Really Fed up with stories being posted unfinished!!!!

[nat36]

Hi
First off let me say that I really REALLY love the stories on Literotica, especially in the Gay Male and incest/taboo categories!!. However I am getting more than a little bit pissed off at authors who post some fantastic stories, that get you hooked only to not finish them!!!!. Please Literotica!! Make it stop!!!! There shouldn't be stories posted without the authors submitting an ending, or something along those lines.

 

[sr71plt]

Hi
First off let me say that I really REALLY love the stories on Literotica, especially in the Gay Male and incest/taboo categories!!. However I am getting more than a little bit pissed off at authors who post some fantastic stories, that get you hooked only to not finish them!!!!. Please Literotica!! Make it stop!!!! There shouldn't be stories posted without the authors submitting an ending, or something along those lines.

I'm fed up with sophomoric readers who don't know when a story is finished. The short story form is supposed to be episodic, not epic.

 

[Green_Knight]

Hi
First off let me say that I really REALLY love the stories on Literotica, especially in the Gay Male and incest/taboo categories!!. However I am getting more than a little bit pissed off at authors who post some fantastic stories, that get you hooked only to not finish them!!!!. Please Literotica!! Make it stop!!!! There shouldn't be stories posted without the authors submitting an ending, or something along those lines.

How do you know if a story's finished or not? Sometimes I read a story which the author clearly regards as finished but I may not feel that it has been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. But who am I to say it is unfinished? Conversely, unless all the characters die in a plane crash at the end, there's always the chance of a sequel to an apparently-finished story. In that sense, most stories are unfinished. Are they all to be banned?

Unless a story is labelled "Chapter 1" and Chapter 2 never appears, there is no certainty that it is incomplete. There are all sorts of reasons why people cannot finish off what appears to be a series, including illness or even death. Lit authors aren't paid so if you're going to make things difficult for them, why should they bother?

The danger with your proposition, of course, is that multi-part stories will simply disappear, so you won't have stories which, by your own admission, are fantastic. Why not use your imagination to finish them off?

 

[sr71plt]

What we have is mostly authors writing short stories and readers not understanding what a short story is.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm guilty of it. I have a few unfinished stories and one that I CAN'T finish - Christmas Fairy.

Eventually I get around to finishing the outstanding ones. It might take me a year, a couple of years, or even a decade but I'll get there.

I might even get there with Christmas Fairy even if I go back to edit part 2 and kill them off.

 

[sr71plt]

Well, if the OP is talking about serials the were abandoned . . . But about half of my stories get requests to continue them. They are short stories, not epic novels.

 

[SamScribble]

What we have is mostly authors writing short stories and readers not understanding what a short story is.

What Pilot said!

And while we're talking about readers, what about the ones who leave a message saying: 'Loved that. I can hardly wait for the next five chapters.'

There are no next five chapters. It's a SHORT STORY.

 

[NicoleZ]

I'm guilty of it. I have a few unfinished stories and one that I CAN'T finish - Christmas Fairy.

Should Ogg NEVER have posted those "not yet finished" stories, "Nat36", and thus denied thousands of readers at least a glimpse of something magical?

Like others have said; none of us receive anything for what we write (except a few lucky contest winners and even that is peanuts) and most of us do have obligations in life other than to provide FREE entertainment for the likes of you.

The Bottom Line is that if you don't like it, then write your own fookin stories! It'll be interesting to see how well YOU cope with the whingeing of spoiled readers who think we "owe them", nasty anonymous comments and certain votes that frankly are little more than a slap in the face.

Start writing yourself and good luck to you!

 

[DreamCloud]

Someone please point the OP to the refund desk.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I'm guilty of it. I have a few unfinished stories and one that I CAN'T finish - Christmas Fairy.

I am so guilty of this. I'm writing 5 multi-chapter stories in parallel (Chinese Takeouf, Hayley's Party, Happy Birthday to Me, Jeong Park and Strawberry). I kind of round robin them and write my other stories at the same time. Trouble with that is every short stand-alone story I write demands a sequel. Or more than one sequel

 

[lovecraft68]

Well, if the OP is talking about serials the were abandoned . . . But about half of my stories get requests to continue them. They are short stories, not epic novels.

I'm reading it as he's talking about unfinished series, not stories he wished would continue.

I could be wrong though.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm reading it as he's talking about unfinished series, not stories he wished would continue.

I could be wrong though.

Yeah, when I reread it, I thought so too. That's why I came back to amend what I'd initially posted to it. When I first saw this (on another board where discussing Lit. stories doesn't seem to be permitted) I was just coming away from seeing a couple of "looking forward to the next chapter" comments on stories without next chapters and that had been finished.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have two unfinished series. One I pretty much 'lost' when some serious real life shit came up and by the time it settled down the feel of the story left and I wasn't about to force it and come up with a half ass effort.

The other one I honestly gave up on because very few were reading it and I had more projects than time and the ones that paid took precedence.

It sucks to say that I've reached the point I couldn't care less. No one paid me for what I wrote and they got to enjoy what I did put here for free. The average reader can't be bothered with the two seconds (literally) it takes to vote or a minute to leave a comment on a story the author worked on for days/weeks etc...

But we should meet their demands? The authors owe the readers what the readers seem to feel they owe us, jack and you know what else.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I wrote one story that ended with the protagonist's death. One commenter still wanted a continuation

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I have two unfinished stories, but not in the category the OP says they read. I plan on finishing them, but another one took my attention away.

And while I do have one in the taboo/incest category that would see unfinished, it has been finished and was published here, but I pulled everything but the first chapter and published it on a pay site.

And I have several short stores that I keep getting bugged to finish, but as the main characters were either killed off or went on a jaunt who knows where, I can't really finish them.

But even if I never finish the collections of short storied, that's what the two left undone are, tough titties. I may decide to move on, die or just say fuck it and sit back and stare into space and there isn't must anyone can do about it.

 

[49greg]

I'm guilty of it. But not because I wanted to piss off the OP, or any other readers. I just ran out of steam for the story line(s) and characters.

Maybe one day I'll finish, maybe not.

There are several one off stories that were intended to be stand alone, and yet I have been fairly regularly asked to finish them. They're done. Probably.

 

[sr71plt]

I posted this earlier to the wrong board:

There are two issues here, although I initially only saw the one.

There's writing a complete short story that readers don't want to let go of. Here, I opine that a short story is not a novel. Episode vs. epic (which is why I don't like the theme contest here combining the two--they are different animals). Readers asking for more on a short story sometimes are right that there should have been more for it to be a complete story. But in most cases they just don't understand what a short story is.

In the other instance, a serial story started here and then abandoned, I put this all on the author no matter what reason they have for abandoning it. The excuse might be justified but it's still their "bad." I don't want to start reading anything that's going to be abandoned--that's a waste of my time and I do think the author has a contract with the reader to finish what's started even on a free-read site. That means, for me, that the story should be completed before posting begins. The reasons for not finishing it off can be valid, but it doesn't free the author of responsibility for having done so in my book. The reader certainly has no blame for beginning to read something and being ticked that it had been abandoned.

 

[oggbashan]

My incomplete stories are:

Christmas Fairy Pts 1 and 2 from 2004 needs a resolution and in 12 years I haven't thought of a suitable one.

Fiona Pts 1 and 2 from 2009 and 2010. Part 3 and last should be ready in a couple of months.

Scarf Collectors Pts 1 (2006) and 2 (2007) need Part 3 and a resolution but I had such abusive feedback after Part 2 that I was discouraged. Maybe by end of 2017.

Completed after a long break:

Brobdingnag Parts 1 to 5 in 2004; Part 6 and last in 2009.

Harold Saves Her Husband Part 1 (2006); Part 2 (2013); Part 3 (2014).

For both of those long stories after the first part (Harold) first five parts (Brob) I had abuse and then lack of any apparent interest for the continuation.

Miranda the Witch was already a long story and probably needs a sequel. Although there have been requests for the sequel I have also been abused for the story line in Miranda.

If I have, as I have, hundreds of potential stories in pending files on my hard drive, and thousands more in my head, I feel no incentive to finish stories which have been generating abusive responses.

Christmas Fairy is the exception. I have written the characters into an almost impossible situation. Short of Deus Ex Machina or some other unlikely scenario I can't see a way to continue.

I'm sorry if some readers feel disappointed by my incomplete stories but I have many more posted stories than those I have listed above.

 

[Carnevil9]

Perhaps series-in-progress stories could have some sort of warning label, to the effect of: "Warning! This (these) stories are part of a series which is not yet finished! Read at your own risk!" And then when the author indicates that the final installment has been submitted, the warning is taken down.

Just a thought. Personally, I try to write all installments before submitting any of them, unless it is a series of stand-alone episodes that can be enjoyed on their own.

 

[sr71plt]

Perhaps series-in-progress stories could have some sort of warning label, to the effect of: "Warning! This (these) stories are part of a series which is not yet finished! Read at your own risk!" And then when the author indicates that the final installment has been submitted, the warning is taken down.

Just a thought. Personally, I try to write all installments before submitting any of them, unless it is a series of stand-alone episodes that can be enjoyed on their own.

Apparently, from the discussion on this thread, it should include the warning, "I, the author, owe you, the reader, nothing. Take whatever you get and shut up."

 

[NicoleZ]

Perhaps series-in-progress stories could have some sort of warning label, to the effect of: "Warning! This (these) stories are part of a series which is not yet finished! Read at your own risk!" And then when the author indicates that the final installment has been submitted, the warning is taken down.

Just a thought. Personally, I try to write all installments before submitting any of them, unless it is a series of stand-alone episodes that can be enjoyed on their own.

Okay, but once you say you intend to write several sequels you're bound by it for better or worse.

Now, let's assume someone does exactly that and spends a couple of months churning out parts 1 and 2 only to receive 4.12 (33 votes) on the first and then 3.88 on the second (21 votes) with a greatly diminished number of reads as well. The dozen or so comments posted (apart from the usual ones from Jenorma2012 and Overcritical about how they struggled to skim through even the first page, don't understand either plot or what's written and still manage think it piss-poor) range from "Loved it!" (1 comments), "Not bad" (3), "So-so" (2) "Didn't like it" (1) to "Awful" (5) - why should any writer have to feel obliged to continue for such a meager return?

As I writer, I reserve the exclusive right to continue, terminate or withdraw any story I write/have written. If readers want more, they should make me feel that my efforts are appreciated and not demand as if it's their right and my duty to oblige them. To judge by the replies so far, most writers feel the same.

PS. sr71plt is spot on about his distinction between the completed short story and begun and unfinished serial novellas.

 

[NotWise]

Okay, but once you say you intend to write several sequels you're bound by it for better or worse.

I struggle a little bit with the limited response thing with my Unlikely Angels series, which only trickles out. Both of the people who read it (I exagerrate--really there's probably four) love it, but it's a small audience.

On the other hand, their emails make it sound like if I say I'm done before they're ready they might jump off the 82nd floor. That would be quite a lot to clean up, and I don't want to be responsible for the mess.

 

[MindsMirror]

Everything posted on Lit is free. The only payment authors get is feedback and the numbers of readers that vote or comment are very low. We wonder if the readers that complain about the unfinished stories hold authors whose work they've actually paid for to the same standard?
-MM

 

[yukonnights]

I'm currently working on my first series story. In the beginning I thought it would be easier than jumping into a longer single post effort. However, I am finding out that the series is now actually the longest story I've attempted... and it is quite tricky to keep each short chapter both interesting and not overly long.

Thankfully, I decided at the beginning to write the complete story first and post it only when it was finished. I say thankfully because I am getting really sick of it and would have probably been another one of those who leave it unfinished

 

[sr71plt]

I very much am one for writing what I want to write and letting the readers find me (or not). But when I do write, I do consider that I have a responsibility to the reader not to leave them in the lurch once something has been posted of mine for them to start reading. It has nothing to do with whether or not they are paying for what I write. I see a contract there with the reader and an ethical obligation on my part, and if I were a reader left in the lurch, I'd never read anything that author wrote again.

When I post series, they have been completed, I put a note on top of the first one how many chapters it is and an estimate of when posting will be completed, and I put " -FINI- " at the end of the last chapter. If I ever leave posting of a series unfinished it's only going to be once and it's going to be because I kicked off before submitting all chapters. But all of them will have been prepared for submission.

I do not believe that the reader should bear the risk of an unfinished series and I think they have every reason to be ticked if they invested reading time in something that's going to be abandoned.