So how are you running out of ideas about how to finish your stories? Don't you have the ideas before you even start writing?
My writing gets away from me. Picture a guy pushing a cart down a hill. The cart starts off empty, light, unable to do much of anything without me pushing. Of course without anything in it, the damned thing tosses around at every bump; so I fill it with interesting things on our journey down the hill. Soon its a smooth ride, the carts full of interesting, though somewhat oddly shaped and hard to handle, object. But more... I see more, and I can make them fit. That's what I do, make things fit. But the carts heavy now, the breaks can hardly slow the thing down when I bend down to pick up more objects, and even then I can hardly fit what i pick up on the cart. But hardly and unable are world apart. Besides, I remind myself, making things fit... well, that's what i do. Well, it's what I did. The carts gone now, a shiny rock had caught my eye; It was an amazing thing, would have been perfect for... well.. somewhere, I'd have made it fit. Doesn't matter, i'll just go up the hill, find a new cart that this shiny rock would look amazing in, I always find a place. It's what I do.
So, you do an outline and it makes sense in that format, but then you change things when you start writing?
Do you keep a journal or notebook or somewhere else you can store some of your shiny things even if they don't belong in the current story? Maybe that would make it easier for you to be judicious about what you put in your cart. If you don't already keep an ideas journal, I challenge you to start one!
I write down the major plot and dialogue points the story and then I occasionally run out of ideas on how to progress forward.
Oh, so you aren't even at the writing stage by the time you run into trouble. Well then, maybe my challenge is the reverse: start writing and see if you can figure it out as you go!
I have no formal training in writing whatsoever, beyond what I read in old workbooks in my off time. I couldn't find the verb in a sentence if you italicized it. I had an email list of my entire middle school in the 90s, sending them all stories about crazy adventures time traveling with my dragon friend. I would get bothered in the halls if I missed a deadline, people begging to know if I managed to make it through the giant animal forest to the dragon tower. All of this while getting Cs in English. I learned there's a difference between passive writing and 3rd person perspective two years ago, and still seem to struggle with the fact that the characters shouldn't say. what. they. are. doing. and. thinking. They should DO and THINK it! What the crap is XYZ sentence structure? Do I split the initiative or not!? Expletives as the subject? Huh?! But you know what? The human brain hasn't been fully mapped yet, and there's a lot of metal in a lot of buildings. Could wireless energy transfer create cities that were literally, actually, really alive!? Giant infant brains forming as we stepped along their membranes? I bet no one's wrote as story about a gay crusader struggling with an understanding succubus, the both of them just trying to rip themselves from the power of stereotypes. Could their 'sibling' love be a true reflection of forgiveness and becoming truly human? Some Jellyfish species are immortal! Right? Did you know that!? As they float around in the ocean, soaking up knowledge and experience throughout time, do you not feel with all your soul that at some point they must become literal GODS? There's a story there somewhere? Do I use first person or third person perspective?
Relationships effect my writing. When I feel like boundaries have been crossed I'm hurt and angry and afraid to write because of what I might say. For instance, when someone is asking about what happens between you and someone else, is it necessary to divulge personal information?