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

[xitheta.livejournal.com]

I think it would depend on the methodology of the writer.
As Gurthaew pointed out, JKR had an ending planned and as mentioned had a large fanbase and monetary incentives to complete her work.

In the case of a kinkmeme, while it is frustrating when a writer jumps ship on a WIP, RL should come first. None of us are participating for money after all, and not so many are written with an ending in mind.

I think that if a kinkmeme WIP is definitely going to be orphaned, the Author should offer it up for adoption. If it wasn't popular then few will mind the loss of it, and if it was then some other person will give it the love it needs.
On sites like FFN it's more difficult due to the posting style, but if the new author could liase with the OA about directing readers from the first document to the second then it would work.

As I see it, WIP dropping is like Author Existence Failure. if the original can't or won't finish, the work can be taken up by others. Eoin Colfer wrote "And Another Thing" in place of Douglas Adams, for example, Sebastian Faulks wrote a James Bond novel "as Ian Fleming" and I believe Antony Horowitz is penning a new Sherlock Holmes adventure with blessing from the Conan Doyle estate.

The precedent exists, so if the OA is uncomfortable with completing a work then by all means, readers, adopt and complete them for yourselves!

If on the other hand your Author is just hanging on until RL backs off a bit, keep the faith and don't grouse!

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

I agree, largely, with the adoption idea - we are fanfic writers and it should be second nature. However the parallel with AEF is inexact unless the author leaves fandom, because Douglas can't write us any more H2G2, but if you took up my Crossover I would see what you were writing. The dynamic there is challenging in different ways, both for the original author in letting go and in the new author for taking up the baton knowing full well that the original author is still there, and that everyone reading will compare them with the earlier chapters very explicitly.

That said, we spend our time writing stories based around other people's stories. Playing with one anothers' probably should not be so strange an idea.