Why Do Authors?

Why do authors post chapters as they write them instead of waiting and posting the whole story when it is finished?

Comments

[shapeshiftingpedro]

They get advice and (if needed) errors/plotholes pointed out on a chapter-by-chapter basis. If the author listens, and hasn't updated the earlier chapters up to par with later ones, you can tell just how much criticism can help improve a story. It also can accent the amount of suspense a chapter ends with (and, secretly, allow the author to possibly find ideas s/he would like to include in their story).

In essence, it allows the story to feel more... how should I put this? Interactive? A flowing dynamic with the audience? Allows the story to connect with the audience more? Something like that.

[Chatoyance]

I began doing just this because it was simply the speed of my writing. I could write, in my undepressed days, a chapter per day. I saw it as an extension of when I wrote my comic strips - I would do a strip a day. My readers enjoyed having something new to look forward to every day. That is one value of an ongoing comic strip - something to look forward to, each day.

In writing my novels, I used the same concept - one chapter each day. My readers seemed to enjoy this, something to look forward to. Also, because every day I would get new responses and thoughts and insights from the comments for each chapter, this feedback lifted me, supported me, buoyed up my emotions, and kept me writing. Writing a chapter a day and getting feedback is a reciprocal relationship between author and audience. Their attention and hopefully praise kept me able to continue to write. Positive comments per chapter is the equivalent of miles per gallon - feedback is fuel for the engine of writing.

None of this is possible if one simply slaps a book up, all completed. The only comments that come are at the final chapter by and large, and this the payoff for bothering to write is very small. For me, writing is performance art. I am performing on the stage of Fimfiction (or wherever) and the reason I am performing is to be paid not in dollars, but in complements and astonishment and joy. If my audience is excited and interested and involved, if their comments go on about how much they fear for the characters or how glad they are for them, if the daily updates are an important part of their life, if they are glad and grateful that I am writing for them - that is my salary. That is my paycheck for being a writer.

It is payment in attention and adoration, rather than payment in filthy lucre. It is love in place of gold. It is praise instead of pennies.

THAT is my reason for writing a chapter and posting it, preferably one per day if I can manage it. And I feel a responsibility to my readers, because I see the situation as a real economic relationship - my readers are paying for my services with their attention and praise, my product is entertainment and new ideas and viewpoints to expand their minds. If I fail my customers, I feel very, very bad.

If my customers defraud me, with cruelty or trolling, then I not only feel emotionally devastated, I feel cheated. The relationship must be mutual, and it must be tit-for-tat reciprocal. I must perform well for my readers, they must fuel me with fascination and pleasure at my work. If this does not happen, the economy fails and breaks down. It is the Great Collapse.

I, at least - and I think I am not alone in this - do not write for myself. I can't write for myself. It's pointless. Art that is not seen and appreciated is meaningless. Art is communication, and if I don't have someone to communicate with, then... all I do is just shouting at myself, alone in the dark.

I have to write for others. I have to produce to an audience to be bothered to write at all. I have to respect my audience and in turn be respected. Obviously, I do not write for everyone. I am not here to produce some common denominator product that appeals to a mass audience. My perfect audience is mature-minded, civil, educated, erudite, open-minded, and knowledgeable about science fiction literature. I write for a select group.

Writing a novel, for me, is not taking a shit. It is not barfing out an idea. It is not banging together a contraption in some garage. Writing a novel, or writing a short story, or drawing a graphic novel, or doing a daily comic is a love affair. It is a relationship. It is a performance piece. It is "Step right up! Live on stage! See the writer craft words for you! New words every day! Come see! Admission only one positive comment! Step right up! See the show!!!"

This is my answer.

[PeachClover]

2881776 I saw your reply just before I went on vacation and I thought about it the whole time I've been away. Your answer is the answer, that is, there really couldn't be another answer, and deep down I knew this, but I couldn't accept it before someone else had said it.

I am a fool I guess, because I seem to think that there is an answer to everything and that answer always works. I once tried producing chapters to a novel and releasing them as I wrote them, by chapter four I felt that I could not continue that way. I gave up writing like that, and the site went under. I figured it just wasn't for me, and I felt in awe of those who felt so confident to throw themselves at such a daunting challenge. I was too afraid of life getting in the way and dragging me down.

At the time that I wrote this, I had just received a reply from an author who said that they couldn't write on the story I wanted to read because they already had two more stories they were writing. I didn't understand it, I don't understand it, and to say that it is merely illogical is an understatement, because where as I let myself be dragged down for waiting too long on one story, they apparently have no less than three that by the smallest of setbacks could each be an arm dragging them down to depression, but then... That's all assuming, foolishly, that they feel the tiniest shred of responsibility to their audience.

I don't really know how to describe what I am feeling or thinking about this other than to say I get this feeling that something is wrong. I think that I am upset at myself, because I sometimes want to write, but not a lot, not enough to make me push through discomfort and doubt.

You know... It's an unwritten contract, ever since I heard the words social-contract I realized it had to be unwritten and one doesn't get a choice. It's not like they come to you at your first moment of consciousness and tell you to read and sign a piece of paper. Everything you have said is how I figured it should be, but I always feel cheated when it comes to the “payment” I've expected from others. I tend to write books on my thoughts, gushing over every moment that moves me, and this isn't something I do only for books – I once spent six whole minutes describing an oatmeal-raisin cookie because the bakers, in front of whose store I was standing, said “try it, and tell us what you think about it.” I'm fairly sure they didn't actually care that much, because when I opened my eyes again, they looked like – well, I better not say, but this is how I am: I give more and I expect more...

Unfortunately, I can't seem to make other people understand this, let alone abide by it, and because of this, I feel like a hungry ghost. *Looks over reply thus far* Yeah, this is certainly not a unidirectional reply. It's more like the Doppler effect to something I can't see. I'm sorry that I couldn't be more coherent, but I felt your comment deserved some sort of reply.