authors

[plala]

hey guys i appreciate the work you u do.but please i beg u dnt leave stories unfinished it reali sucks i get hooked on a story only 2 realise that its incomplete do u know how annoying that is.i would suggest that you write the story first then u can post that you dont have pressure from the readers demanding when there is no more.
please complete your stories.

 

[estragon]

plala, this lament has been the subject of several threads. Many people have voiced your complaint, and many others have agreed. Authors are perverse little creatures; some listen to their readers, and some just do what comes naturally.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

Your complaint is well-taken and very valid.

I write multi-chapter, longer stories (from 5 to 31 chapters), and I've never started to post a story until I've completed the whole story.

I can't imagine why authors would begin to post before the story is entirely written. I guess the idea is that they have started the story but have no idea what shape the story will take or its ending. That seems terribly lazy to me. I think that if an author knows nothing else she/he should know the story they want to tell. Naturally some issues need to be worked out as the writing progresses, but at the start of writing an author should know the story's broad outlines, what they want to say, and where they are going to leave the reader when the story is done. The rest of it is just pecking away at a keyboard.

 

[estragon]

As this site welcomes all, or almost all, comers (pun definitely intended), there will be a great variation in how authors deal with chaptered stories. And however much or however often those who abandon stories midstream are chastised, rebuked or cussed out, the end is not in sight.

Maybe, after reading a Ch 1 you like, note the author's handle and check out his/her author's page using the "Search Members" link. If the author is a regular who finishes his/her chaptered stories, fine. And you can see how long the author takes to do so, by noting the posting dates for his/her chapters. If a newbie author, check the page weekly to see if all the chapters show up, rather than reading each chapter each time as it posts.

 

[evanslily]

And I for one am grateful the site welcomes all.

I'm known for keeping readers hanging. I promise it's not deliberate. I usually do have most of the story sketched out in my head, though I love the way stories take on lives of their own and go off in directions you weren't necessarily anticipating. I'm not a heavy duty plotter, more of a pantster (if you've not come across that term it's short for 'by the seat of one's pants').

Once I've started posting chapters of a story, I make a commitment to finishing it. It might take me a while but I will, barring accidents etc, undertake to finish it. But that's the thing - life does get in the way sometimes. Chapters that you thought would take a couple of days to write take months instead for all manner of reasons.

Personally, I rather like the feeling of knowing that people are waiting on the next chapter - it gives me the impetus to get on and write it! I made a promise to my readers after I posted the last chapter of my last story that I wouldn't post my new story until it was complete. That's worked out brilliantly (sarcasm, LOL) as I haven't posted any new story chapters for 18m (until today...)

I don't think anyone deliberately sets out to not finish a story, let's put it that way.

But big apologies to anyone I've ever kept waiting.

 

[sethp]

I've written additional chapters due to demand. Sometimes I think a story is finished...when my readers don't think so.

 

[oggbashan]

I have so many plot bunnies multiplying that it is difficult to return to an incomplete series and finish it.

I get there - sometimes years later. Brobdingnag took 5 years before the last chapter was posted. Shelacta is probably never-ending.

I know I have many stories still to finish and drafts are cluttering up my hard drive, waiting for the Muses to return.

Some stories are difficult to complete at the standard of the posted episodes, so some drafts have to be deleted and started again.

I'll probably still have incomplete stories here when I die.

 

[MaxSebastian]

I'm working quite hard to finish some of my stories that have had a five-six year break as I was interrupted when I lost my job in the recession and had to help two close relatives through terminal cancer.

Can I just point out that if readers get abusive with their demands for more of a particular story, it's the quickest way to encourage a writer to abandon that particular story.

Courteous requests for more are fine, and can lead to creative suggestions, but as soon as the anger and hate starts coming out, a writer might feel they don't want to reward such readers with more of their requested story - and hate seems to be a very good way to kill off creative desire.

 

[PennLady]

Once I've started posting chapters of a story, I make a commitment to finishing it. It might take me a while but I will, barring accidents etc, undertake to finish it. But that's the thing - life does get in the way sometimes. Chapters that you thought would take a couple of days to write take months instead for all manner of reasons.

I think what people are saying -- and there's more over in estragon's "Disappointments" thread -- is that you should not post a chaptered story until all chapters are written, so as not to leave people hanging or a story incomplete.

Not saying I agree.

 

[lovecraft68]

Your complaint is well-taken and very valid.

I write multi-chapter, longer stories (from 5 to 31 chapters), and I've never started to post a story until I've completed the whole story.

I can't imagine why authors would begin to post before the story is entirely written. I guess the idea is that they have started the story but have no idea what shape the story will take or its ending. That seems terribly lazy to me. I think that if an author knows nothing else she/he should know the story they want to tell. Naturally some issues need to be worked out as the writing progresses, but at the start of writing an author should know the story's broad outlines, what they want to say, and where they are going to leave the reader when the story is done. The rest of it is just pecking away at a keyboard.

Because some of us can. I wrote a 51 chapter series one at a time over the course of a year and a half. Never lost track never stopped and always knew I would finish.

Now part of why I knew I would finish is because as each chapter went up the readers comments is what fueled me to continue. Knowing there were people eager to know what was next helped me finish. I think I would have had a greater chance of not finishing if I was just stockpiling chapters on my laptop and waiting until I was done.

Again I understand it's frustrating if a work is never finished and that is not limited to lit. Dean Koontz had a lights out Frankenstein series going, first two books were amazing, then he decides to keep spitting out his stupid oddd Thoma crap and other things and by the time he came back I said fuck it, I don;t care.

But I will repeat myself. This is a free siet, people write here for fun or to get better you are not paying us to perform for you.

You get what you pay for. You're on a free site with access to probably quarter million stories in every kink imaginable, stop whining.

 

[PennLady]

Bonnie, you may be right in certain cases. I'm sure that many people sit down to write a story and then find out it's more work than they anticipated, and then they stop writing. But not everyone does that. I have never not finished a story, even if I've had a long lag between parts. A couple of times, I get to what I think is halfway through or a little more and then I post part one, hoping/figuring that by the time I post the halfway mark, I will be done the story.

It worked the first time I did a story like that, but has not worked so well the last couple of times, because life happened, because I had trouble with a chapter and had to rewrite it a lot, etc. But I am not lazy, and I do care about my readers, and I do my best with my stories.

 

[evanslily]

I think what people are saying -- and there's more over in estragon's "Disappointments" thread -- is that you should not post a chaptered story until all chapters are written, so as not to leave people hanging or a story incomplete.

Not saying I agree.

LOL, I got what was being said, loud and clear. My point is that those chapters of mine probably wouldn't have got written at all if I'd had to write the whole story before posting. Thank God that rule doesn't exist - I'd have nothing here for anyone to read

I totally get that it's frustrating for readers though. Hell, there are stories I'd love to see an ending to as well.

 

[PennLady]

LOL, I got what was being said, loud and clear. My point is that those chapters of mine probably wouldn't have got written at all if I'd had to write the whole story before posting. Thank God that rule doesn't exist - I'd have nothing here for anyone to read

I totally get that it's frustrating for readers though. Hell, there are stories I'd love to see an ending to as well.

I like to get part way through a story, like I said. Halfway or so, before I start posting. Because I agree, that feedback can be a nice boost towards finishing a story. But I don't rely on the feedback to finish -- I pretty much always have an ending in mind, even if I don't know how I'll get there, and I have always finished a story. If it happened that I thought I couldn't, I'd pull the existing chapters, although I don't intend to let something like that happen.

 

[oggbashan]

I've just checked my submitted list.

Fiona is the only incomplete chaptered story. The final chapter is about half-finished and I have the outlined plot including the ending.

I have other stories that need sequels/prequels but they can and do stand on their own, even if I should really finish the cliff-hanger from Miranda the Witch.

jeanne_d_artois has Pantomime Dwarf unfinished but the whole story needs a complete re-write. She might take the existing chapters down and scrap them.

 

[evanslily]

But I don't rely on the feedback to finish -- I pretty much always have an ending in mind, even if I don't know how I'll get there, and I have always finished a story.

I don't think it's the feedback per se that drives me on either, more the fact that posting a chapter allows me to leave it and move on to the next. I probably have a dozen or more half finished first chapters on my hard drive. I know that if I finished one and posted it, I would go on to write another chapter. Feedback certainly helps but it's not the sole driver. I usually know the endings way before I finish too. It's actually getting the words down on screen that I sometimes struggle with. That's the reason I'm having a bash at Camp Nanowrimo this month - I'm seeking to switch off my inner editor and write a whole first draft before going back to tidy it up. I'm going to find it tough, LOL.

 

[PennLady]

I don't think it's the feedback per se that drives me on either, more the fact that posting a chapter allows me to leave it and move on to the next. I probably have a dozen or more half finished first chapters on my hard drive. I know that if I finished one and posted it, I would go on to write another chapter. Feedback certainly helps but it's not the sole driver. I usually know the endings way before I finish too. It's actually getting the words down on screen that I sometimes struggle with. That's the reason I'm having a bash at Camp Nanowrimo this month - I'm seeking to switch off my inner editor and write a whole first draft before going back to tidy it up. I'm going to find it tough, LOL.

Haha, I know. I'm big on self-editing and tweaking. I can hardly read anything without finding something that needs a little tightening, or a slight rewording.

 

[SydneyBlake]

And I for one am grateful the site welcomes all.

I'm known for keeping readers hanging. I promise it's not deliberate. I usually do have most of the story sketched out in my head, though I love the way stories take on lives of their own and go off in directions you weren't necessarily anticipating. I'm not a heavy duty plotter, more of a pantster (if you've not come across that term it's short for 'by the seat of one's pants').

Once I've started posting chapters of a story, I make a commitment to finishing it. It might take me a while but I will, barring accidents etc, undertake to finish it. But that's the thing - life does get in the way sometimes. Chapters that you thought would take a couple of days to write take months instead for all manner of reasons.

Personally, I rather like the feeling of knowing that people are waiting on the next chapter - it gives me the impetus to get on and write it! I made a promise to my readers after I posted the last chapter of my last story that I wouldn't post my new story until it was complete. That's worked out brilliantly (sarcasm, LOL) as I haven't posted any new story chapters for 18m (until today...)

I don't think anyone deliberately sets out to not finish a story, let's put it that way.

But big apologies to anyone I've ever kept waiting.

I'm with you here. Same experience. Writing and posting chapter-by-chapter did keep me moving, but when it was finished, I realized it needed some major revisions. It was my first finished novel, so I was climbing a learning curve. So now I want to finish the second book before I post it -- if I post it here at all. We'll see.

I've tried to be a plotter, but my muse just won't cooperate.

 

[estragon]

"I can hardly read anything without finding something that needs a little tightening, or a slight rewording." SA Penn Lady.

SA Penn Lady, that's the story of my life.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

Again I understand it's frustrating if a work is never finished and that is not limited to lit.

You get what you pay for. You're on a free site with access to probably quarter million stories in every kink imaginable, stop whining.

I'm commenting as a writer, not a reader. I, you, and PennLady are likely in the minority among writers here, in that we finish stories. I find the rule here is that the average story is most likely to simply peter out after a few chapters/installments and then never finish, and the exception to be the writer committed to finishing a story (or having the skills to bring a story to a reasonable and successful conclusion).

As much as I'm on this site as a writer rather than a reader, and free site or not, I think readers are entirely justified in feeling put out and put upon and entirely justified in complaining when an author never finishes a story (or simply doesn't have the skill or imagination to address at all what the end of the story is).

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm commenting as a writer, not a reader. I, you, and PennLady are likely in the minority among writers here, in that we finish stories. I find the rule here is that the average story is most likely to simply peter out after a few chapters/installments and then never finish, and the exception to be the writer committed to finishing a story (or having the skills to bring a story to a reasonable and successful conclusion).

As much as I'm on this site as a writer rather than a reader, and free site or not, I think readers are entirely justified in feeling put out and put upon and entirely justified in complaining when an author never finishes a story (or simply doesn't have the skill or imagination to address at all what the end of the story is).

Honestly where I gained the attitude of "I owe you nothing" is from other threads here.

Whenever an author complains they don;t get many views or votes a common response is that the readers don;t owe us anything, they don;t have to take that whopping two seconds to click a yellow star(literally a second or two) and heaven forbid a minute comment.

It's a free site, votes and comments are our payment, If you look at my last dozen or so stories I say that in my closing authors note. if you like the story take a second to vote.

So all I'm saying is, if they don;t owe us a vote or comment how the hell do we we them something? It would be different if we were paid then we would be obligated.

Apathy works both ways and the readers have plenty of it. Never mind that for free they're supposed to get complete series, fantastic writing, perfect grammar and everything else they whine about.

Want all that? open up your wallet and pay for some books.

 

[PennLady]

I'm at least somewhat on LC's side here. In the other thread, sr71 mentioned an implied contract, but I'm not sure it applies here. Is it a one-way contract? As in I "sign on" to provide something but get nothing in return? Is a two-way contract implied, so that the reader agrees to finish/vote/comment on a story if they start reading?

I think, as I said before, that a lot of people sit down to write and find it's not as easy as they think it is. This is regardless of circumstances. Just to sit down, figure out your storyline and then start writing it, is more than most have done in their English classes. They may start with a burst of energy and then realize they're lost and so the story fizzles. But do they owe it to anyone to finish? Not particularly. Perhaps they should take the story down, but that's up to them.

I finish stories because I don't like to see them unfinished. I write my stories because I get an idea that I want to see through to the end. Posting before I've totally written it helps me out. I'm far enough along that major revisions (likely) won't happen; I'm far enough along that finishing is within reach; the feedback is encouraging and gives a boost.

I've been disappointed, too, to find stories unfinished. Don't get me wrong. I just can't get too worked up about it.

 

[oggbashan]

My unfinished stories nag at me, but I have many more unfinished than those I have posted.

Real life gets in the way, and the Muses can be elusive.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm at least somewhat on LC's side here. In the other thread, sr71 mentioned an implied contract, but I'm not sure it applies here. Is it a one-way contract? As in I "sign on" to provide something but get nothing in return? Is a two-way contract implied, so that the reader agrees to finish/vote/comment on a story if they start reading?

I think, as I said before, that a lot of people sit down to write and find it's not as easy as they think it is. This is regardless of circumstances. Just to sit down, figure out your storyline and then start writing it, is more than most have done in their English classes. They may start with a burst of energy and then realize they're lost and so the story fizzles. But do they owe it to anyone to finish? Not particularly. Perhaps they should take the story down, but that's up to them.

I finish stories because I don't like to see them unfinished. I write my stories because I get an idea that I want to see through to the end. Posting before I've totally written it helps me out. I'm far enough along that major revisions (likely) won't happen; I'm far enough along that finishing is within reach; the feedback is encouraging and gives a boost.

I've been disappointed, too, to find stories unfinished. Don't get me wrong. I just can't get too worked up about it.

Another reason some writers stop is lack of feedback and encouragement. When we post here, especially when we were new, we would keep checking the page hoping for votes and comments something to make us say "hey they like it"

Now some, I for one, can write without that(won;t say I don;t enjoy feedback, but I am writing for me more than anyone else) but a lot of people are doing it to see what people think.

So they write their asses off post their story and get a few votes and a very small handful of comments. It's then well jeez why bother.

So maybe if the readers played a more active role in participating in this process the writer may be more encouraged to push themselves.

And another factor (and not the fault of the majority of readers) is the fucking trolls. The one bombs the nasty comments and attacks.

Funny these people don;t read the stories and take the time to comment, but the majority of decent readers can;t be bothered.

In my SWB series I got many comments over the 18 months it took to finish saying "I've been reading since the start and am just now commenting"

They then say how they loved it etc.... okay so you've been reading for a year, love it and I get one comment from you 35 chapters in? Gee thanks.

Anyway I can;t say it any better than you get what you pay for. I would imagien that readers who post on the threads here most likely vote and comment, but the majority of readers don;t even know about the forums and don't vote.

Look at the annual awards. a handful of people nominate, but oh, let us make every effort in the world to appease the one's who can;t be bothered to do anything with our work except stroke over it.

Yeah okay, don;t know about the rest of us, but if I want a D/S relationship I'll head on over to the BDSM forum.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

Honestly where I gained the attitude of "I owe you nothing" is from other threads here.

Whenever an author complains they don;t get many views or votes a common response is that the readers don;t owe us anything, they don;t have to take that whopping two seconds to click a yellow star(literally a second or two) and heaven forbid a minute comment.

It's a free site, votes and comments are our payment, If you look at my last dozen or so stories I say that in my closing authors note. if you like the story take a second to vote.

So all I'm saying is, if they don;t owe us a vote or comment how the hell do we we them something? It would be different if we were paid then we would be obligated.

Apathy works both ways and the readers have plenty of it. Never mind that for free they're supposed to get complete series, fantastic writing, perfect grammar and everything else they whine about.

Want all that? open up your wallet and pay for some books.

I don't look at the question in the context that I 'owe' readers a complete story. I just look at it that writing a complete story is simply what writers do. As PennLady pointed out, often there are some issues with character or plot or pacing or organization that need to be addressed. But getting to the end of the story is simply the least a writer should do. I feel that if I'm going to make the presumption to call myself a writer and place a story before the public then I ought to act like a writer and tell a whole story.

Of course, you're absolutely right about the dearth of reader comments and votes. I also have looked on comments and votes as my 'payment' for making a story available here. And that's one part of the relationship that I think of as one party (readers) 'owing' the other party (writers) something. But I've also been disappointed and frustrated by most readers' willingness to take without giving back even the minimal 'payment' of a vote or comment. I guess it's just human nature: most people are takers rather than givers.

I actually went on strike during my last story. The last one was 31 chapters long (it and six other stories I've since unpublished here in favor of making them available under a different pen name through smashwords). When I started submitting the story it was finished (and those who read and like my stories know I never submit anything until the story is completed). I submit a chapter, wait for it to post and make sure it is posted completely and correctly (I've had a few problems here with chapters not posted completely or correctly), and then submit the next chapter. So a chapter shows up every few days through the end of the story. But on that last story after about 20 chapters, which together had gotten perhaps a dozen comments, I just stopped submitting. My goodness. You wouldn't believe the number of outraged readers who got in touch to let me know how abused and mistreated they felt. It was actually (for me) a rather satisfying experience. While I still think finishing a story is fine, writing and submitting are two different things, and I had no guilty feelings about cutting the cheap SOBs off. I eventually ended up submitting the rest of the chapters.

 

[Hubee]

Sethp’s reason why is a good one.

I write as someone who has kept people waiting a long time, but usually got there in the end

(BTW, Chapter 9 of ‘Tuition’ just got posted, in case you were wondering)

Other reasons are lack of response. If you don't get an ecstatic response to a story you think is really good and that you have laboured over then you might give up.

If you get unwarranted or troll like abuse for your story that can make you quit
Like MaxSebastian real life can well and truly get in the way.

Worse for me is that some of my best received stories can’t be continued, even when people ask or beg me to. They are complete and finished and can’t go any further