How long is acceptable for a reply?

[Annisthyrienne]

Just out of curiosity.....I realize everyone is different, and all levels of patience vary with the individual, but how long would you be willing to wait for a reply from your co-writer? Does it vary with who you're writing with? Are you willing to wait longer for some than others? Is this based on the quality or length of their posts?

And what about your own posting habits. Do you try to hold yourself to posting within a certain time limit? Have you ever had anyone complain that you took too long? Or are you harder on yourself than any of your co-writers would be?

 

[fr33ks33k]

I wait as long as is necessary if I want to continue the story. Often I will give a nudge, or ask for an update as to why the reply hasn't been placed. Mostly though, I realize that real life comes first, so the replies don't have to be immediate, or even in the same week.

As for myself, I feel the need to write as soon as I read the reply. The next part of the story forms as my fingers hit the keys. My writing's always been fluid like that. No one's ever complained about me not posting in a timely manner, but then I do try to reply when the inspiration is bubbling.

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

Hmmm interesting topic Thyri.

You and I have talked about this quite a bit, I'll throw my two cents in.

I think it can vary. I like to feel out my partners before we start writing (Only a slight pun intended) to get an idea of what the pace will be. If they are swamped with stories I will know what to expect. I am pretty patient though, I think.

For my pace? I try to push myself, try to get at least one reply a week going because if I don't I can lose a train of thought and I find my best thoughts happen as a knee jerk reply to a post. Though there are just some times in the past my health has prevented me from slipping in to a particular mind set.

If my partner is having trouble I'd rather know about it, than sit and wonder if she has lost interest.

 

[Mephistophelily]

I tend to reply based on how long they've waited. All my subscriptions are checked each morning... Weekends I actually only doing things via phone, so posts are either very slow to go up then, or wait til Monday. If it seems replies are slow from others, I do tend to get heads-up from cowriters. If I dont hear anything for awhile, I assume interest was lost and delete it from my list.

I try to keep posts at a decent length, at least keeping about even with cowriters' average. Sometimes its hard to find a good idea to really run with for a post and it cuts it short... I'd rather a few paragraphs go down that make sense than a rambling blabble to use space. (Mojo Jojo posting method!)

 

[Fish_Tales]

I often get waylaid by RL due to various circumstances and can be a long time between drinks for posting and I'm always thankful that my co-writers will wait. I haven't been prodded often to post, but I guess I always let them know that I'm still interested, just that I'm damn busy.

On the other side of the waiting coin, for a good writer, I'll wait for as long as it takes if I know they're still interested.

I only write with good writers.

So I'll wait as long as it takes.

 

[WickedSpitFire]

My two cents...

At the moment, I'm awful. I tend to forewarn interested cowriters that they will, without doubt, almost always have a post waiting for them. That's just my personal time frame at the moment.

I read quickly, I write quickly, on top of mountainous amounts of free time. So my turn around on replies tends to be insanely impossible to keep up with. I know that, and I don't pressure my partners to try and keep up with me. That would not be very realistic. Or kind.

When real life hits and I no longer have the same free time...it'll be a whole nother story...

 

[DarkWarrioress]

Well, let's see....

If I know my co-writer has fallen by the wayside, I give them about 3 months before I move the thread to my inactive file unless I know that something has cropped up in the RW for them, Ice is a good example. I left our first thread up because I knew he was going to be extremely busy. I only moved it to inactive when he told me he had forgotten what he had planned for us. LOL. Now, we have a new one and since I know how Ice thinks, if our thread waits, it waits.

As for the rest of my co-writers, there's no pressure. Muse is a fickle bitch sometimes. There's the RW to consider which can affect frame of mind. So, for me, there's absolutely no pressure for responses.

As for myself, I hold myself to a tough standard. I think the longest I've gone for posting a reply is about 3 days, that was the effect of the RW and my bitchy Muse. Sometimes though, I get stumped for a reply. How my character would react, majority of the time it's a knee jerk reaction, sometimes not. I also try to answer them from the last posting date. I will usually start with the earliest and work up to the latest. The only exception to this is if a certain character from a certain thread is just locked into my brain, then I need to purge that one before I can continue to answer the rest. That's my exception rather than the norm.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

For me, my patience depends ENTIRELY on my co-writer(s). Case in point~Erlind, Vixandra, the Darkness. I have waited months for them to reply. *shrugs* Real life has a way of tackling people when they are not looking and those three usually let me know what is going to occur, long before it does so.

For poppet, M13, or Noon~ I will happily wait a month...because I KNOW that when they respond I will have plenty to think about and expand upon. Same with my group threads. I choose co-writers who have the same sort of output as myself. People who understand the Real Life always comes first.

(My legendary patience is not~by the way~based on how well they write. It is based on friendship and story building interest.)

As for my own posting habits? I tend to need 48 hours to come up with a decent reply for any story I am co-writing. Each character is a separate entity and requires at least that long to develop a response. (I feel like a woman suffering multiple personality disorder).

None of my co-writers have ever bitched at me for taking too long...and for that I am thankful as I do tend to appear and disappear, all the damned time. I don't think I am hard on myself concerning posts, mostly because each character has a certain voice and I usually reply within 3 days. *shrugs*

Cool thread idea, Blessing.

 

[zydrate]

Ehh, I'd give about a year...
I'm not picky... not anymore....

 

[Light Ice]

I don't "wait" as it were. Stories live here well beyond the writers that write them. None of my stories have a shelf life or a time in which I'll consider them dead. People have lives and varying degrees and spurts of interest. What might thrill them for a month will bore them another.

That's natural.

I don't even particularly care if the story goes anywhere. If it, for awhile, amuses my cowriter before they wander off then I'm glad for it. I never take issue if they decide to put one down and pick another up. It's natural.

I'm very similar. My life draws me away and my patience/interest/enthusiasm comes and goes at whims I can seldom predict. I don't expect to be spited for it. I'd never spite my cowriters for it. I don't even bother informing most of my issues. If I've ever informed you, or shown that consideration in any kind of form, it probably means I respected you more than most around here.

Because, honestly, most of you are absolutely batshit crazy and I don't really have any regard for your feelings or opinions.

 

[Mephistophelily]

And yet you wander back in anyway... Even with the crazies.
What's that say on your sanity, Iceman?

 

[Light Ice]

And yet you wander back in anyway... Even with the crazies.
What's that say on your sanity, Iceman?

Typical argument.

I write here therefore I must be like the rest of the socially inept basement dwellers here.

That's some pretty solid logic. I can't imagine any obvious flaws.

 

[Mephistophelily]

Typical argument.

I write here therefore I must be like the rest of the socially inept basement dwellers here.

That's some pretty solid logic. I can't imagine any obvious flaws.

Hey, ouch. That was meant as a tease.
No need to be a dick.

 

[Light Ice]

Hey, ouch. That was meant as a tease.
No need to be a dick.

Sorry, Lily. I've moments of extreme dick behavior.

It's one of several severe character flaws.

 

[fr33ks33k]

Sorry, Lily. I've moments of extreme dick behavior.

It's one of several severe character flaws.

The other moments are just regular dick behavior. *chuckle*

 

[Light Ice]

The other moments are just regular dick behavior. *chuckle*

That's the general idea.

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

Oh and because I forgot to add this. I like to do my writing in first come first serve order. I don't normally push someone else up the ladder. It has happened in moments where I have been very fixated on one idea, one story but it is not the norm.

I try to treat my co-writers with a certain level of respect. Rarely do they prove they are not fitting of that respect. There is a reason I pick 90% of my writing partners.

 

[WickedSpitFire]

I try to treat my co-writers with a certain level of respect. Rarely do they prove they are not fitting of that respect. There is a reason I pick 90% of my writing partners.

Daw. I'm feelin kinda warm and fuzzy.

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

Daw. I'm feelin kinda warm and fuzzy.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

...... There is a reason I pick 90% of my writing partners.

Um, love? Does someone else pick them for you 10% of the time? *bats her eyelashes at him and smiles sweetly*

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

Um, love? Does someone else pick them for you 10% of the time? *bats her eyelashes at him and smiles sweetly*

Yeah, you just keep smarting off. I know a certain model who might just get herself cavity searched by a very angry officer. -Snaps on the latex gloves-

 

[Vail_Indigo]

For me, its about the story
If the story is compelling, I'll wait as long as it takes.
If the story isn't compelling, well...

 

[fr33ks33k]

Yeah, you just keep smarting off. I know a certain model who might just get herself cavity searched by a very angry officer. -Snaps on the latex gloves-

*Watches for the Cait-puddle to form at the sound of latex gloves snapping*

 

[Veroe]

This would be my most severe flaw here....making people wait on a response.

I just make my poor cowriters wait too long. I'm sorry I'm not faster at this, but I normally try to work on atleast one post every day, it takes me a long time, an hour or two, to write it, and those are the short ones. Editing tweaking a line of dialogue, a description, when I tried to write in just immediate flow it was uninspired crap. I need my time to work on a post in my head.

It's very rare I ever catch up on all my threads. I'm always behind desperate to catch up with the rest of you

 

[DarkWarrioress]

Yeah, you just keep smarting off. I know a certain model who might just get herself cavity searched by a very angry officer. -Snaps on the latex gloves-

rut-oh... I hope Alize isn't allergic to latex.

*ponders the fact that there would be a real reason why a cavity search would be called for and doesn't know if the thought makes me shudder or squeal*