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.

:)

[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. :-)

[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....

[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]

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.

[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.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! My old computer is suffering from no-power-itis and I can't access *anything.*

*bookmarks*

[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.

[femmequixotic]

Harry has mixed feelings about WsIP! :D Unless they have Draco!smut in them. Then he's all for them.

Your eclecticism is what I love! *g* And, you needn't fear...you're not the only one who, er, enjoys a little George Michael now and then. *looks shifty and kicks the Wham! CD out of the way*

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

That fic is the one I'm straining not to read, even though everyone says it's the best thing ever, and I absolutely adore all her other stories. I'm trying not to be tempted to start it, because I want to experience it altogether, but it's like having that secret chocolate bar in the basement and willing yourself not to go down and eat it.

My will is weakening daily.

I can't wait to see who wrote what for smutmas! Any day now....

[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.

[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]

Ooh, ooh, Gina's adding the names as we speak. Type. Whatever! Go look!

[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.

[aurani.livejournal.com]

Wow, I've never resorted to spreadsheets, but the forgetting thing. Oh, the forgetting thing. And then they would finally update, sometimes half a year later, and I would have to read from chapter one for having forgotten. Aja's big Heart-fic was like that... (drat, I've even forgotten the title -_-;; ), as was much of Irresistible Poison and even some of Underwater Light and In the Shadow of His Wings.

Then there were the unique ones that will forever and ever stand out -- your fairytale being one of them because it has such a prettily cohesive story, if I may say so myself, along with AJ's Snitch!, Koanju's Gingerbread House, maybe Maya's Darkside of Light for being all dialogue and talking about socks.

[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;

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

*averts eyes*

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[elanna9.livejournal.com]

Well ... I cracked, and now I'm DYING!!! omg DYING!!! for the next update. Like, I try to distract myself, but it's just there in my mind and I'm craving more all the time. :P (God, listen to me; I'm a junkie!)

It really is the best thing ever, though. :)

Otherwise I really try to hold off on WIPs, for exactly that reason. The ones I will read with abandon are the ones where the author is generally updating with regularity, and I can count on there being a new chapter out before too long. Like StG, when Emma was updating every Wednesday, or silentauror's stories. That really changes the experience for me into something far more fun.

It's so great to be able to glut oneself on a completed story that otherwise I try to hold out. I was lucky that I didn't find many of the classics -- including yours -- until they'd already been finished. I suppose that's a bonus for being so late to the fandom.

[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*

[anehan]

I second your comment.

[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.