Should I Post My Story As a Work in Progress?
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| Title: | Should I Post My Story As a Work in Progress? |
| Creator: | Jintian |
| Date(s): | "last revised January 6, 2001" |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Should I Post My Story As a Work in Progress? |
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Should I Post My Story As a Work in Progress? is an essay by Jintian
It was posted to the X-Files website Working Stiffs in early 2001.
Some Topics Discussed
- the pros and cons of posting WIPs
- places to post fic
- betas
Excerpts
Ah, the Work in Progress. I don't think there's any method of posting long fanfics that has provoked quite the love/hate relationship of the WIP. If you've ever seen one of the discussions on the newsgroup or the big mailing lists, you know what I'm talking about. If not, here's a quick summation of the basic pros and cons to posting a WIP, as I see it:
Pro: Posting parts as they're written allows an author to interest readers in the story before it's finished and perhaps stake an early claim in particular plotlines.
Con: Sometimes other issues get in the way of an author's intended posting schedule (writer's block, real life hassles, etc). Thus, the wait between parts can be long.
Pro: Getting feedback during the writing process is A Good Thing. Sometimes this can even lead a writer to story ideas they'd never have thought of otherwise.
Con: Those long waits can disappoint readers or even anger them. I've seen quite a few readers state that they were turned off of WIPs in general by one or two stories. This is not A Good Thing.
But. Let's say you've got an idea for a long fic. Maybe you've even got a sizable chunk of it written already. You're just not sure if you can finish it any time soon. Let's say also that you've weighed the risks above, and you want to start posting it as a WIP anyway. Well, here's the single most important thing I think every author of a potential long fic needs to ask herself:
Where the hell is this story going to end up?
I'm not going to preach about outlines, since I tend to spend lots of time drawing them up only to abandon them at the last moment. A couple of WIP authors I highly respect don't even bother to do that. But I will say that the more complicated your plotline gets, the harder it will be to keep things straight down the line, especially when you get towards the end and need to start wrapping plot threads up.
So when you ask yourself this question about the outcome of your plot, think about some of these other issues:
Are there going to be any twists? Are you going to tell a straight story or will you drop some misleading clues along the way? What do you expect the climax of the story to be? What kinds of narrative hooks will you sprinkle in to keep readers interested?
Hopefully, you'll be able to sketch out some answers to these questions. But what to do next?
Well, you could find yourself a beta reader (or two, or three). Preferably someone you already know, either a friend or someone whose writing style you appreciate. Most definitely someone who realizes that you need them for the long haul. And I highly recommend that at least one beta be good at detecting plot holes. With all the alert XF fanfic readers we have out there, you don't want to write yourself into the kind of bind where Skinner is supposed to be knocking on the hotel room door, only you sorta forgot to put him on the plane out of DC. (That's a lame example, but you get my drift.)
But keep in mind that once you get started posting, sometimes your regular readers can be good betas as well. They can point things out that you and your team may have missed, or simply give good suggestions for plot and characterization.
If your betas are willing to bat around plot points with you, by all means take the opportunity. Sometimes what makes complete sense in your own head will have someone else going, "Huh?" Then, once you actually start writing the raw material, they can jump in and do the beta thing on your drafts.
How about where to post? A lot of authors post parts to the newsgroup alt.tv.x-files.creative (ATXC), or they use a fanfic mailing list. Just give each part an appropriate subject header like "NEW: Great American Fanfic (WIP, part 1/?)" This is the best way of letting people know you have a story in the works. The risk with these methods, however, is that if you want to go back and revise previous parts, the old stuff will still be on Usenet and in the list archives.
Actually, going back and revising can be difficult whether you post publically or not, because people will still have read the old versions. The alternative posting method, for those who don't need the publicity, is to make a website specifically for the story and put all the parts up there. You can then get rid of the old unrevised versions, but people will still have read them. However, I've found that most people are very understanding about the need to edit story material, and if they like the story they're usually more than willing to go back and read the revisions.
The advantage to using a website is that you will have all the posted parts of the story in one (relatively) easy to find place. Readers can bookmark it and come back to check for updates at their convenience. For that matter, instead of posting the actual parts of your WIP to ATXC or to mailing lists, you can simply post "pointer" messages that let people know you've updated and what URL they can go to. This takes care of the unrevised parts being in the public domain.
One final bit of advice. The story is, above all, *yours*. That means it's up to you to present it well, wherever and however you post, whether it comes to formatting or plotting. By the same token, it's up to you to decide whether the WIP process works for the story. I'm not one of those people who think that WIP authors necessarily owe it to their readers to finish. Control of a story should at all times remain with its creator. However, I am one of those people who thinks it's only courteous for a WIP author to make every *effort* to finish.
No one can predict the future, obviously -- there will certainly be times when real life takes precedence over fanfic. But once you start posting a WIP, you're probably going to get some readers who will be invested in the story. I'm speaking in terms of time, bandwidth, and yes, emotion. So be prepared for others to have certain expectations of your commitment to the story. I for one fully believe that readers are just as important to fanfic as the writers, and when it comes to WIPs they deserve every consideration.