Reading a WIP entails a certain amount of risk, especially if it's clear that the author isn't already finished with the piece, but is posting as it's being written. There is something privileged (in my opinion) about being able to watch a story unfold, and to wait, to wonder, to imagine in the gap between installments (whether they be chapters or books). The desire for more reflects your reader's engagement with the story, but the demand for more reflects (I think) a lack of understanding of process in any sort of art.
I'm thinking out loud here. Wondering if some readers take the posting of a WIP as a sort of implicit contract that the story will be completed. No idea where they would get that idea. Just pondering. I know that when I first found fandom and stumbled upon my first abandoned WIP, I was completely confused. I think I hadn't yet realized that stories were posted in progress. LOL Of course, on the kink meme, it ought to be more obvious, but it's hard to say.
Anyway. I don't think the author has an obligation to finish a story that isn't working, or to force something if RL or the muse, or the canon changes make too difficult or unsatisfying as a writer. If we post WIPs, we're giving the readers a gift, letting them watch with us as the story develops. Sometimes, stories end earlier than we wish they would.
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Reading a WIP entails a certain amount of risk, especially if it's clear that the author isn't already finished with the piece, but is posting as it's being written. There is something privileged (in my opinion) about being able to watch a story unfold, and to wait, to wonder, to imagine in the gap between installments (whether they be chapters or books). The desire for more reflects your reader's engagement with the story, but the demand for more reflects (I think) a lack of understanding of process in any sort of art.
I'm thinking out loud here. Wondering if some readers take the posting of a WIP as a sort of implicit contract that the story will be completed. No idea where they would get that idea. Just pondering. I know that when I first found fandom and stumbled upon my first abandoned WIP, I was completely confused. I think I hadn't yet realized that stories were posted in progress. LOL Of course, on the kink meme, it ought to be more obvious, but it's hard to say.
Anyway. I don't think the author has an obligation to finish a story that isn't working, or to force something if RL or the muse, or the canon changes make too difficult or unsatisfying as a writer. If we post WIPs, we're giving the readers a gift, letting them watch with us as the story develops. Sometimes, stories end earlier than we wish they would.
:)