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

[ciaranbochna.livejournal.com]

I have a few things that are wip that I may or may not finish, since I am not sure where exactly I was going at the time. I find if I don't finish something as a one-shot, or a series of connected things that can be read alone, then I never will. Usually because I will be overwhelmed by the negative thoughts about what I have written, and come to loathe the end product..lol Probably why I avoid the memes I suppose.

I say this because I appreciate when someone gifts the world with their writing, and I know that it can be a Herculean struggle to let anyone see them so I never pester the writer. You cannot know what anyone else is going through, or how their process works. Try to find joy in what they have given you, and leave it at that.

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

I will be overwhelmed by the negative thoughts about what I have written, and come to loathe the end product.
This is important. If we don't like what we're doing, or can't at least see value or literary merit in it, then forcing ourselves to write can be both painful and destructive, and no-one should take risks with themselves over fandom.

You cannot know what anyone else is going through, or how their process works.
Just so. Possibly if you don't write it's harder to understand that the how of writing is just as personal as the context and if you lose that place, try as you might, it can be impossible to get back. And whatever you think of the rightness or wrongness of WIPs, some of us work better that way.

[ciaranbochna.livejournal.com]

I have abandoned a few things because I just couldn't force myself to type/write another word. I don't think anyone should read the product of that sort of thing, even though I appreciate that people may want to read more. It would absolutely start to erode away any confidence a writer had in what they do, I figure.

There is a place that everything we write comes from, and sometimes it's like pulling bones or skin away to form the words on paper--and sometimes no matter what you do there is no way to find that moment again. People don't always see writing as baring parts of yourself the same way actors/artists/musicians do. But it's there.

I think commenters rely on the anonymous nature of the web at times, so they think they are entitled to demand what they want, right now, and not have to think of the person behind the words.