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

[shefa.livejournal.com]

Here via Irisbluefic. :) *waves

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.

:)

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

*waves* Welcome!

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).
I like this, very much. I also find that comments from my readers in WIP circumstances do inform the ongoing story, sometimes in little ways but other times with innocuous comments (or long detailed discussions) that throw the whole story into a different light. Maybe it's not the traditional way of writing but it's more fun than writing in a singular way.

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.
See sally_maria's comments: I think people do view it as a contract. But they need to recognise that that constitutes a risk, as much as a right, on that part, because no-one's going to force me (for example) to write work that would inevitably turn out substandard because my heart wasn't in it. That's no way to write.