Even though I wanted to write a stories when I was younger, I always had problems with starting stories and then losing the notebook they were in. Or I'd lose interest part way through the story (typically a couple chapters)

But while I was reading some articles about writing (by one of my favorite authors), she explained that you have to have a skeleton for the story first. A specific climax in mind. Things can change, but you have to have a specific goal in mind.

I started an RP with my BF, one we thought that would be interesting, but we both lost interest because we didn't know where else to go with the story. So we killed off our characters. Start to finish it was less than a month and like 35 posts. At least we actually had a dedicated end to the RP.

I think mine didn't work because we didn't have a skeleton for the story. We had characters and setting, but no theme or goal for the story.