Music and a poll

[geoviki]

I just posted four songs on audiography, one of which is a gorgeous jazz ballad by Les McCann, With These Hands. Songs available to upload for one week.

My next topic was going to be "Why Frozen Strawberry Daquiris are the Adult Equivalent of the Slurpee, and Why I Need to Find a New Drink To Order In Bars", but I think I covered the whole discussion in the topic sentence. Which means it's time for a poll.

I don't do enough polls. For "not enough" read "more than the lone one I did about a year ago". This one feeds my little worried obsession about whether or not I'm normal. You know the feeling? Am I doing it as often as everyone else or am I abnormal? I'm talking about reading Works In Progress; why, what do you think I was talking about?

I glance through a few of the Harry/Draco comms on occasion, because I can sometimes help with recs or fic searches, but I find I cruise right on by all the WsIPs there, because I rarely commit to an unfinished story. I have a few that I keep up with, but it has to be compelling to tip me over the edge to read them in the volume I used to as a newbie. And it's not only the fear of being left hanging, although that is a concern. Sometimes I want to wait and indulge in one fell swoop - I think it helps my enjoyment of the fic. Well, plus I have a spotty memory these days from being a young adult during the '70's and a menopausal mother now.

What about you? You can even tell me which WsIP you follow in the comments if you like.

[Poll #645057]

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I grabbed me Les McCann, whom I don't know. I am putty in your hands.

:)

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Hope you like him. He's an old timer - this song was done in 1968 and he'd been recording since about 1961.

[maeglinyedi.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. My answer to the second question is 'fewer than five', but it really depends on what you mean exactly with 'following'. If it means: drop everything the moment you see a new chapter uploaded to a WIP and read it at once, then yes, I'm following fewer than five. I only read about three WsIP like that at the moment.

However, following can also mean: going back to certain WsIP every six months or so to see if they've been updated/completed, and (re)reading what's available at that moment, and then again forgetting about it for another six months or so. I read quite a few WsIP like that, probably more than 12. :-)

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

That was a very thoughtful answer, and I hadn't thought about it from that angle. I suppose I mean more the former, although I'd say "read within a week of it coming out". I see what you mean though - I even have two separate bookmark folders with "current WsIP" and "delayed WsIP", and some of the delayed stories have been unfinished since I first started reading fanfic over 2 years ago.

[anehan]

I second your comment.

[femmequixotic]

ARGHHHH! I replied to your poll and THEN realized I was logged in under an RPG journal. Dammit. *g*

So, um, quidditch_prat is really me.

And I have to tell you, Viki, you've got the best taste in music....

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I'm always interested in what Harry thinks about WsIP!

And thank you. My taste is eclectic, at least. isiscolo does give me grief about my George Michael obsession, however.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I look at a few Snape/Hermione stories when I check into the SS/HG archive, but that's not very often. I *was* following...um...I want to say "The Wind Beneath His Wings," but isn't that a bad song? Anyway, it's a very good Harry/Draco WIP, but I lost track during November/December when I was in a writing frenzy. And right now, I'm following eolianbeck's Vorkosigan wip (Miles/Gregor).

Three years ago, I was following two dozen wips.

Seven years ago, I was following none, and swore I'd never read an unfinished story.

It all goes in cycles for me, I guess.

(Also? When's the smutmas reveal??? I'm going crazy waiting!!! *G*)

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

See, that's exactly what I did. And being the anal little scientist-person I am, I made a spreadsheet of which ones were which, and what plot was happening, because of course they were all H/D and I couldn't remember which one was which. Then it got to the point where I was utterly confused.

Actually, the WIP scenario remindes me of a long-ago job: I was an art-history librarian in charge of periodicals. And it was a shock to discover that not all periodicals were released periodically. Some shrivelled up like a WIP, even though they were ostensibly getting paid for the issues. We'd get them monthly, then they'd skip one or two issues, then one last gasp would come out months later, then nothing.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there are more or fewer decent WsIPs being written these days? It seems like far more, at least on comms like harrydraco. I don't even attempt to follow FFN; I think I read solely from recs these days. Well, I do pick up some new writers on harrydraco, too.

[isoldam.livejournal.com]

I usually only follow WIP's of authors that I trust will finish the fics in a timely manner. I'm following three right now. "Shadow of His Wings" by Mirabella:
http://theguestroom.houseofhobbits.com/hp/sohw.html
new parts on Mira's LJ:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mirasfics/
The best Harry/Draco story I've read so far, and I've read a lot of them. Also, the best Harry/Draco duel ever written.

"If You've A Ready Mind" by Maya
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mistful/
Maya's brilliant Ravenclaw!Draco H/D story.

"Things That Change" by eutychides
http://www.livejournal.com/users/eutychides/
A strangely compelling Draco m-preg story. I'm not sure if I like it but I can't stop reading it.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Those three are great examples of stories that tempt me. I've succumbed to Maya's, am torn about starting Mirabella's or waiting until it's done, and Eutychides' has been strongly recced to me by painless_j.

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

I have nothing intelligent to say at this time about WsIP, but I think about cocktails quite often. Maybe you can wean yourself away from the strawberry daiquiri by starting with something that still has fruit juice, but isn't as showy? Vodka and orange juice? A nice Cosmo with cranberry juice? I myself am partial to lime flavored drinks, such as the Mojito, with rum, lime, and fresh mint leaves.

For more wintry drinks, there is always a spicy hot cider, or one of my favorites, steamed milk with Frangelico. I believe it is called a White Nun.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I really didn't want the frozen strawberry daquiri in the first place. I just wanted a regular daquiri, but after an age, the waitress came back and said all they could do was the FSD. By that time, we'd been there nearly 20 minutes drinkless, and all I could think of else to drink were the ones mentioned in stories where Draco is flamboyantly gay, so I caved to the FSD.

I've been a beer/wine girl for years, but I used to drink rum and coke and then gin and tonic way back in the prehistoric. A Cosmo would have been good, yeah. I just... froze. I need to study in secret for the next time.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Sam's long novel-length stories are ones I like to read all at once, though, because he's so good I like to absorb it in one go.

[aurani.livejournal.com]

Right now I'm following Maya's things, of course (her Ravenclaw!Draco-thing, her "Quality of Mercy") as well as Mirabella's In the Shadow of His Wings. I was actually trying to wean myself off of fanfiction entirely because it was The Addiction to End All Addictions in a very unhealthy way and interfering with my sanity schoolwork, but I couldn't, what with fandom being forever and all that.

Oh, and I've just finished reading the Shoebox Project, which was fantastic. I will never be able to read R/S or Mauraders Era again because it has been perfected, and everything else will merely remind me how much I want the next chapter of Shoebox. You know when you catch on to an WIP quite late in the game, and when you start, there seems to be such a comfortable abundance of quality reading to do, but before you know it, it's all gone, and you're left pining for a chapter that wont come out for months with all the others? That withdrawal-y feeling from having had too much at once?

Er, maybe not, but it was something like that for me. -_-;;/T_T;

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I know I could never drop fanfiction that way - I'll have to wait until the infatuation wears off, but it shows no signs of that.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I follow as many WsIP as I have in a long time, which is zero.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Are there as many WsIP in SGA writing? I suppose because the fandom's new, you don't have this legacy of unfinished stories from years past.

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Here from hogwarts_today.

I've been in fandom for over three years now, and I've never had a problem with WsIP. I've always figured that if they finish it later, great, I'll have the whole thing to read; but if they leave it abandoned, well, at least I'll have enjoyed what they did write. So I follow a lot of WsIP; I'm not even going to bother to try and think of how many, but it's more than twelve. And I read so much fanfic that it's not that much of a loss if a WiP is abandoned, because I'm sure to find something else that grabs my attention soon enough.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

It's good to hear from a different perspective. I think I let myself get too attached to certain stories - it's like they're my friends, and waah, you never call me up or come over any more. But I am not very sensible about things I adore :-)

[somewhatdeluded.livejournal.com]

I think I'm cursed. With the exception of the various long fics by copperbadge, who is remarkably reliable, every single WIP that I have started reading while it was in progress has either been officially abandoned or not updated in the past year.

By "following" under 5 WIPs, I mean I am aware of them, I make note of their ongoing progress, and I absolutely do NOT read them until I see the little "COMPLETE" or "N/N" notation pop up on a post. Between my curse and my crappy short-term memory, it just seems like a bad idea.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Oh, can I blame you then for all my unfinished WsIP that I'm reading, too?

I suppose I wouldn't define that as following for this poll (hey, I can be arbitrary about this, right?). We could call that "panting after", like me and Shadow of His Wings.

[lagreyeyes.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I want to wait and indulge in one fell swoop - I think it helps my enjoyment of the fic.

I like to do that when I have the spare time, which essentially these days is never. *sighs* I remember reading "Snitch" in one day. Then I found out it would never be finished and had a rather nasty hissy fit.

Well, plus I have a spotty memory these days from being a young adult during the '70's and a menopausal mother now.

God, I'm so with you on that one! *laughs*

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, "Snitch". I grovelled and flattered Al/Titanic Days about that, to no avail. I bet I wasn't the only one. I kept thinking, "How could you write so well, and have such a cool story going, and then just walk away from it and everyone who loves it?" I still don't know the answer.

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

Frankly, my lack of WIP-reading-ness is not so much due to any fault in the theory of WIP, but rather my inherent raging jealousy. This was always a fairly marked trait, but it's grown to explosion level since entering fandom. I really don't want to see yet another writer who's better than me, gets more attention than me, or both. Nowadays, even when I see a really good tagline or summary, it puts me off rather than entices me. I content myself with reading terrible fic, so that my superiority complex will have a valid excuse.

Also, am seriously impatient. People only post WIPs to get attention, I'm absolutely convinced. I've done it myself, I know. If you have a really long story, you should finish it, and then post it.

And that is all, because I'm late for a rather horrendous tutorial.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to mention, darling, you shouldn't be so afraid to speak your thoughts. If you are always shy and retiring, no one will notice you! Mwahahaha.... *trails off laughing at my own astonishing wit*

This definitely brightened my day.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I used to read them in spadeloads, but then I got frustrated because my absolute favourites (including Underwater Light and Eclipse)hung for ages, and my guilty secrets (jedirita's Neville epic, and the original Cambiare Podentes) got going and then froze. In both cases, you read through 25 chapters in a fever of excitement and then pfft.

The trouble is, it being H/D and only 3 plots to go round, it becomes quite difficult to remember what happened. I can remember Eclipse quite clearly but my other huge favourite, Shadow of His Wings, although fantastically well done is sort of old-skool H/D and as a result when it's updated I have to go back 4 chapters to remember what happened.

In fact I've just done this, because ravurian was nagging me to read it and I realised Mira was up to 18/20 chapters now. But the chapters are LOOOOOONG and yes, I'd forgotten everything. I haven't even caught up on myself yet, let alone chapters 14 to 18 which are the ones I've never read.

On the other hand, I adore novel-length fanfic; most short one-shots don't do it for me at all.

[scoradh.livejournal.com]

YOU HAVE MY FUTURE HUSBAND THERE IN YOUR ICON, YO. GIVE HIM BACK.

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

i'd be reading less wips if i hadn't gotten suckered into a few before i realised they weren't finished. i don't regret time i've spent involved with fabulous wip by great writers, but it begins to get muddled after a while.

random kudo, in that i don't think i ever commented on your fic you wrote for coffeejunkii (because i actually printed out a copy to read so i never went back to comment, my bad!), i really enjoyed it. it was the most unique mpreg i've ever read. i loved the concept behind it and how it all worked. adored the dancing bit, should have known it was you by that part alone. lovely fic!

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

gotten suckered into a few before i realised they weren't finished.

Oh, this was the way I fell into the awful, horrible habit of skipping to the last chapter first, and reading the last few paragraphs. And now I even do it with printed books! Bad, bad me.

And thanks for the fic comments! My first (and definitely last) mpreg. It was fun, though. Glad you liked it. And Popstarz is a real London gay bar, too. I love to research - too bad it's only on the 'net!

WIPs

[jazzypom.livejournal.com]

I'm only following one, and that's because the work is good, and the person is on my flist. I tend not to follow wips because invariably, RL intrudes and the story rarely gets finished. Or the writing is uneven and the continuity of action is lacking.

Personally, I'd prefer if the author just did one big piece and post it out there, it's a better read, in the sense that you have one coherent whole. Besides, following WIPs calls for a fandom committment that I can't give anymore.

Re: WIPs

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Well, I do agree with you. I think it improves the writing to work on it as a whole. But I ranted a bit on my LJ a while ago about this, asking for the pros of WsIP. 90% of the benefits were to the author, not the reader, so I thought that said enough. And you noticed that fandom sat up, agreed with my astounding conclusion, and stopped writing WsIP altogether. Er.

[shadowpryde.livejournal.com]

Over here from hogwarts_today, though you have probably seen me around in other places.

Anyway, I always rant and rave about the evil of WIPs (it's pronounced more easily and rant as much in person as I do online) frequently. Mainly as a result of entering fandom and having Underwater Light and Love Under Will being two of the most highly recced fics at the time and NOONE warned me they were WIPs. I'm with you on the little time and patience for WIPs thing, but they do get tempting when they float through my journal or I cruise by them and the plot looks interesting. Mainly why I'm chiming in here in addition to the poll is to give you an idea of something to do. I get so many recs through my journal that I don't have time to read them all. If something looks interesting, I bookmark it under three different categories. (And one section has subcategories based on pairings but that's a sidenote.) First category is where everything goes at first, it's the one-shots section if I can't immediately identify it as something that belongs in the other two. If, when going to read, I discover it goes in something else, I file it away appropriately for when I have more time. The other two categories, as you may have guessed, are multi-chapter fics and Works In Progress. I go through the second of these two every few months or so and if a link is over 6 months old and the story hasn't been actively written on in almost as long (without a really good reason), I delete it. This way, if something looked interesting, I know that I've still got it for when it's finally done ... but if it's obviously not getting worked on, I have the satisfaction of deleting it and making it go away. Best of both worlds in my mind.

Take the idea for what it's worth!

-Draconis Leona-

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like this suggestion. I have something like this going on, but I like your scheme much better. I'm going to adopt it, since I have to revamp my bookmarks anyway. Thanks.

[ausmac.livejournal.com]

Always on the lookout for some smooth jazz, so downloaded the McCann - very nice peice, thank you.

I'm following "Shadow of His Wings" also, and although its not strictly a wip, I very much look forward to the second book of "Cambiare Podentes" - but the thing is, I don't see as many WIPs on LJ as I used to, or perhaps I'm just not catching them. A year ago every second writer on my Flist was putting out wips, and now there are hardly any. Or maybe they are posting them screened or to special lists or on archives, I dunno.

Also, I think it helps if they put up notes now and then to let people know they are still working on them. That way you are not only reminded of its existance but informed they haven't dropped it. I think summaries are good in the posts, too, because readers like me (bright as a chipmunk)can sometimes forget what the damned thing was about...

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Oh, summaries would be brilliant, wouldn't they!

"We left our boys in the Shrieking Shack with Ron guarding the door ... no, no, this isn't the one where Ron's gone bad, that's the one where he's got that secret name...anyway Sirius finds them ... yeah, remember, Sirius came back three chapters ago - no, the one where he never died is the same one as where Remus has taken on the DADA job again, this one's different...."

OT totally

[gilded-kage.livejournal.com]

Are you going to Lumos?

I'm registered, and hope to go if I can rustle up the cash.

Would love to see you there.

Re: OT totally

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Yes, I registered a while ago. I had the best time at TWH, I'll even endure the heat of Nevada in July!

[murklins.livejournal.com]

I am a statistical anomaly. I follow far more than twelve WiPs and I definitely read more of them now than I did as a fandom newbie. But how could it be otherwise? WiPs are far more likely to drag on and on for years than they are to finish. And new WiPs are started at a *much* faster rate than ongoing WiPs are completed. As a WiP-lover, the list of WiPs I am following will only ever grow.

I do read WiPs in a different way than I used to, though. Initially, I would check on a bi-weekly basis for new installments of all the WiPs I was following and then read the new parts immediately. Now, I voraciously read all the available chapters, then go away for a few months and let the updates pile up a bit. Sometimes I even wait for the story to finish, or go on indefinite hiatus. I really like to read a lot of words in one sitting. Exceptions to my mandatory waiting period policy are WiPs with individual updates that are so massively long that I can wallow in them for long enough to really feel satified.

Everyone's mentioned Shadow of His Wings and Maya's current WiPs, so I'll note caligryphy's Snape/Lupin story, A Soft Place to Sleep (http://www.livejournal.com/users/caligryphy/5442.html). Seven chapters so far, marvellously detailed, last updated in November.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Wow! I admire your diligence. I am afraid that my memory is not quite what it used to be, and if I try too many WIPs at once, I'll explode! But like you, I like to read a lot of words at one sitting.