Abandoned stories

[option]

Abandoned stories - what to do about them?

 

Going through efiction, keep coming across so many abandoned stories, ones that are multi-chaptered, but the chapters havnt been posted, & the authors have disappeared.

 

 

eg; 1st chapter has this note "There are currently 8 chapters that I will be posting about once a week."

Published: 06/16/2010 Updated: 06/17/2010

user

Last Active: Jul 25 2010 03:12 PM

 

theres only been the 1st chapter posted

 

Im going to assume that the stories been abandoned, & it makes it a lot less likely that I start reading any of their other stories.

 

 

 

Is there any way of 'encouraging' authors to actually finish a story?

Could authors flag a story as abandoned if they choose not to finish it?

 

Have authors been emailed about the new publishing system, to inform them that theyll have to move their stories over, & to encourage them to continue?

 

Could readers have a 'please finish this story' button with a rating/feedback system

then, say once a week, authors get the stats from that emailed to them

 

 

 

I know authors dont get anything from posting stories

but, they presumably want people to read their stories, rate them, review them, ie. commit to doing something

surely a reader could then have a commitment from an author to do their best to finish a story, or to at least communicate with their readers as to its status?

[thatboyChase]

the joy of this website is there are no rules (none that i have read and i actually haven't' read any of the rules) that require us to finish. the happiness of the various fans connected to the work can help promote/push you along i suppose. for me, I go at my own pace. I'm not a good writer, im very bad at grammar and i go around in circles. Sometimes i can pump out tons of words and sometimes i'll go months without having any want to write at all. then again, writing comes naturally to some and they can pump out story after story like some of the guys here.

 

i'm sure people urge the authors to complete their work, the side status updates people do that all the time. also the fact you mentioned you won't read their work anymore cause they abandoned a story is slightly childish, don't you think? there is also a rating feedback system, email, messaging, hundreds of ways to communicate.for me when i put up stuff whenever i do, i don't have a huge readership but i get the small amounts of feedback i want. Sometimes it is sugar coated, but there is the occasional person that will come along and actually really want to talk about the work with you, meanings, context, arguments etc.

[jon-jon]

Ah! My pet peeve.

When I first discovered Nifty, I naively started stories with 20-30 chapters posted only to find that the last one posted wasn't the end and the story had never been finished. That's a lot of time and reading to put in only to end up with an unfinished story. And of course Nifty does not identify whether a story has been completed. Nor does Dabeagle's Library. GA at least shows a status.

My solution is to go to the last chapter of the story and check the end paragraph for a conclusion or for "The End". Of course you risk spoiling any surprise ending that way, but hey, sometimes you just have to take a chance.

[chedder]

I think we get spoiled by authors like Mark Arbour. There are other authors who don't update for months (going on years now) so when they eventually do I end up re-reading/re-discovering their stories. So when a story seems abandoned I just enjoy it for what it is, keep an eye out, and hope it gets concluded at some point.

[Cia]

I am not really sure what will happen to stories that have been abandoned in e-fiction when the changeover occurs. I don't think that has even been completely decided yet. I do know that in e-fiction if you look at the story 'stats' just by clicking on the title you can see word counts, chaper counts, completed-yes or no. It is easy enough to see if the story has been finished or not which helps the readers decide if they want to put in the effort to read. I absolutely love to read long stories that allow me to become completely involved in the world created by the writer. Getting that involved and never getting the ending is frustrating to be sure. I try to remember that these people are writing and posting for 'fun' for the most part this isn't what they do so sometimes life gets in the way. It's still annoying but I try to understand. Then I try to track them down and nag them to finish stuff, that brings its own satisfaction

[Arpeggio]

I'm a story abandon-er >_>

 

Of course, I only ever posted one thing, I just got sick.

Edited October 21, 2010 by Arpeggio

[hh5]

I do the same but sometimes I do a google search for the story and sometimes I am lucky to find more of the story and most times not.

 

I think we get spoiled by authors like Mark Arbour. There are other authors who don't update for months (going on years now) so when they eventually do I end up re-reading/re-discovering their stories. So when a story seems abandoned I just enjoy it for what it is, keep an eye out, and hope it gets concluded at some point.

[Caedus]

As others have already mentioned above, there are already ways for you to tell if a story is abandoned or in extended stasis. The choice is up to you on how you handle it. If you can't deal with incomplete stories, DONT READ THEM. It's as simple as that. Or read them and enjoy the stories for what they are.

 

If your going to communicate with an author, please don't waste an email whining about how they didn't complete the story, and how messed up it was that they left you at a cliffie. A much better option would be to try to engage the author in a conversation about the story and what you may of liked/disliked about plot, character deleveopment, underlying themes, etc.

 

You may not be able to convince them to finish a story, but you may come out of it with a better understanding of the story (maybe even some closure?), and the author can recieve constructive feedback on their story.

[JamesSavik]

Why do stories get abandoned? There are a number of reasons.

 

Sometimes the author runs out of talent before he finishes the story. *blushes*

 

Sometimes real life events or situations change and make it impossible for an author to finish a story.

 

A lack of feedback may tell an author that there is no interest in the story.

 

There was a popular author who wrote a story that his fans didn't like the way it turned out and started stalking him.

 

Some authors drop a story in favor of another.

[methodwriter85]

Mark Arbour wrote "On The Mark", this great autobiographical story, but he never finished. John Walsh wrote the autographical "Fraternity Memoirs", and he never finished either. Both of them stopped because emotionally, they couldn't handle reliving their past through the story. Mark went on four years later to start his epic CAP saga, and JW just moved on with his life and never wrote again.

 

I really don't think we should chatise authors for not finishing their stories. Sometimes they don't have the time. Sometimes they don't have the imaginative juice left to finish. Sometimes an author gets sick or they need to take care of someone who is sick. And sometimes the story is taking them emotionally into places that they just don't want to go into. One to thing to remember is that, unless you're going for the premenium, these authors are doing a free service. There's an expectation that they'll finish the story, but they are under no obligation to do so considering these stories are free of charge.

 

Like someone said, here at GA you'll know whether a story is finished or not. I don't see what the big deal is.

Edited October 21, 2010 by methodwriter85

[Westie]

Mark Arbour wrote "On The Mark", this great autobiographical story, but he never finished. John Walsh wrote the autographical "Fraternity Memoirs", and he never finished either. Both of them stopped because emotionally, they couldn't handle reliving their past through the story. Mark went on four years later to start his epic CAP saga, and JW just moved on with his life and never wrote again.

 

 

[JamesSavik]

That's why I stalled on Broken. I came to a part that was making me sick writing about.

[Eddy]

 

Like someone said, here at GA you'll know whether a story is finished or not. I don't see what the big deal is.

 

The immediate problem with this approach is the need to read the story BEFORE you can assume it -- has been finished -- has not been finished -- or you just DON'T know. I've been there - done that -- enough to know that I now read NOTHING that I know is unfinished! The down side of this approach is that if an author doesn't state, in some fashion, that the story IS finished -- then I just don't read it.

 

My lose maybe in some cases, but I am tired of reading a story only to be left hanging. I read for enjoyment and to pass time. At 73 I have earned the right to pander myself *smiles from ear to ear* and read what I want -- when I want. But it must be finished first!

[option]

Like someone said, here at GA you'll know whether a story is finished or not. I don't see what the big deal is.

 

which isnt what my post was about

i wasnt talking about 'in progress' stories

 

i was specifically referring to stories that have been 'abandoned', where there has been no updates for months or years, & with no information whatsoever as to whether there is even any intention to finish the story.

 

if an author has to/chooses to abandon a story, for whatever reason, whats preventing them from at least putting a note up, simply stating that the story has been abandoned?

they dont have to state why

 

 

 

although the updates arnt frequent, i stick with 'Beloved' as the author has already completed a major story

same with 'Circumnavigation'

 

whereas with the example in my first post, that author dosnt have a single completed/finished story on efiction

if they come back & start yet another story, why would anyone start to read it, when all the indications are that they wont complete it?

if the author had flagged them as abandoned, a reader can at least take that into account, know that there was some issue with the stories, & give the author a fresh start with any new stories they post/publish

 

 

 

maybe its something that could be included in tags:

completed

in progress

on hiatus

abandoned

[Agaith]

I am currently writing a story but until im sure i can finish it i won't even think about posting it, in order to allow people to have all the story in the end or be able to say 'it didnt pan out' and move onto another project.

[Matthew k]

Mark Arbour wrote "On The Mark", this great autobiographical story, but he never finished.

Arbour doesn't need to finish "On The Mark" per se, he just needs to do an epilogue on what happened to "Mark", how and why he left CA and what happened to the other characters.

 

And I haven't abandoned any stories (I just take long breaks), but as anyone who writes can tell you, your "muse" sometimes leaves. Sometimes real life intervenes when the writing is a hobby.

 

And when you start out writing well, it is very hard to keep up the quality. As much as I love John Grisham, nothing he has written since his first book, A Time to Kill, has been as good as that first book, except maybe Playing For Pizza. That is one reason I admired Tony Hillerman so much, his quality never wavered.

[Krista]

Do you really know what is truly abandoned? It does suck seeing authors post something and then seemingly never come back to it though. I'm guilty of that myself. I do though try to make an attempt to tell people what my writing plans on so they can made their decisions on whether or not they read that story or wait until I'm back to it.

[methodwriter85]

Arbour doesn't need to finish "On The Mark" per se, he just needs to do an epilogue on what happened to "Mark", how and why he left CA and what happened to the other characters.

Mark updated us on "Derek", his blue-collar friend that introduced him to sex. Derek died in the late 1980's from AIDS. The last time Mark saw him, Derek was a bum who was sick and living on the streets.

 

I don't think Mark "needs" to do anything, and knowing how painful it was for Mark to write those sentences about what happened to Derek basically just makes me hate it when people get pushy about wanting the writers to update their chapters.

[VickyS]

Yes, there is a difference I agree, bewteen "stories in progress" & "stories abandoned".... Most of the people here seem to be tolerant enough about delays in the continuation of the stories in progress. Its great for the writers. And yes, the best way to get some one to post or finish a story is to give them some honest feedback. Few words of appreciation. What else do the writers want, what else do they aim for, when they begin penning a story. Not a raw deal, I wud say.

 

About finishing the entire story before posting it - well, I am sure there are people who can pull this off. but its too daunting a task for me. I mean I wouldnt want to spend months on writing a story only to discover later that it will have no takers when finally I do post the entire thing.

[Matthew k]

Mark updated us on "Derek", his blue-collar friend that introduced him to sex. Derek died in the late 1980's from AIDS. The last time Mark saw him, Derek was a bum who was sick and living on the streets.

 

I don't think Mark "needs" to do anything, and knowing how painful it was for Mark to write those sentences about what happened to Derek basically just makes me hate it when people get pushy about wanting the writers to update their chapters.

In a sense I think Mark does need to finish the story; to bring closure to it. He never needed to start it and he never needed to post it online, but once he did I think there is an obligation to see it through and I feel that away about any author who starts a story. Lots of people have gone through pain in recalling and writing stories. I know James Savick did and there are many professional writers who have had to dredge up painful memories, but they did so because they were stories that needed to be told and maybe partly because they were catharsis.

[option]

 

Like someone said, here at GA you'll know whether a story is finished or not. I don't see what the big deal is.

 

http://www.gayauthor...sid=221&index=1

 

Book 1 of this story is finished, & the author has stated that book 2 wont be on GA, so for the purposes of efiction the story is finished/completed

 

Chapters: 28 Completed: No

Word count: 101993 Read: 25185

Published: 11/13/2006 Updated: 05/13/2007

 

yet the field for 'completed' indicates no

 

 

so if I searched efiction for completed stories, it wouldnt find this one

 

 

 

 

 

 

now found a story thats only got 2 chapters in efiction, but 8 on the authors hosted page, with no info on the efiction chapters as to that fact.

can see how moving to one system for everything will make it so much better

[jon-jon]

Speak of the Devil! I just read Dom Luka's With Trust only to get to chapter 21 and find that it is not finished.

 

I'm not finding anything anywhere that lets you know ahead of time that the story is "in progress". Of course, since there are no time signatures on the chapters, I have no way of knowing if the story has been "abandoned".

 

This sort of thing just pisses me off.

[Nephylim]

From my point of view the yes/no in efiction as to whether a story is completed or not means whether it has been completely posted or not. I'm not sure if I've got that right or not. ALL of my stories are completed before I start posting for two reasons. First I don't like the pressure of having to write to keep up with posting and two I often go back and change parts of my story as other things come up and need to be tied in. I suppose that this is because I don't plan out my stories in advance. But surely then that means that people who are posting as they go do have a plan for the story and therefore should be able to post through to the end.

 

I don't know, but I do know that it frustrates me when I get into a story, which I often do, only to then have it abandoned before it's finished.

 

 

[DragonFire]

To be honest there is very little you can do. There could be any number of reasons why a story has been left without an update for some time.

 

I'm a prime example, not posted a chapter since the middle of last year, not because I abandoned them, but because real life got very complicated & hectic. The last thing on my mind was writing, when real issues were demanding attention. Yeah I got the usual snotty e-mails, which I just refused to dignify with an answer, because frankly it was no-ones business but my own.

 

I do know how frustrating it can be reading a story only to find it's incomplete, but there are 2 sides to every coin. More often than not there is a very good reason why it's been left & hassling the author will never bring any result except silence.

 

As for my own work, I’m writing again, when time allows of course. So even after a long break I do plan to continue.

 

 

[TrevorTime]

I won't even start a story unless I know ahead of time that it has been completed. So even though I'm a big time Domaholic, I have to refrain from reading "With Trust" at the current time.

Edited November 15, 2010 by TrevorTime