geoviki | Music and a poll

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

about 90% of the benefits are for the author. The 'please, OMG write more, more!111!' must stroke that ego. But the thing is, that does command a committment from the reader to either watch your journal or check your workspace (like FA or ff.net) for updates, and the thing is, it's not like a soap opera where you can tune in at the same day, same time on the same channel. That doesn't work at all.

Besides, when the story is presented as a whole - it's better for the reader in the sense that although it's a long read, more often than not, it's a good one. I know this writer that went offline 9 months to write a story, and she got it edited and buffed before she put it in her journal. As a result, that must have been the best multichaptered fic I've ever read.

I myself actually wrote a story, and it took me three weeks to write and retweak (from writing to beta turnaround) but once it was up there in the old journal, I didn't have to look at it again, or reread the sections to make sure that the other sections slotted, and I had to change the beginning (once the story had finished) to make sure that it had the same style as the end.

And you noticed that fandom sat up, agreed with my astounding conclusion, and stopped writing WsIP altogether. Er.

It's for the best, really. Most times than not, the WIPs never get finished, or people leave fandom or 'real life' happens, or the writer gets bored. WIPs are fraught with inherent problems.

Music and a poll

WIPs

Re: WIPs

That's true