Jumping around a bit · 7:46pm Dec 12th, 2015
So I have a question for my readers.
Right now, my mind is a bit all over the place and it has a few ideas, and it's hard to sit down on one and focus on finishing it, even though I would very much-so like to. Writing has always been a bit of an emotions game with me, so if the mood isn't there it's hard for me to get the writing done (essentially what happened to Silent Ponyville 3). So with that in mind my writing has been a little spread over a few other stories I've been writing on the side to get the ideas down on paper, but none of the stories are complete. So that leads into my question:
Would you guys rather wait for me to have the stories finished before uploading them and giving you them bit by bit, or do you want to see the unfinished ideas I have posted as their own separate stories?
The benefit of the first is that you know the story will have a guaranteed end and you just have to wait for it to finish, but that's on the grounds of if I finish writing it, which I might not. The second one gives you something to read and a look into the ideas I've had, but the story may not get a guaranteed end, but it'll be something.
Let me know what you think in the comments. I'll go with whichever the majority seems to like better, as I don't mind doing either option (as I expect the inevitable "do what you want" posts heh).
Hmm, that's a bit of a hard decision. I'll have to think on it.
I guess to garner a better answer from me I'd need to know one thing. How soon do you know when you'll "finish" a story or not? Like, when do you know a particular idea will have an ending.
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All fics have a "planned" ending, knowing how I want the story to end isn't usually the hard part. My general story writing process goes in three parts:
1. General Premise
2. What kind of ending this would lead to
3. The key moments
I've had plenty of story ideas where I come up with a general premise that I like, but ultimately have no idea where it would go, so I drop it. For instance, I had a story idea based on an Alternate Ending for Silent Ponyville 1 where it would've been Bellamina adjusting to life in Ponyville after realizing she'd been pretending to be Pinkie all this time. I really liked the idea of it, but when it came time to think of an ending I came up short, and no key moments really stuck out to me so it fell to the wayside.
These fics are different though. For instance one of the fics already has 4 chapters written with a 5th already underway. I know where the fic is going and what I want to have happen, but my emotions aren't into it right now, though I'm sure once I get over this bump in life I'd go back to it.
The other fic I just started writing, but it's very much-so based on my emotions at the time, is fairly different from my usual works, and doesn't have nearly as many chapters (I'm mid-Chapter 2 on it right now). Until I get over this bump, I don't really see myself wanting to go back to the other fic (or unless I have a sudden surge of inspiration).
I want to finish both, but I need my mind to cooperate with me on doing so, and chances are I could always drop one to work on the other, or go back to working "The Early Years of Sunset Shimmer", or whatever the case may be. (Though my problem with Early Years is that I've gotten most of my key moments out of the way and now I'm struggling to think of what to have Sunset do now that she's actually at school.)
So that's basically a full, in-depth report on the state of my fic-writing and why I'm even asking in the first place. I do want to finish the fics, but I'm a little worried I won't. But I want to know if you guys would want me to finish it first, then start uploading, or if you'd want to see the works-in-progress in case I don't.
The more I think about it the more I might just do that anyway, but I've written this much without people's input so far, so it's not necessarily a requirement for me to know if people would like them or not. (But I can't deny the encouragement of comments is a big motivator)
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Ah interesting. Well that makes sense then. If anything now that makes me wonder if you decide when you start up a story to run that one out in its entirety before moving onto the next one. Surprisingly enough that sometimes may be the cause of your drop in want/morale in continuing a certain subject to begin with. I'm probably reading too much into it, just this is the same way I write and I come across the same issue you get at times it seems. The fluff.
But as I said it brings me to an answer much quicker. I'd much rather see a few chapters with an incomplete or hiatus tag rather than an empty canvas. You look like you've got full on intention to finish most of what you start so better to keep your mind focused than anything else. If something needs to be set aside at least you've got your starting point from where you left off. And who knows, sometimes to following you get from a certain story or premise just might be what you need to keep trucking on.
Sorry I missed this blog post when it came out, but since you haven't gotten a lot of responses, I hope you don't mind me tossing in my two bits a month late.
I almost always wait until a story is marked "Complete" before I read it. (And I get really pissed when authors mark their stories such when it turns out they've only written about half a story arc because the rest of the story is "in the sequel"- but that's a rant for another day.)
So, functionally, for me it doesn't really matter much either way what you end up doing, because, as far as I'm concerned, a story list with 15 total stories of which 10 are marked "Incomplete" is the exact same as a story list with 5 total stories that have all been marked "Complete".
Really, the only benefit I could conceive of for one approach over the other is that, as an author, completely finishing the story before you ever start posting it would make it easier to go back and make tweaks to earlier chapters.
For example, say you had an awesome idea come to you while writing the later chapters that is ten times better than the original resolution of the story you had intended, but it's the kind of thing that really requires proper foreshadowing to not sound like a Deus ex Machina. If you've already posted the first half of the story and want to insert that foreshadowing into the earlier chapters, you're now in the unenviable position of not only asking your readers to re-read the earlier stuff, but hoping that no one immediately realizes what those otherwise subtle hints imply for the new ending of your story.
Of course, whether such a thing is a valid point to consider depends entirely on your writing style. You may be the kind of person that never deviates from his course once he starts and would never in a million years run into such a problem. Or, you might be the kind of person that simply can't afford to allow themselves the luxury of later edits because if they did they would never actually publish anything. But that's a question only you can answer.
Ultimately it comes down to this: Do you think holding back would give you the opportunity to tell a stronger story? If so, do so. If not, then you might as well get that stuff out there as soon as possible so that people unlike me, who don't mind reading incomplete stuff can give you the feedback you need for motivation.