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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30077
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30077
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It sounds like you are starting with an incomplete story idea and discovering, half way through writing, that your idea is incomplete.

For some writers, it would seem, it is quite normal to start with an incomplete idea and for them to discover the rest of the idea as the story develops. (The tale grew in the telling, in Tolkien's phrase.)

If you are not one of those writers for whom the tale grows in the telling, then it would seem that you need to focus on two things:

- Recognizing when a story idea is incomplete

- Developing a story idea to completion before you begin writing

There are lots of models you can use to assess if a story idea is complete, and to develop your story idea to completion. (I would suggest looking at McKee (_Story_) and Vogler (_The Writers Journey_) to start with.)

I tend to look at story ideas in terms of desire.

- What is the protagonist's desire?
- What things in the protagonist's character or circumstances stand in the way of their achieving that desire. 
- What will they have to give up to achieve their desire? What is the great moral turning point that makes them either make the sacrifice to attain their desire or give up their desire.
- What specific incidents will set the protagonist on the quest for their desire, and what incidents will force them to face the great moral turning point. 

Those strike me as the necessary elements of a complete story idea. If you have those, the impetus of the story should be enough to carry you through to the end of the story. If you don't it is likely to flag at some point, as you have experienced.

If you can complete your story idea, you will probably find the impetus to continue. If you can't, continuing is not likely to reveal the complete idea to you (though it is always possible that it will).

Original score: 7