Fannish entitlement

[gayalondiel_bak]

Hi all

Recently a friend, I will call them Penfold, expressed upset to me about someone on a fandom Kinkmeme saying they weren't going to finish a story because they had run dry on inspiration. The understanding that I got was that Penfold felt cheated for starting a WIP and being deprived of a conclusion.

That really didn't chime with me.  As a writer my biggest work is sitting half finished as of 2008 because I'm not in the place to finish it, and also because I don't think it's very good. Nevertheless people still follow it on FFN, despite the update dates. Should the Kinkmeme writer have to meep working, devoting evenings and weekends of slot to a story she's not attached to anymore, because god knows, when you're not in a good writing place it can be torturous, just because a few people on a website feel she has an obligation to finish? Should I slog through chapter after chapter of a story I don't even like, because I had the temerity to see if there was an audience for the first chapter before writing the next fifteen? should I be justifying myself and a friend for the collab we started posting before both falling ill, or should I just sit quiet until we're ready? Or should I take it down?

It's an old - and somewhat trite - argument in fandom to point out that we're not paid. But seriously, writing claims on our time - housework, reading, tv, films, cat cuddling all get displaced for fanfic in my house. But if I do it out of obligation with no love, then stories I do love and want to tell are less likely to get written. 

Yes, it's unfortunate when they fall by the wayside.  But the kinkmemes are like that - a quicker and less formal sort of writing, and you don't always know where it will take you. Besides which, there are any number of reasons for not writing more that the author may not be stating, because that's her right too

I am writing on the phone and so even more than usual this is pretty incoherent. Nevertheless I am dying to know if I'm the only one who feels that way about it. Between the entitlement of the loyal reader (who is, after all, choosing to read  work in progress) and the right of the author to choose how to pass their free time, where does everyone else draw the line?

(I'd love to get impressions from beyond my flist, if anyone wants to signal boost. Very interested too to hear from Penfolds variously, when it is right or acceptable for a reader to require continuation?)

A final thought: if JKR had got to the end of Half Blood Prince and decided not to write the last Harry Potter, well, I would have gone into hiding because the reaction would have been apocalyptic. But with the exception of her contracted publisher and by extension Time Warner, would any of us have had the right to demand she complete it?

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Comments

[dreamflower]

When I first began to read fanfic, I felt dreadfully cheated when a story fizzled out. I was "WHAT?" "WHERE'S THE REST OF IT?" Then I went through a phase of not reading WIPs.

Then I began writing. And I learned that the muse does not always cooperate. That real life can interfere. That other bunnies can jump in line ahead of what I planned to write next. I've never abandoned a WIP, but I've had some very LOOOONG hiatuses (is that a word?) As for other people's WIPs, I've learned to enjoy what I get when I get it. And to hope that someday they will come back to the story I was loving so much, and when they do, I will be ready to glomp it. I look on new chapters after a long dry spell as a lovely gift.

The author of my favorite WIP goes as long as two years between chapters. It's totally worth the wait.

I can think of a couple of favorite stories that haven't been updated in four or five years. But I figure as long as the author's still breathing, there's hope that sooner or later inspiration will strike like lightning, and the story will begin chugging along again.

Believe it or not, one of my own fears is that I will drop dead without finishing all my WIPs. Seriously, I worry about that!

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

That's a very legitimate fear! WIPs do wear on my mind, but some of them I have learned to set aside because trying to complete something that I physically couldn't was causing me harm.

I have been intending to pull Crossover offline for about six months now. But people have it followed, and there is a faint chance... do I withdraw it and eliminate that whole world? Or do I leave it there and give people likely false hope?

*shrugs*

[dreamflower]

My vote? Leave it there for people to enjoy as far as it goes...put up a warning that it is unlikely to ever be finished, so someone new who does NOT like unfinished stories won't start it, and the rest of us can read and remember, and perhaps imagine how it might go from where it left off.

It's a brilliant story. Be a shame to lose what you have so far.