I have a bunch of incomplete stories and my writing has slowed down. I may never finish them.
I have two options 1. don't ever post them. 2. Post them but I will never complete them. What should I do. I have had too many complaints about unfinished stories, that is why I ask. If I post them please don't complain that they aren't finished.
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Unfinished stories
I have a lot of them, some of them have parts posted here.
To my mind, an unfinished story is nothing to worry about. Either you will eventually finish them or you won't but even unfinished, stories have value. One of the most highly regarded short stories ever written was never finished: Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis.
Most lives are unfinished stories. For my part, post them and ignore the complaints.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Completed stories
If I were to wait until my life was finished to tell my story, I would have to hire a ghost writer.
Please post them
My vote is for you to please post them.
No exit
Go ahead and post them, but please please please preface them with a note explaining that they are unfinished and possibly never will be. As there are many folks (just like me) who get frustrated by finding themselves at the end of an endless story, a cul-de-sac warning should preclude any complaints.
Unfinished Stories
Obviously it's all a matter of personal preference, but I don't like to read unfinished stories, since for any straightforward narrative, the payoff is important. I know that the journey can be and often will be more interesting than the destination, but if one reads the way I do, they really have to know how it comes out, and why it comes out that way, for it to be satisfying.
Even a traditional shaggy dog story, in which an elaborate recounting leads up to a lame punchline, isn't effective and is probably pointless without that punchline.
That said, if you're going to post them, I'd urge you to identify stories that you expect never to finish in the header.
Something you might (or might not) want to consider:
It seems to me that unfinished stories can usefully be placed in three categories. (I'm excluding soap-opera type serials which aren't intended to end because new storylines keep being added as the older ones play out.)
First is a story start in which the author has come up with characters and a background that interest her, but she has little or no idea where the story is going and where it'll end up. If one decides to post a story like that, there's not much she can do to supplement it.
The second would be a story in which the beginning and end are known to the author, but she doesn't know what will happen in between. Depending on the details, annoyingly linear readers like me could find it useful if she published a spoiler explaining where the story was headed.
The third is a story where a synopsis or outline is complete (mentally or in writing), but the story is unfinished. Plenty of reasons: perhaps some of the intervening scenes are causing difficulty. It might be that additional subplots or developments are necessary to make it an interesting story, or that the ones that were planned aren't fitting together well enough. Or it may involve a quasi-permanent lack of time, interest or availability for the item in question. In that case, posting a summary -- which the author, depending on her writing habits, may have already prepared or nearly so -- might be rewarding to readers like me.
Eric
BTW, Paula, I hope you'll get back to The Diary. But if it's not in your plans, I hope you'll let us know where it was headed == or at least which of my three categories it falls into.
It's probably a good idea for every writer...
...to find and cherish a literary executor.
Alternatively, one could simply make it clear that one's stories are released into the public cloud so that some like-minded writer who likes to work within a "universe" or general outline already defined by another might finish it in the sure and certain inevitability of one's eventual demise.
In the long view, no work is ever "finished," because the author might eventually revise and/or expand it. Writing is a sort of conversation in which one party (the author) does most of the talking and another (nominally, a reader) does most of the listening, so just because one topic of this long conversation seems to peter out it doesn't mean that the conversation has stopped. Things change; things happen; some endings are new beginnings.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
If you post your stories,
you can seek an author to continue the story. That has been done, before
May Your Light Forever Shine
Though they are only breath...
...words that I speak are immortal.
— Sappho of Lesbos
We note that we have exactly zero "finished" works by Sappho, yet they are widely renowned as among the finest poetry in any language.
While few of us may aspire to similar fame, our words are all we truly leave behind us, the footprints of our passage through the world.
Publish everything and be damned to critics right and left; someone may read those fragments and be inspired to think, to act, or to speak.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
IF
Yes, there are many unfinished stories here... Many people do not like reading them. Others don't mind and in fact like to read them as they imagine what could come next. (Some stories are intentionally 'unfinished'... Well, the author says they're finished but readers want more.)
I don't see anything wrong with posting an unfinished story... But, if you don't intend to finish the story I would suggest you add a "flag" stating the story is unfinished and mark it "complete"... If at some future date you decide to start writing again and finish one of them, you can always update the story (either as a continuation or a "part 2") and remove the "unfinished" flag.
Your call. It probably depends on how close to "finished" a given story is...
Annette
Post Them as
it may be that commentators may help you find the Muse for them, of course Finding the time to write seems to be impossible at times. I for instance have been loaded up with 4 large IT projects, so the Doctor Who story I was working on is on the back burner again, and a 3rd Jasmine relating is in need of polish that will have to wait. So post and I'll read try to find time to comment as well
Goddess Bless you
Love Desiree
"Never" is a very long time
Who know what the future may bring? I have probably a hundred or more started but not yet finished stories. Every now and again, I'll blow the dust off them and maybe one will trigger my imagination and I go on to finish it. Perhaps some day in the future, I'll have plenty of time on my hands and and be able to finish many more.
My advice is never say never. Hold onto them and then publish if you ever complete them. Certainly, I would never publish an unfinished story, or intentionally read anyone else's, except for...
Maybe brief a friend to publish them as a memorial when you have left this earth.