Well, this weekend has dealt me pressure I didn't expect to face and landed me in the awkward position of disappointing readers... something I promised to never do again.
With Focal Point's start being reposted as a BCTS Classic, it's gotten people reading my long dead work all over again and sadly, many are finding out that like a lot of my work back then, it was unfinished. This wasn't intentional, but it happened and It was something I promised I would never do again.
This is why when I posted Driftwood, Angel, and Fake It, I promised that I would have them either finished, or the entire story mapped out and a minimum of 80% completion before I could start posting a story. I didn't want to do that again and disappoint others AND myself.
Frankly, Focal Point, Haifa, and others are stories written in my youth, a child with little knowledge of the world and so few life experiences. I was young, busy and distracted. I loved writing but University, love, graduation, and finding a career all jumped out of nowhere and threw my writing life into turmoil. Around the time this ended, I'm pretty sure I broke my back too! (I've had a busy life)
Who am I now? a totally different woman, honestly. I've gained experience and I've learned so much more about writing, so the opportunity to go back and just 'finish' some of the old childish works I wrote is really impossible.
I rewrote two, as you know, Angel and Fake It both took old unfinished works and made them whole... hell, Homework Spawned Fake It which will spawn an entire series... that caught me by surprise.
I'm sorry if this is a little rambly, but I suppose I feel a little cornered and guilty at the moment and I'm sorry. I never wanted Focal Point reposting and I apologize if it gave you false hope.
IF I do redo it, it won't be soon as I have ongoing projects at the moment.
Love,
Alyssa
Comments
I fully understand……….
But I will confess that I am just as bothered as the next person when I find a good story only to reach a point where the author has abandoned it - for whatever legitimate reason.
Having read some of your older work, as well as your newer work, I can honestly say that I liked all of it, whether new or old.
All I ask is that you keep writing, keep sharing your talent with me. That will be enough to make me happy. Your work has found a home in my pantheon of favorite stories, which makes you one of my favorite authors.
But if you did get the itch to finish some of your older stories, I am certainly not going to complain, lol.
Just be happy and keep writing.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Unfinished stories.
I can understand your feeling over the republication of some of your earlier works. I was so disappointed not to get an ending to "Faking it!" I hope you can get the inspiration to wrap it up for us. The fact that the baddies were looking for a "Fake woman" limits the number of guilty suspects to those in the room within MI6 with Sharon and Harriet. If you don't feel the urge to finish it yourself then perhaps offer it to the BC readership to take a stab at it as fan fiction?
Take care. Iona
Penny
No woman steps in the same river twice
One of my friends here told me she couldn't bring herself to revise a story she had written years before, because that wouldn't be fair to the woman she had been when she wrote it. That makes sense to me. Even if you finished the story, the ending would still be by a different author.
— Emma
Thank you Kit
For posting this, and making things clear.
Teri Ann
"Reach for the sun."
I can see how that happens
I lurked here and other story sites for some time before I posted anything. I saw the situation that befell you happen to many authors. Perhaps you can take solace in knowing you are not alone.
When I first started posting I was very concerned that I too would fall to that mistake. I would not allow myself to contribute to the unfinished pile. It seems my fears were justified as is evidenced by the size of my bone pile of unfinished work on my hard drive. Some of them are decades old.
Occasionally, I'll pick up one and finish it (I did two for the "One Dozen Roses" anthology and "Dumb Bet" [my best received story] was picked up after eight years). But that's rare. It's really difficult to pick up a story that's lain fallow for a long while and breathe life into it again.
Other authors, like the inimitable Emma Anne Tate seem to thrive on the post as you write model. I admire that in others, but can't emulate it for myself.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann