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?

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

Comments

[sally_maria]

I do think there's a distinction between venting in private about your disappointment that a story isn't being finished, and making demands on the author.

As much as yes, I do think that starting to publish a WIP creates some kind of expectation that the story will be finished, I also think that it is entitled to make demands of a specific author - to post the next part now, now, now, or to finish a story regardless of changed circumstances.

Feeling disappointed (maybe even a little let down) is surely a perfectly reasonable response to knowing that you will not be able to spend any more time in the world of the story? I may complain that my favourite show is cancelled maybe even on a cliff-hanger, is that automatically entitled? How you respond to that disappointment is where the entitlement lies.

I also tend to disagree about kinkmeme fills, I think they are one of the forms of writing where someone does have the right to feel cheated at an unfinished story - not every random reader, but the person whose prompt it is. Not as much as if it's a gift exchange, but the story is being written for that person, and a half-written story is very liable to discourage others from filling the prompt.

The suggestion that several people have made about releasing the story for someone else to finish might hopefully fix that problem - there's no guarantee, but a reasonable chance that the prompter will get their story finished.

In the end, what I think matters is that we treat each other with respect, both readers respecting authors and authors respecting their audiences.

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

There absolutely a distinction. The Penfold example was one of many I've seen recently and I think when venting one should consider if they are speaking to someone to whom the comment could likewise apply. Like me, the failed author.

Of course disappointment is a reasonable response, and I don't actually include anyone I list as a friend in the people who behave badly - but hang around the kinkmeme, or FFN, or anything like that and there are a huge number of people who are willing to make those demands, which I find baffling. Disappointment yes, expressing that, yes, shoving the author, no. And if we're going to talk about social responsibility, if you're entering the reading process with a social contract in mind and it's very clear that the fic is a WIP (question mark chapter numbers, warnings for WIP, etc.) then maybe the reader has some responsibility not to read until it's complete if they know it's going to bother them.

I also tend to disagree about kinkmeme fills, I think they are one of the forms of writing where someone does have the right to feel cheated at an unfinished story.
I'm not on the same page as you with this, at all. If you go into a gift exchange then there is an obligation to deliver, certainly, and if you offer something as a thank you that is the same. *looks guiltily at the pile of stories she's supposed to be writing*. Kink memes are not quite the same beast, they're someone throwing an idea into the ether and waiting. If someone gets halfway through and realises that they can't get the fic to work the way they want, or they lose interest, or it's hurting them, they will frankly not be producing quality writing any more and I would consider shoddy work for the sake of words on the page just as unkind to the OP.

There is also the issue of not knowing what the OP will be like. Most OPs post thank yous, which is lovely. Others though try to steer or influence the outcome of the fic beyond their original prompt in every comment, which may work for you, but it may make the writing process very difficult to the point of impossible - and in an anon meme there's no way of knowing if you have that sort of OP.

Finally, yes, respect both ways. I don't know many authors, if any, who abandon a fic on a whim - if you start writing you've got a story to tell. On the large part I think most authors where they are named are much better about it than on the kinkmeme where if you post anon you can get away with it. But for the reader who doesn't right, it's possible that the reality of the time and emotional contributions that go into writing fics is absolutely immense doesn't quite register. Again, the demanding comments come much more on the kinkmeme where people can be demanding and rude without their name being registered.

I like the adoption idea, definitely. The day I come to terms with the fact that Crossover is dead in the water and I will never get it back, I will farm it out. I'm still holding onto a sliver of hope, although it will mean a pretty huge rewrite.

Finally, *hugs* because I saw on Twitter before my phone died that you'd had a rough day, and I didn't get the chance to say so.

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

All that said, of course, the relationship on LJ is a bit more immediate than the fanzine relationship and certainly the professional author/reader relationship. So if anything, there is less cause to expect not to encounter WIPs, but slightly more social acceptability of discussing the frequency of posting with the author.

[sally_maria]

Thank you. *hugs back*

I think some of this may come from different kink meme/fandom cultures. I'm very involved in the Merlin one (I've been tracking it since 2009) and I get the impression that the Sherlock one is rather different in a number of ways.

A lot of the behaviour you are referring to is simply not allowed - no back seat driving of fills, no demands for the next part - and if someone does break the rules their comments are screened as soon as the mods see them. There is very much an understanding of fills as gifts for the prompter, and an expectation both of thanks, and that the filler will do their best to write the story the prompter is looking for. It's not that we don't get our unfinished stories, there are several really popular ones that have been abandoned over the years, but they are very much a rarity. We're probably spoiled, therefore.

Those kinds of demands don't tend to happen much out of the kinkmeme either, at least not in the circles I move in, so it's a long time since I've seen people behaving like that - obviously it's far more common in other parts of the net. When it's your regular experience I can understand finding it that much more frustrating.

I'm sure you're right about the awareness of how much work writing can be - I do wonder whether, as you said elsewhere, that maybe the author, who can "see the workings" doesn't realise just how invested their readers are in the story and characters. I know I'd rather have an ending, even if it's not quite as good as the beginning. Obviously my preference doesn't mean I get to dictate to the author what they should do, but it's real.