The Audience Hasn't Read It Yet

I occasionally see people who never finish long works.  They have a certain burnout with it, but it's more of a boredom.  They have become so intimate with the story that they know it inside and out.  They know every part of it and it isn't exciting anymore.  It is so obvious how things go that writing it down would be an exercise in tedium and nothing else.  There is one key thing that these people have forgotten.

The audience hasn't read your story yet.  It's obvious to you because you've wrapped your mind around it day in and day out.  You decide everything that happens.  But you can't forget that there have been hundreds of choices.  Your characters could have done countless things at countless times throughout your story, each of which could have had a significant impact on the story.   And until the audience reads the things you wrote, they cannot know which one you have chosen, so it will always be interested.

This is not a license to be lazy, though.  Stereotypes and cliches are still boring.  Sure, we can't know what will happen until it happens, but we can still make predictions and be disappointed when things end up exactly as we foresaw.  Do things that are uncommon.  Just remember that the craziest choices will seem boring if you are always making them, but they are still crazy, especially to everyone else.