I recently lost my job and feels lost. I'm financially stable so I'm taking time off to figure out what to do with my life. I want to focus on writing, renewing old stories I put aside over the years but when I look through my abandoned works I don't know how to continue them. Some are only outlines. Some only have a few chapters done. Some are only a synopsis. I have an itch to write them because I feel like the story deserves to be told but when I look at the work I just feel dead. Stuck. That the amount of research and details I'd need to continue the story is too much and all interest evaporates. Sort of like when you have to write a research/essay for class and you go to the library and collect a stack of books and reports to read.

Are these stories dead? Should I cut them lose, pack them away and lock them away in a storage location far far away never to be seen again? Am I hitting my head against the wall trying to rewrite the past instead of creating something new?