The WTF on WIPs
May. 5th, 2003 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynSo, I've never been tempted to write anything in WIP format. For one thing, I hate even reading that way; it wasn't till I found a really good X-Files writer (waves at Olivia!) who was working on an incredible M/Sk WIP that I changed my reading rules and started an unfinished one; recently in Buffy I put aside my fears to read ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
onetwomany's luscious Offerings. Most others I've waited till they were complete, or else I read in progress and then ended up with an irrational hatred of the author because they never finished them, and probably never will.
So. All the more peculiar that I find myself wondering if this isn't the way to go on something new. Only I was talking about my dilemma withfeochadn and movies_michelle the other night, and they both gave me the extreme "die, bitch, die" evil eye when I mentioned that I was already at nearly 4,000 words and wasn't even close to the end of the first chapter yet and didn't know what else to do but post in chunks. Now I'm at 5,000 and not close to the end of the first chapter. Sigh. And I mean, I get that evil eye, because I often hate the WIP idea -- far too often it's an excuse to milk praise, or it's abandoned by lazy, unfocused writers, or even energetic and focused writers become bored with the story or the fandom or the pairing, or what have you. Buffy's been an odd fandom for me in that I think the vast majority of stuff seems to be in WIP format, or else series, or snippets in LJ that you might have to string together. And they're by astonishingly good writers (this is a rich, rich fandom -- even if you think it's full of crap? You have no idea how many insanely good writers there are in this fandom, trust an ancient, picky-ass editor bitch like me), so I feel more compelled to read these.
It's made even worse by the fact that it's such a lame story -- yet another of the five million Spike as human stories, which... I also generally hate. I can rarely tolerate reading them; now I'm writing one. Sigh. I'm trying to takeginmar's advice that it will be different because it's mine, and to focus on the emotional stuff to get me over plot hurdles, but still... a type of story I don't like, in a format I don't generally support? I feel like a ho. My head is bowed in shame.
What's the general consensus on WIPs? Is it just very accepted in Buffy fandom, and I shouldn't worry about it? Do people just give up ahead of time because they've been burned by unfinished WIPs, and not read if they see the dreaded initials? Or is the whole thing just taken in stride? Would you rather wait for something to be finished, even if it's a looonggg wait, and do you think many others share the same opinion you do? What if the WIP doesn't go the way you want it to, or changes direction, or starts out bad and you give up, only it might get better later? I'm mostly curious about how people feel about these things, because I feel really weird about it, personally. I'm not even sure I know how to write this way. I suppose I could figure out how to do an LJ poll and ask people to tell me what they want me to do! Then I'd really be a ho! ;-)
onetwomany's luscious Offerings. Most others I've waited till they were complete, or else I read in progress and then ended up with an irrational hatred of the author because they never finished them, and probably never will.So. All the more peculiar that I find myself wondering if this isn't the way to go on something new. Only I was talking about my dilemma with
feochadn and movies_michelle the other night, and they both gave me the extreme "die, bitch, die" evil eye when I mentioned that I was already at nearly 4,000 words and wasn't even close to the end of the first chapter yet and didn't know what else to do but post in chunks. Now I'm at 5,000 and not close to the end of the first chapter. Sigh. And I mean, I get that evil eye, because I often hate the WIP idea -- far too often it's an excuse to milk praise, or it's abandoned by lazy, unfocused writers, or even energetic and focused writers become bored with the story or the fandom or the pairing, or what have you. Buffy's been an odd fandom for me in that I think the vast majority of stuff seems to be in WIP format, or else series, or snippets in LJ that you might have to string together. And they're by astonishingly good writers (this is a rich, rich fandom -- even if you think it's full of crap? You have no idea how many insanely good writers there are in this fandom, trust an ancient, picky-ass editor bitch like me), so I feel more compelled to read these.It's made even worse by the fact that it's such a lame story -- yet another of the five million Spike as human stories, which... I also generally hate. I can rarely tolerate reading them; now I'm writing one. Sigh. I'm trying to take
ginmar's advice that it will be different because it's mine, and to focus on the emotional stuff to get me over plot hurdles, but still... a type of story I don't like, in a format I don't generally support? I feel like a ho. My head is bowed in shame.What's the general consensus on WIPs? Is it just very accepted in Buffy fandom, and I shouldn't worry about it? Do people just give up ahead of time because they've been burned by unfinished WIPs, and not read if they see the dreaded initials? Or is the whole thing just taken in stride? Would you rather wait for something to be finished, even if it's a looonggg wait, and do you think many others share the same opinion you do? What if the WIP doesn't go the way you want it to, or changes direction, or starts out bad and you give up, only it might get better later? I'm mostly curious about how people feel about these things, because I feel really weird about it, personally. I'm not even sure I know how to write this way. I suppose I could figure out how to do an LJ poll and ask people to tell me what they want me to do! Then I'd really be a ho! ;-)
