Ever feel guilty for the pause?

[Stimtheone]

To those who are creating a series, when you already have some stories published, do you feel guilty when you just... pause? When the next one is not coming along yet, when you're trying to harvest inspiration or just get that writing energy back, do you feel bad that there might be some readers out there eagerly waiting for the next part?

I do feel that, not only because I'm readying the final chapter of the descent, but also because I just teased some with a prologue for the next series.

 

[Altissimus]

I put eight parts of a series out over 2-3 months - ~91k words. Part nine, the finale, didn't come out until four months later (and was also the longest part). I wanted to do it justice, but too a lot of that time I spent writing other things - I put another 73k series out in the space between.

Did I feel guilty? I don't recall that I did. I wrote it because I wanted to write it - for me, in other words, selfishly - and I think my thoughts were more whether anyone would bother reading it when it had come out after so long.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Not guilty but a bit anxious. I hate how capable I am of procrastination.

 

[AchtungNight]

Whenever that happens, I just remember that I’m writing for me more than anyone else. My life and interests don’t always align to smut 100%. Even when the fans are praising my work, I don’t get the feeling they need more of it asap either. No one is pressing me to write anything. So if you need a break, take it. Come back when and if you’re ready. Good luck.

 

[StillStunned]

I've been struggling with Part 5 of The Rivals. It's finally coming along now, after several false starts. But there is some pressure to finish it and round off the series. The first four were all published about a week apart, between the start and the end of August. Hopefully this final chapter will be done by the end of November.

 

[ElectricBlue]

To those who are creating a series, when you already have some stories published, do you feel guilty when you just... pause? When the next one is not coming along yet, when you're trying to harvest inspiration or just get that writing energy back, do you feel bad that there might be some readers out there eagerly waiting for the next part?

No.

I end up writing something else, and I reckon readers are happy with that. Whatever it is, it's still an EB story. The parked up series can wait.

 

[Bamagan]

Not really, although I'd probably feel a little guilty if I stopped before a conclusion was reached. But it's not like there aren't plenty of other stories for people to read if things get delayed.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Nope. I just submitted a new chapter to something I haven't touched since 2021, the chapter before that one was probably 2016. It is what it is.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Nope. I don't post parts of stories until all the parts are complete. I would never post the beginning of something not knowing how it will end or how it might get there.

I have one series here that I add to as I go but each part is its own contained story. I have notes for another story that I plan to break up into seven chapters. When all seven are complete I will start posting them one by one, a week apart or something.

 

[StillStunned]

I've been struggling with Part 5 of The Rivals. It's finally coming along now, after several false starts. But there is some pressure to finish it and round off the series. The first four were all published about a week apart, between the start and the end of August. Hopefully this final chapter will be done by the end of November.

I've just realised that I don't feel guilty towards my readers. I feel guilty towards the story. It deserves being finished.

 

[Rob_Royale]

A bit. If I pause it's because I need the next part to be as good as the first so I spend more time on the story and characters.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Sometimes. Then I remember how little feedback readers leave and how unfriendly this website is towards authors, and yeah... it is all gone

 

[MrPixel]

Guilty? Maybe a little. I’ve had a 12-chapter installment to a series more or less finished since July, but was holding back not confident that a couple of chapters were “quite right”. Was I being overwrought? Turns out after a re-read I had good reason to be concerned. I fixed one bug, but the other is eluding clarity at the moment and needs a considerable rewrite.

Nobody’s knocking on my door, so I shouldn’t feel too bad about it beyond the “yet another incomplete project” guilt monster I live with about everything else in my life.

 

[NoTalentHack]

A little. It’s why I only wrote one “real” series, which I haven’t finished yet. I need to do one more chapter, maybe 4-6K words, but I don’t wanna. It was intended to be a palate cleanser for me between darker stuff, but I ended up doing lighter stuff in between anyways. Now I kind of regret starting the series at all, even though I like the characters. I wish I’d just written it as one long story, because I fob’s know when it’s going to get finished, and I know people want the ending.

 

[SimonDoom]

Yes. I'm the worst offender at this, and I do feel guilty about it, somewhat. I wrote and published three chapters of an Exhibitionist series over 17 days in April of 2017, and then the well ran dry. I haven't resumed it in six and a half years. I will, eventually, though. I wrote an 8 chapter mom-son series over 8 months starting in 2017, with long gaps between publishing, and I'd get comments like, "Maybe somebody should finish the series for him." It's not the ideal way to go. But I don't feel the same moral compulsion to complete a series first before publishing that some do. Realistically, if everyone took this attitude, some stories simply would never get published in the first place, and we wouldn't be better off for that.

 

[intim8]

To those who are creating a series, when you already have some stories published, do you feel guilty when you just... pause? When the next one is not coming along yet, when you're trying to harvest inspiration or just get that writing energy back, do you feel bad that there might be some readers out there eagerly waiting for the next part?

I do feel that, not only because I'm readying the final chapter of the descent, but also because I just teased some with a prologue for the next series.

Not quite guilty, but I realize that it's probably not a good move toward building my proseporn empire.

I put 6 parts of my series "Aces" out, got a pretty good reception considering how few followers I have (it did bring me several new ones), then just stopped. That was more than a year ago now.

A bunch has happened, including life getting in the way, but also regarding the series. In part 5, something happened that surprised me (yeah, I write that way). It turned the series in a direction I didn't expect. The other thing that happened was I started thinking that the basic premise of the series deserves a sequel. A much more elaborate sequel. So I've spent what spare time I have trying to figure out how to best wrap up the original series.

A lot of what I wrote toward that turned out to really be stuff that belongs in the second series, so I've been sorting it out. Good news is, I have Aces parts 7-13 in the final stages of revision. And it actually does have an ending. Kinda.

I put out a few one-offs in the interim, mostly for the Seasonal Contests or challenges. One of them, the only comment it got was "Please write more Aces". Yeah, that made me feel a little guilty.

 

[Stimtheone]

I've been struggling with Part 5 of The Rivals. It's finally coming along now, after several false starts. But there is some pressure to finish it and round off the series. The first four were all published about a week apart, between the start and the end of August. Hopefully this final chapter will be done by the end of November.

Ooof, got a feel there. I struggled with a lot of these. Similarly I feel pressure because I want to round off my series here. Something so it all connects.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I'd just be happy to know if anyone was eagerly waiting for the next chapter.
One of my favorite comments was essentially "can't wait to see where this goes " and I couldn't help but think, "me too, I'm glad I'm not the only one."

 

[lovecraft68]

No,

This is a free site, they get what they pay for.

 

[madelinemasoch]

I feel guilty for the WIP that I'm not working on enough per day, but not for the series I haven't finished.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I have a list of chapters that I know I have to finish. I am chipping away at it. But like Simon said, when I get hit with a new story idea I go for it. Otherwise, I think I'd only have about half the stories published that I do now.

And if the readers don't like it, I'll happily provide them with a refund. Oh, wait, this site is free. So, looks like, I don't owe them a thing!

 

[AchtungNight]

I'd just be happy to know if anyone was eagerly waiting for the next chapter.
One of my favorite comments was essentially "can't wait to see where this goes " and I couldn't help but think, "me too, I'm glad I'm not the only one."

This is me.

 

[Cali_Love]

I don’t typically read chaptered-series stories. I have to really, really trust that author before I engage in reading it and I have to know the series has concluded and also includes closure. It is also why I’ll never write that kind of thing (note to self: never say never).

Too many times I find the author had figured out the first, maybe even the second installment and then it becomes clear that the entirety of the story had not been thought out. Lack of cohesion, a random slogfest from then on. Boo!

OK, that said, I follow some good authors on this site and I don’t favorite, vote, or comment lightly. Those that I do, I’ll savor their every word even if they just wrote bumper stickers.

 

[Zootonius]

A bit sometimes. My current one, I added a note at the end that there would be a pause in the series. I did receive a comment that they hoped the pause wouldn't be long, which is an ego boost. But, I do this for fun. And sometimes a break is necessary for creative reasons.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

I might feel the tiniest bit bad for making my audience wait. When I do write, I write a lot, but sometimes I have blocks or the real world demands my attention. Then it’s just out of my hands. They’re bound to have to wait for one reason or another, and I write for fun, first and foremost.

I abandoned my first series for literal years… really, the only reason I’m back here is because the readers asked me to pick it back up. I probably wouldn’t be publishing here at all if they hadn’t asked and so I sometimes feel a weird obligation to carry on with it. A surprising number of readers who found it in 2017 are still around reading it now. If anything I admire their dedication.

I’ve also realize that I really don’t like writing out of any kind of obligation, it takes the joy out of it.