To Publish or Not To Publish · 3:35pm Mar 22nd, 2022
Howdy folks! Been a hot minute since I’ve done anything on here. I’m not dead, don’t worry!
2022 has been a particularly rough year for myself, including a rather sharp dive in my mental health. It’s taken the momentum out of my writing like a blow to the gut, unfortunately.
That’s not to say I don’t have things coming. There's something new in the works for Rainbow Factory, including a special collaboration of sorts, and I’ve had some other ideas floating around for a bit too. Thing is, I’m still struggling to actually get those written. While I work on that, my fimfic has become a little dusty, and I had a thought today that I felt could use some input.
I’ve got an epic in the works, based around Applejack going on a quest with pirates to recover a macguffin. In April of last year I wrote 50k words of this story, only scratching the surface. After that I took a break from it, which has stretched into the rest of the year. I’m really, really proud of what I have for it, but I’ve been hesitant to publish what’s written in case I never come back to it.
That’s where the input from you come in. Do you think I should get it out there, and hope that I’m able to get back into it and finish it through updates? Or do you think publishing an unfinished story that might never be resolved is a shitty thing to do?
Lemme know.
Seeing fan reactions might help you find the drive to finish the story.
I'll simp on your story til you finish it
Do eet
I say go for it! If you’re passionate about it and proud of it, go ahead!
Just from what I’ve read, it kinda sounds like it’s helped you get back into your groove. So, if you publish it for the sole purpose of sharing something you love to help you refuel your creative drive, then it’ll be worth it—even if updates are a little sparse from time to time.
It certainly is disappointing to see a story you find engaging end up cancelled, but as long as you make it clear in the description that you can't make any promises to finish it, I think it should be fine.
I vote release it! If you're proud of what you've written, it'd be a shame not to share it, even if you don't end up coming back to it!
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It’s an honour to have followers like you.
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Good to know. I’ve no problem with being upfront about that.
Hmm, let's weigh the options here.
Option A is to publish what you have now on FiMFic and watch as the story progresses with every chapter update. Option B is to wait until you finish drafting the story and publish it on FiMFic.
In my time on FiMFic, I have seen so many stories the author began writing years ago then never came back to it. Tales that began in 2013 or 2014 and never saw an ending, with the writer having left FiMFic several years ago. After having written such failures of long fics myself two times, I developed an aversion to both reading and writing stories that have yet to be finished.
Yet it is true that following a story as it is updated on a regular basis has its certain allure. Waiting for a story to update without a definite schedule adds that taste of desperation to the allure.
So, all in all, do what you wish to. But as a reader who is always down for reading stories written by you, I would absolutely hope to see the story reach an ending someday.
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To be honest, even with that, I'm sure there will be people who'll still be upset and perhaps even angry enough to put their feelings into words if you do abandon the story (you are a household name after all and popularity brings in a lot of readers of all kinds,) but at least with a disclaimer you can feel far less guilty about the whole thing.
Ultimately it comes down to whether the pros of showing off your nice prose weigh more in the scale than the cons of potential backlash. If you feel like you can handle that, even with your mental health problems, I'd say go for it. Whichever way you choose, good luck
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I’m fairly good at handling critical (and straight up insulting) comments, I think. That shouldn’t be an issue.
But the general public looking down on me? That’s what I’m more concerned about. It looks to me that most people are fairly understanding, though, so I think I’ll be doing it!
Love your work so I’ll be binge reading the crap out of what you post!
As a person who’s left several stories unfinished, having it all in one complete little package pre-publish seems like it’d be a nice thing to have, but it often takes a really long time to write. If you can’t get in the groove, I’d suggest uploading it on a schedule.
And don’t really worry about people looking down on your for not finishing the story, if it goes a long time without updating, people will often just forget about it.
I mean, it’s always disappointing when there’s a good story and it hasn’t been updated in ages, but what’s even better is the euphoria when a story gets updated after a long hiatus.
Also, a lot of folks stuck around while you were having your personal struggles for, like, 5 years, I think we’ll be ok waiting.
Answer: do it.
I feel like it’s a tough decision, especially if you’re not sure if you’ll finish the story. However, as some people have said, seeing people’s reactions might motivate you to finish it. And even if that ain’t the case, then that’s alright. You don't have to finish a story, it’s not an obligation. People might be upset, but it happens. At the end of the day, there will be people who will enjoy reading anything you write, and people who will appreciate it regardless of if it gets finished or not.
I myself have a few “long” (not like hundreds of thousands of words long but longer than what I usually write) fics that I only plan to upload once I’ve finished writing them bc I don’t know if I would get them done otherwise, but I do have one longfic that I’m uploading but still writing on a chapter to chapter basis. It’s not like it gets a lot of views, but there are people who enjoy reading it and that makes me feel motivated to keep writing, especially since I do put a lot of work into it. Maybe that’ll happen to you. Maybe you’ll feel motivated by people’s kind word! But if not, and it ends up taking forever to finish or simply doesn’t get finished, that’s okay too. If you’re proud of what you wrote so far and want to share it, then do it! I know I’d love to see it, and maybe I’m biased because I’m your friend and also I love Applejack, but I really would love to see it :)
You know my opinion on Piratejack. I'd love to read it, even incomplete.
Glad to hear news from you. :)
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I don't know what's the right decision...
But I personally think posting unfinished fanfic is better decision. Because: 1) Your tough work won't go waste and other people will see it, even if story is still not finished. 2) Sometimes, if many people like published story, it can give author a HUGE inspiration to finish it. :)
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No matter what you choose - I look forward your next publications! ;)
(Some sort of collaboration about RF??? :O Can't wait to hear more about it in the future!)
I do not read incomplete fics myself but i know a lot of people do.
From what i have heard from others though in the past who publish incomplete stories is sometimes knowing the fic is being enjoyed in its incomplete state gives them motivation to finish the story. If that little boost of knowing its enjoyed and people are reading it will help you with the push to finish it then go ahead and publish it.
This line of thought leads to another question:
How would you feel about people constantly asking you to finish something that you have no motivation to finish?
Will it give you energy and drive to finish or will it drain you and possibly discourage you from other projects?
Or will it be neutral and you’ll be fine with letting it lie there unfinished?
Personally, I’d love to read it. But not at the expense of adding more stress to you.