Sick and tired

[Bramblethorn]

Authors who do not finish a story in reasonable time should be shot. Manu should create a Finishing Enforcement Bureau to track down and eliminate both unfinished stories and their low-life authors. We in America have guns and would willingly use them for this purpose. Read-rage is common here.

Even as hyperbole, this comes across a bit more deranged than you may have intended.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Well, my "Ghost in the Machine" series took a cool four years to complete. As it was never intended to sprawl over 18 and a half chapters, I had some real difficulty to get it done. Add to that some serious health issues, a few bouts with depression and the urge to write other things in between.

I can understand the frustration of seeing a story premise unfulfilled, but zealous readers should also consider that authors are people too. We can get sick, our interests may change or shit just happens and suddenly other things are way more important than some flight of fancy. I'll go out on a limb here and assume most authors leaving their stories unfinished don't do it just for kicks or out of malice.

Do we owe it to our readers to deliver completed works? Not really. If we go start arguing about who owes what, I could suggest the readers owe it to the authors to truthfully rate stories and offer criticism after consumption. Way too few can be bothered to even click on one of those damn stars, let alone muster a comment going beyond "moar?"

Having to deal with unfinished stories is for readers what not getting decent feedback is for authors.

Deal with it.

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

I wrote the first two chapters. Response was good. Had a great start on chapter 3...and got a negative comment. So I stopped writing that series.

 

[terry88]

comments

why does everyone cry about comments. It does not matter who you are or what you write you will get negative coments. All the greatest writers in the world will have someone, someplace, some time bad mouth their story. If you dont want to see the comments disable them. I have seen tons of stories that wont let you leave comments on them. If you would like to know how your story is doing look at the rating

 

[Blind_Justice]

why does everyone cry about comments. It does not matter who you are or what you write you will get negative coments. All the greatest writers in the world will have someone, someplace, some time bad mouth their story. If you dont want to see the comments disable them. I have seen tons of stories that wont let you leave comments on them. If you would like to know how your story is doing look at the rating

It's not moaning about negative comments, it's complaining about the general lack of comments and votes. "Dagger and Crystal", one of my more recent stories, has 15,600-ish views and sits at a decent 4.76 from 113 people. See where the problem is? That's a tiny fraction of readers who actually bothered to move their mouse. And only four souls were kind enough to leave comments behind. From what I've read from other authors around here, these percentages are sadly the norm rather than the fallout from me writing demon rape stories

Like I said, we authors don't get paid (on here). But a little appreciation goes a long way to keep motivation up. Motivated authors write better and you have less reason to bitch around. It's a two-way relationship, dude.

 

[terry88]

It's not moaning about negative comments, it's complaining about the general lack of comments and votes. "Dagger and Crystal", one of my more recent stories, has 15,600-ish views and sits at a decent 4.76 from 113 people. See where the problem is? That's a tiny fraction of readers who actually bothered to move their mouse. And only four souls were kind enough to leave comments behind. From what I've read from other authors around here, these percentages are sadly the norm rather than the fallout from me writing demon rape stories

Like I said, we authors don't get paid (on here). But a little appreciation goes a long way to keep motivation up. Motivated authors write better and you have less reason to bitch around. It's a two-way relationship, dude.

15,000 views? does that mean 15K actually read it? maybe they started it and after a few pages didnt llike it so they didnt comment or vote. Or maybe people like me have to open a story scroll all the way to the bottom of it so they can jump to the last page to read the comments to help decide if it is something they really want to read. you said 113 people commented maybe only those 113 found it provacative enough to want to leave a comment.

 

[RejectReality]

The ratings are ridiculously easy to manipulate. Alone, they're virtually useless for the purposes of determining how your story was received.

 

[Blind_Justice]

15,000 views? does that mean 15K actually read it? maybe they started it and after a few pages didnt llike it so they didnt comment or vote. Or maybe people like me have to open a story scroll all the way to the bottom of it so they can jump to the last page to read the comments to help decide if it is something they really want to read. you said 113 people commented maybe only those 113 found it provacative enough to want to leave a comment.

Going by your logic, I should be in the bathtub, preparing the tazorblades. I said "113 voted, four commented". It's even far worse than you thought. Maybe only four people ACTUALLY finished my story.

I am worthless and will never write again because some random on the internet suggested my writing is bad. Which means that the series I started, of which I posted just one chapter, will never be finished.

Because you, terry88, have been mean to me.

It's your fault.

Happy?

 

[terry88]

Going by your logic, I should be in the bathtub, preparing the tazorblades. I said "113 voted, four commented". It's even far worse than you thought. Maybe only four people ACTUALLY finished my story.

I am worthless and will never write again because some random on the internet suggested my writing is bad. Which means that the series I started, of which I posted just one chapter, will never be finished.

Because you, terry88, have been mean to me.

It's your fault.

Happy?

LOL


I wanst trying to come across as a dick. I am just trying to point out the numbers are always off.

Why not just write for the shear joy or writing. why worry about comments and ratings? like I tried to say before someone will always say your work sucks so why not just ignore them. Hell Shakesphear, Hemmingway, Twain all the greats had bad reveiws. They still wrote

 

[Malraux]

Completion

Regarding Blind Justice, do we owe readers completed works?

Only if we respect them for taking the time to read.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Why not just write for the shear joy or writing. why worry about comments and ratings?

...then why post to Literotica at all? If you don't care about how readers react to your writing, why go to the bother of setting up an account and submitting stories?

For me, part of the "joy of writing" is making a connection with other human beings. So, yeah, reader reactions do matter, especially comments.

like I tried to say before someone will always say your work sucks so why not just ignore them. Hell Shakesphear, Hemmingway, Twain all the greats had bad reveiws. They still wrote

I'd be interested to hear more about Shakespeare's bad reviews - can you point me at some info about that?

But those guys also had good reviews, and most importantly, they were getting paid for their work. If you're willing to pay authors you'll probably find a vast improvement in the completion rate. A Literotica author who gets nothing positive from the audience, financial or otherwise... well, why would they bother?

One of the other recent threads in this forum is by a new author who posted 13 chapters in a series. The grand total of his feedback from readers was one homophobic comment on the last chapter, by some idiot who apparently hadn't figured out from the previous 12 chapters of male-male sex that chapter 13 was also going to have male-male sex.

If that was the only feedback I got, I certainly wouldn't feel much obligation to post chapter 14 - would you?

 

[rutger5]

The writers don't 'owe' the readers anything including a complete story though I concede it can be frustrating when a story that clearly hasn't ended just stops. As others have said real life can throw a wrench into the works and prevent completion of a story even when the writer planned to finish it. But one must remember that even an unfinished story took time to produce and this content is free so a reader has no recourse except to ask for their money back.

Also writers do become frustrated when they feel they are just spitting in the wind and say why bother. In that way votes, favorites, and the elusive comment can inspire a writer to keep going. No writers get paid for putting their stories here so if the reader likes a story give a moment to let them know by one or more of the methods available. It only takes a moment to let a writer know you enjoyed the story.

Having said this readers don't 'owe' the writer anything either so a writer expecting something may be setting themselves up for disappointment and resentment. Write and post if you want with no expectation is the best way though it is human nature to want recognition for one's efforts.

 

[Darkniciad]

Incomplete stories are an inevitability. Life happens.

Readers who can't stand them are going to have to take their own initiative. Look for notes on Ch. 01 saying the story is already complete, and will post regularly. ( I do this and suggest it to others ) Look for final chapters with titles or taglines that denote an ending to the story. Scroll to the last page of the last existing chapter, and look for "The End".

Don't start anything that doesn't have or reasonably promise a proper ending.

Laurel has demonstrated that she has no interest in removing any work that doesn't break guidelines or isn't requested by the author.

It is possible ( and has been suggested ) that there be a way for authors to mark stories as in-progress or complete, which would help going forward. As the new site design escapes beta testing and goes live, we get closer to that being a possibility.

 

[8letters]

I read primarily Incest and I don't bother with chapter stories for the most part.

The first time I went over to Sci-Fi & Fantasy once I was an author, I was shocked at how chapter stories totally dominate that category. Looking at the hub right now, there might be two complete stories on the new list. Some chapter numbers on the new list - 10, 14, 33, 13, 9, 75, 32, 7, 12, 31, 7, 9, 11, 30. I personally can't imagine going, "Part 75 was published today! Now, let me do a quick review of parts 1-74 before I start reading it." I've got to wonder if a story with that many chapters ever really ends.

I have started a fantasy story that would be a number of chapters. I want to finish it before I post the first chapter, but I have a tough time committing to that much writing without getting any feedback on how readers like the story.

On "The Wheel of Time" series, I guess I'm different than a lot of readers as I enjoyed the first few, but then I stopped because I realized that I had read an ~800 page novel and absolutely nothing of consequence had happened.

 

[RejectReality]

That is indeed a specific problem in the Sci-Fi&Fantasy category. They're not necessarily endless stories, but there is a strong trend toward full, novel-length stories. That takes a lot of chapters if you aren't posting them in 20k, 6 Lit page chunks.

"Danica" was something along the line of 425,000 words, in those 20k chunks, and it was still 20 chapters with a prelude and an Epilogue.

And it's Book 1.

SOTM is posting in approximately 10k chunks, and will likely be just as long, so you're looking at 40 some-odd chapters.

Trying to hold back and not start sharing something you've put that much time, worldbuilding, and character development into until it's complete? Easier said than done.

Lowborn was 50k words, and took me 5 years from first word to finally posting. A large chunk of that time in the middle was lost motivation combining with a sticky scene. If I'd been posting and receiving feedback, I'd probably have gotten past that sticky scene quicker, because I'd have had the positive pressure to keep thinking about it. As it was, I had a few bad days, got fed up, and barely looked at it for a couple of years.

 

[JasonClearwater]

...then why post to Literotica at all? If you don't care about how readers react to your writing, why go to the bother of setting up an account and submitting stories?

For me, part of the "joy of writing" is making a connection with other human beings. So, yeah, reader reactions do matter, especially comments.

I'm with you on this one. The difference between posting to Lit, vs just posting a book to Amazon, is the small chance of actually getting feedback.

I have a book in the works currently (Instance) where all ten parts are plotted (I say parts, because my chapters in the eventual published book will be much shorter), and took a risk in posting it chapter by chapter to the sci-fi category for a couple of reasons.

1) Early feedback on direction and characters - if I had any, it'd be helpful

2) Writing sci-fi, vs stroke fiction, actually requires forethought, planning, character sheets, background, world building to some degree, and then all the full craft of writing. It takes more time. It takes a lot more effort, and you hope from all this, you reap some reward - if not any kind of financial recompense, at least a couple of comments letting you know you didn't do a completely shit job.

But the readers owe the writers nothing, and the writers owe the readers nothing. I do believe you should do your best to post something coherent and as well edited as you can, without paying a professional (for free-posted work), but other than that, it's a story-sharing site.

But with no guidance or feedback, why would you post something that took that much effort, to a free forum? The numbers don't tell you how many people finished your work, only that they opened it.

The scores are dragged down by 1-bombs from pricks who have nothing better to do, and as someone else said, are easy to manipulate.

I think it's natural for any creative to want validation and feedback. Now, I would (will) write at the same rate regardless, and I've already put down over 300,000 words on this site in the last nine months, and had some good feedback, and the odd troll comment.

But if there's no feedback, I may as well go back to the Amazon grind, and work on marketing myself on a platform where the audience is more willing to engage.

I think the lack of engagement IS most likely why a lot of these stories die. Who knows, maybe they continue somewhere else.

For me, I had a delay between chapter one and chapter two due to significant life events that meant I couldn't concentrate on something that required actual brain power, so I worked on other stories until I could concentrate properly.

But it's no one's fault, either way.

 

[gordo12]

I am an avid Scify fan. There are so many great stories on here that have been left unfinished. I have gotten to the point of looking at a story and junmping to the last chapter and reading the comments to see if it has been completed or not. It pisses me off to see a story published in say 2006 it has 10 chapters ad then it is not finished. It just seems to happen more in the Scify genre than any other. Maybe authors get so involved in the story they just dont know how to wrap it up and finsh the tale. Who knows. This was just my rant of the day. LOL

Download Kindle reader. Go to Amazon and search science fiction in books. Choose any sub genre you like (left side). Arrange books by price lowest to highest. Pickup 5-10 FREE books that are complete, every week.

Give a satisfied sigh!