after being restructured with AI, reached a ready-to-write stage in just two or three hours.

To give peace to my past ideas and unfinished drafts, I plan to keep turning them into full works using this method.

Expanding Creation: Sharing the Journey with Others

The “original idea” stage is packed with personal taste and vision, so I still prefer to do that part alone. But for the later stages, it might be worth exploring collaboration or outsourcing.

You could hand off the writing to someone skilled at polishing prose, or pass the outline to a screenwriter to turn it into a script. From there, you could build a team to adapt it into a comic, audio drama, or film—turning the project itself into a shared adventure.

As someone who’s not great at teamwork, this would be a new challenge. But lately, I’ve been thinking I’d like to try focusing on idea generation and production, while letting others with different strengths bring the work to life.

If the story and setting are solid, someone might be able to illustrate the characters. With AI tools, you could even create simple animations.

The real pitfall is trying to do everything yourself.

Imagine teaming up with people like:

• Someone who wants to write in their favorite style but lacks ideas
• Someone who wants to narrate a story from a script
• Someone who wants to make animations with AI but needs source material

If you can build a team like that, your ideas could blossom into something that brings joy to many.

I hope this has been helpful.