Some thoughts about dedication and self-discipline as an artist/writer and about keeping promises to your fans and followers · 3:23pm Mar 24th, 2017
Here is an unusual blog entry by me. To get the obvious worries out of the way with a bulldozer, no, I'm not stopping to write. This blog entry is about the exact opposite, actually.
Normally, I wouldn't write something like this here. I much rather stick to talking about my stories here. But, two days ago, something happened that shook me and that shook many others in the fandom too. I won't say what it is here, because I don't want to ignite too much discussion about the sad occurrence and simply use this event to write something off my chest, something that bothers me for a long time now. But, if you follow news about the fandom, you probably know what I'm talking about.
There is this certain attitude in the fandom's artist community that I saw a few times, that artists started a project, announced it and informed their fans/followers about its progress by releasing updates and then..... simply dropped it and let their fans hang, despite that they made a lot of people in the fandom looking forward to it and relying on its completion.
Sometimes, this wasn't the artists' fault. Sometimes, they got C&Ded (Fighting is Magic) or maybe, sometimes life struck them in an unpleasant way; with loss, disease, financial problems or other nasty things that broke their concentration and they simply lacked the energy to continue. The artists to which this happened are not the artists I'm talking about here.
But this doesn't count for all of them. Here and there, an artist literally simply drops everything and lets his fans hang, disappoints them or hurts them even, by discontinuing a project just because he feels like it.
And I detest this. I detest this, not only because it means that a great piece of art will never come to be, not only because it means that the artist lacks self-discipline and dedication, but also because it means that such an artist literally does not care one single bit about his fans/followers and is not willing to give something back for their support, their upvotes, or, sometimes, for their money even.
Or maybe, the artist only cares about money in the first place and automatically drops a project after announcing and updating it when he doesn't get as much money on Patreon anymore as he did before. And I detest this all the same way.
The moment where an artist only creates art for money anymore, but not out of passion for creating, is the moment where the artist stops being an artist.
I want to use the opportunity of this sad event from two days ago to tell you all something:
This will NEVER happen with me.
If I announce a fic project and say I'm going to write it, then I WILL write it. If I started a fic, then I WILL continue and finish it and the only things that could prevent me from doing that are my death or a disease that is so terrible and devastating on my body/mind that it is physically or mentally impossible for me to write at all.
I will NEVER tell you I'm going to write a story and then not doing it anyway because I feel like it. I will NEVER start updating a story and then just cancel it because I feel like doing that.
There might be hiatuses. There might be times where I suffer from writer's block or don't know how to continue a story for other reasons and where I take a break from writing this story to come up with new ideas or with a plan to solve the problem I encountered.
There might even be things that throw me off emotionally and cause me to not write anything for a month..... But I will NEVER simply abandon a project.
If there is a blog entry by me saying that I will write a certain story, I will ALWAYS write it. If there is a story by me that is marked "Incomplete" or "On Hiatus", I will ALWAYS complete it sooner or later. If something changes and a story or new chapter will be delayed, I will ALWAYS inform you about it and give you the necessary infos you need to understand the situation.
Unlike the type of artists I described above, I will ALWAYS keep a promise I made. Because this is what it is, if you make an announcement to your followers about a certain project, a promise.
I will NEVER break such a promise, because I know firsthoof how much it hurts to see a fantastic art project not getting finished and because I see how much it hurts other people as well.
Saying this is a promise in and of itself. I will ALWAYS continue and finish my stories, as long as I have the physical strength and mental capabilities for that.
Never fear that one of my stories will be dropped by me and that I let you hang. This will NEVER happen.
That's the spirit! Don't give up. The most problem I have, is my Ideal wealth. Get up with a new idea before finishing the old one. I curse that sometimes
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Thanks.
And I know exactly what you're talking about. I had this happen to myself.
Up there, I tagged three stories of mine that are unfinished. Two of those were started in times where I shouldn't have started them, because I already had enough on my plate that needed finishing.
But sometimes, your own ideas can be your biggest enemy and you find yourself starting stories without thinking if you even have time to update them, because of the passion you have for writing and an idea that just needs to get out.
The plight of an inexperienced writer..... This stuff is its own kind of lack of self-discipline; when you rather start new stories before updating and finishing your old ones, but I learned from it since, which is why I'm not starting any new multi-parters before my two current ones are finished and before I did finish two of my other unfinished multi-parters as well, or, have at least a plan for consistent updates of those.
Season 7 will bring me a lot of new ideas, but my unfinished stuff will definitely take precedence now, to finally deliver what I promised.
4470340 Indeed, always finish before starting something new. I write for fun and stress relief. For my Ideal wealth, new fic idea poped in while playing a ww2 shooter. Bt first, finish the others and start the planned one with Petunia before (maybe) making that one. Could get over the writer blockade by the way. But still, for the last chapter of Noi's story, I'm stuck with a major thing