How do readers feel when a story is cancelled? (The Grownup Way) · 5:25pm Apr 21st, 2015
So, I've been reading a lot of Fim stories lately. The more I read, the more epics I come across. Stories that push our little fanfiction world to its limits. Ones that make up lore, flesh out characters and cause all sorts of conflict that we can only dream of being in a Pony movie made for theaters, let alone the show. Reading through what I've written over these past two in a half years makes me wish I had done so much more in any of my stories (the completed ones I mean).
While my other story, Feather Steel, will certainly end up with something I can feel proud of... The Grownup Way, to me, just feels random and perhaps like a lost opportunity. I tried to make it something it's not and now I'm not even sure what to do with it. I should have simply kept it on the path it was going, instead of trying to throw in a curve ball or two. I always try and do this, thinking it can make a story more creative without thinking of what to do with it once I've gotten there.
Making her a grownup in the story? I really should have simply let her stay a child, it made things more interesting. I could have written some funny situations there. As it stands I have no idea what I'm doing with the story. I'd like to write other stories and leave this one be. I just want to be a better writer, sometimes that means moving on.
Working on "epics" can be quite time consuming. Stories with chapters stretching as far as they need to be. It's something I want to try, if I can come up with a story idea, hell multiple ideas that I can mix together... After all, I write on the fly, but often that means I'm only focusing on one singular idea. I get the feeling epic novels are written with many things in mind. Fimfiction being no exception to this rule.
How would you all feel if this story was cancelled? Keep in mind that even with cancelled stories, that doesn't mean ideas aren't re-used. This doesn't mean that I wont come back to this idea or that it will go to waste. It simply means that this story will probably never be finished.
Of course, I can always continue it slowly. Some people seemed to enjoy the direction it was going, even if it is a RANDOM direction...
I'd also like to know people's thoughts on cancelled stories. How do they make you feel?
Happens. Plenty of other fish in the sea. Suppose I would say that of pretty much any other story really. Still have the "End of Ponies" by SS&E on a custom bookshelf with every story that might as well be cancelled. Suppose I just don't dwell on things that aren't and instead focus on things that are.
3003735
What he said.
Sure it might suck when a story you like is cancelled. But I would rather a story be canceled or put on hiatus then sit there as incomplete and the author never planning to come back to it.
3003845
3003735
The funny thing is that ordinarily if I cancel a story I would then write out, for readers, what I had planned on doing. Well, what you see is what I've planned
and that's all 
I'll wait and see if anyone else responds, but if not I may just cancel it. Plenty of other story ideas brewing in my noggin', not a huge deal.
it would make me quite sad
but we can't whip you to death if you dont want to continue or just dont feel like it.
So the choice is yours.
If i was you i think i would just put it on hatius so if one day i want to write on it i wouldnt have to repost the entire story.And i would put a warning too
3004080 Hmmmm, okay. For now I'll put it on hiatus, for you.
I don't like stories to get canceled if I am actively following them.
I especially don't like stories set to hiatus permanently, so the honestly is preferable.
The worst possible thing however is someone who not only cancels a story, but takes it down as well. I've lost two stories I really want to reread permanently, since I didn't have downloaded copies of them.
Canceling a story is fine. Just don't delete it.
A canceled story, to me, is like a child passing away suddenly.
It's a terrible thing.
You read the chapters, like a child lives its life.
And you can feel the direction of the story, like a growing infant.
You experience it, like a ten year olds personality.
You can
seefeelYou know the potential.
And when a story gets canceled, it's like that child, that you watched grow, just died.
It was there, and then nothing.
All the potential, gone in an instant.
And then the canceled story just remains there.
Like the memory of the child, still sitting in their room, toys left scattered, clothes untouched, presents left unopened, bed unmade, posters still hanging.
And it is just such a pity....
3004800 I have cancelled and removed stories, but I always archive them and give people a link to the archive from gdocs. One was True Sight, you can still find it. You can also ask me, if that was ever one of them
Trust me, I know how frustrating negligence for archiving of any art can be, anything should be archived well. Even bad things, even unfinished things.
3004903 UH, maybe for rather complex or long stories. Or well fleshed out stories. This is more like a lost toy than an actual child.
3004928
I just see that little canceled notif and it bums me out, regardless.
3004941 True Sight still bumming ya?
3004910 The two stories are 'Gods in the Stars' by Nightwatcher, and Quest for Cabbage
Gods in the Stars, by Nightwatcher, has two sequels. The original and second were finished, and the third was canceled. He decided to rewrite them, so deleted the first story, and rewrote it. The new story was a total conversion and a totally different story, so didn't qualify as a rewrite.
Quest for Cabbage by Divide, who deleted the finished story, started to rewrite it, never finished, then wiped his account.
3004956
Little bit...
I won't lie, it was a deep cut...
3004999 *hugs*
3004961 Bummer, did you check any of the Fimfiction archive torrents? It may still be there.
3005094 s2.quickmeme.com/img/08/08f22bb70c7aa0ad9a34c582a8335fb393bfcaf9f800963e038d980ecb7ba5b1.jpg
It always sucks when a story dies and since I've been on this site I've see some of my favorites die, some even dropped off the face of the site without a word or reason... and there are others, fics that were the first fanfiction stories that I've ever read, and have followed since before I had an account on this site that have been trapped in update limbo since 2012... It's gotten too the point where I wish some of them would just give us what little closure we would get from either saying 'hey, sorry for the long delays, I haven't forgotten about the fic but life is a thing. I'm still working on it. Thanks for your patience' or 'fuck this, the fic is cancelled, no more for you here, bugger off.'
Some of them even go offline for months at a time... So I've gotten to the point where I just take what updates I can get. It's the nature of the beast I guess.
I should also point out that I'm waiting for Feather Steel too update and this story being canceled makes that seem more likely so I fear my opinion would be a little bias. (Grownup way has been sitting in my read later list since the first chapter was posted. I barely have the time to read the updates of the 300+ stories that are already in my favorites, let alone the times a 100,00+ word fic updates out of the blue and I need to re read the whole thing to remember what was going on.)
3005184 I'm glad others share similar thoughts in regards to the nature of this beast. That makes perfect sense. Don't worry on Feather Steel, we will finish that one. Getting close to a full chapter release by the way. I should do more blogs like this in the future, got a huge response!