Putting a story on hiatus

Where stuff about fanfiction that doesn't fit into any other category goes. Try to make sure that new topics here actually couldn't actually go somewhere else.

Have you ever abandoned a story?

Yes, it's still incomplete
10
33%
Yes, it's still incomplete
10
33%
Yes, I handed it off to someone else (or at least tried to)
0
No votes
Yes, I handed it off to someone else (or at least tried to)
0
No votes
Maybe, there's a story I haven't updated in a while
4
13%
Maybe, there's a story I haven't updated in a while
4
13%
No, I finish what I start
1
3%
No, I finish what I start
1
3%
 
Total votes : 30

Putting a story on hiatus

Postby Gaming Ikari » Sat May 09, 2009 11:16 pm

If you write, you know how it is. Sometimes you'll get a case of writer's block and suddenly, you don't want to work on a story any more. So you shelve it for now, promising yourself that you'll go back to it later and finish it.

A year passes, and you're working on a different project. You can fly when you're working on this new idea, but trying to work with the older, halted stories is painful. You can't help but wince every time you try to work on it, since the drive to do so isn't there.

How does one get past this dilemma? Does one ever really get past it? I don't want to be the author with a dozen half-complete stories in my profile. Nothing annoys me more than reading a good story only to discover, once I've reached the end, that while the author is still active he hasn't touched that particular story in a few years.

I mainly ask because one of my earlier oneshots was continued by another writer, and I'm pretty close to offering up another story I don't see myself finishing for a couple years.

Um, discuss I guess. This didn't really have a point.
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Postby Spokavriel » Sat May 09, 2009 11:53 pm

I'm not much of a writer but there is nothing I have ever written that has been completed. There is even a story I first started writing back in grade school more than 20 years ago that I keep playing with but haven't really even gotten to the main events of the story yet on.
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Postby Kadunta » Sun May 10, 2009 12:15 am

I either get back to writing the story or I delete it to get it out of my mind. The only reason I'm still writing my only longer story despite my lack of any greater enthusiasm is because I want to finish at least one multichapter fic... especially since there won't be any other such fics that I'll write.
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Postby Gaming Ikari » Sun May 10, 2009 12:23 am

My problem with deleting stories is that there are people out there who enjoy the work... and I personally feel that once I've released a piece of work (be it art, music, writing, a game, whatever) that piece of work stops belonging solely to me.

I might think something I've done is absolute garbage, but one of the stories I'm abandoning has got in excess of 500 story alerts on fanfiction.net and roughly half that number of favourites. I don't think it'd be fair to those people to just up and get rid of the story, leaving them to have to sort through the Wayback Machine or whatever if they care enough to read it once more.

One of my favourite stories got deleted by the author because he didn't like it, and unfortunately I could never find another copy. It made me kind of angry, which is part of the reason I never want to delete any of my work.
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Postby Spokavriel » Sun May 10, 2009 12:30 am

Wayback can't even show the deleted Fanfiction.net stories. Nor many others because of how robots.txt is configured for the site. None of the story content can be seen legally by bots so it isn't archived.
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Postby Kilich » Sun May 10, 2009 2:09 am

Well, I have a story that, most likely, is permanently on hold.

It's not like I don't like the story, but it'll take too much time\effort to fix already posted chapters\find my notebooks\write further.

Oh, and I forced myself to finish my current fic, because leaving the final chapter without its second half is just cruel.
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Postby Spokavriel » Sun May 10, 2009 10:28 am

Reminds me of a quote from Galaxy Quest. The Final episode 2 parter first half. At that convention was supposedly the first time it was seen since the original time it aired.

Thank you for not doing that kind of cliffhanger to anyone.
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Postby Gaming Ikari » Sun May 10, 2009 11:05 am

Kilich wrote:Well, I have a story that, most likely, is permanently on hold.

It's not like I don't like the story, but it'll take too much time\effort to fix already posted chapters\find my notebooks\write further.

Oh, and I forced myself to finish my current fic, because leaving the final chapter without its second half is just cruel.


You're a better person than I am.

My very first multi-chapter work, Loss, Hope & Redemption, I'd made some fairly rapid releases for. Then, with the LAST chapter due, I hit writer's block and didn't update for over a year. I felt really guilty about it, too. About the only bright side to it was the fact I did eventually finish it.
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Postby Drugan » Mon May 11, 2009 7:52 am

This is a major issue for me so I decided that I wouldn't post anything to a site if it isn't finished.

As a result, I haven't posted any fic for more than a year, and it doesn't look like it will change.
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Postby Spokavriel » Mon May 11, 2009 10:27 am

Problem I see with refusing to post unfinished tales is you don't get any reader input and there's allot of things they might like and new perspectives that could help stories grow to their conclusion faster.
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Postby Drugan » Mon May 11, 2009 11:05 am

I know. And it often made me hesitate. But most of those stories I didn't post where either of dubious quality or not advanced enough for my taste. Had I made it past the first few chapters, I might have reconsidered.

I think that most fandoms are polluted enough with crappy or unfinished story to add more. It would be a lack of respect to my fellow readers.
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Postby Konsaki » Mon May 11, 2009 1:16 pm

Drugan wrote:I know. And it often made me hesitate. But most of those stories I didn't post where either of dubious quality or not advanced enough for my taste. Had I made it past the first few chapters, I might have reconsidered.

I think that most fandoms are polluted enough with crappy or unfinished story to add more. It would be a lack of respect to my fellow readers.
Well, you've got the self-depreciating part of being an artist down. Now all you've got to do is post your works! :D

As for myself, I've deleted a story I had previously posted because I wrote myself into a corner and didn't like where it forced me to go with it. I guess I should have just left it up, even though I rewrote it... and wound up going down a path I'm not liking once again. :?
This one I'm leaving up, though, and will rewrite it for a second time, but only after I've finished the other two works I have, either to completion or calling it dead. Had to take a four month break after burning out, trying to write three different fics at the same time. Not a smart thing, I found out.
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Postby Gaming Ikari » Mon May 11, 2009 6:11 pm

Konsaki wrote:Had to take a four month break after burning out, trying to write three different fics at the same time. Not a smart thing, I found out.


The evil part of my own problem right now is that I started two new fics BECAUSE I couldn't find the energy to work on the other three. So now I've got a lot of energy to write... my two new fics.

Argh.
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Postby WG_Writer » Mon May 11, 2009 6:54 pm

Everyone has their own way, For taking my example of "A Sun is Born" (and if I neglect it any more Siren's Calling)

Set it aside until you get the drive, over thinking other's opinion of how many half way written stories you have is only going to depress you. Forcing yourself to write is one thing, usually results in lesser quality work, but so too does splitting your attention too much.

Since you use ff.net you should explain any major fic's status imo. nothing is more annoying to me then reading a good fic then waiting for an update only to never see it and find out later that it was abandoned. Be truthful about it to yourself before anyone else though.
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Re:

Postby Deric » Mon May 25, 2009 8:27 pm

Gaming Ikari wrote:The evil part of my own problem right now is that I started two new fics BECAUSE I couldn't find the energy to work on the other three. So now I've got a lot of energy to write... my two new fics.
Argh.

WarGiver wrote:Set it aside until you get the drive, over thinking other's opinion of how many half way written stories you have is only going to depress you. Forcing yourself to write is one thing, usually results in lesser quality work, but so too does splitting your attention too much.
Since you use ff.net you should explain any major fic's status imo. nothing is more annoying to me then reading a good fic then waiting for an update only to never see it and find out later that it was abandoned. Be truthful about it to yourself before anyone else though.

I have a story I last updated in 2001. Won an award for it, too. Problem was, I had 15 characters to write for and had (still have) trouble with the big finale/major battle. The ending is already written, but no way to get to it from climax to denoument. Besides RL getting in the way, it was the feedback from the readers that kept it going. Without that, it may never get finished.

It's still on usenet/google groups (rec.arts.anime.creative) because that's the only place I had it posted other than my former homepage. Don't delete anything unless you absolutely have to or hate the thing that sprang from your twisted mind. As for hiatus status, put it in your author's profile. That way, the ones who had followed the fic previously will at least know you're stuck and you can happily work on and finish the other stories without undue angsting.

Right now, whenever I have a scene blow though the wasteland that is my mind I throw it into a file that explains exactly what it is - Unconnected Scenes. Maybe someday it'll inspire me to finish. Maybe not.
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