A story started is a contract with the readers that you will do your best to complete it but that does not guarantee that it will happen promptly.

But this site is constructed for authors to try new things. There is a flag to warn readers that it is a work in process. Unless the complete flag is set when posting begins then you should know there is no guarantee that it ever will be except for that implicit contract.

With the editing at will feature, it means that what is written in previous chapters are not set in stone. If you need to eradicate that problem from your story world, you can do it. changing what you wrote before to enable you to proceed is a time honored tradition. Remember the Batman cliffhangers where in the first part it ended with Batman in peril that there was no way out. In the pick up part, they back tracked and included all of the elements that were missing in the last episode that permitted Batman to escape. If you write yourself into a corner, it's better to note to your readers that you edited previous chapters to permit you to continue rather than just leave it as only a dead end. Maybe it is not the story you started to tell, but perhaps it will be better just with what you learned by trial and error.

A story in process can become a collaborative effort between readers providing positive feedback and an author. I personally use this method to post since, for those stories of mine which capture the imagination of readers, I have turned the story in ways that I might not have without feedback.

There are many things to prevent a story from being posted even if it is complete before posting begins. Just since the story has been completed before posting is no guarantee that it will get to the site. The Author could die or be somehow incapacitated. An author may decide to go stealth and withdraw their stories so they can be a bit less fearful of being found out in their new life. And the author might just withdraw the story incomplete if they have found a way to publish it to actually get paid.

Just remember that most of us do not start out here as professional authors. In order to learn how to effectively write, there can be a lot of trial and error. It's important to not be short sighted with this venue which has been designed to give writers a chance to grow. I once asked Erin about posting unfinished stories. She has many many unfinished stories herself and she feels that posting unfinished stories is permissible. If Our leader here says it is okay, then I do not feel like any reader should expect more than Erin herself expects.

It would be different if this were a site where you were paying to read stories and the authors were being paid. The author that posts an unfinished story now, may next post that complete story that you treasure and read over and over. That is the value of permitting trial and error like Erin does since it ensures that there will be a future with writers paying it forward by posting for free stories here that they could be selling as a thank you for the site giving them a chance to post unfinished stories for the feedback they needed to learn their craft

So give the authors who are learning and being creative a chance. You never know when they will turn that unfinished story into a masterpiece that you will treasure. I know that instant gratification is what is the culture now. But most stories don't arise full grown women like Athena from the skull of Zeus. They have to grow as the writers grow.

Please give us writers a chance to grow, be creative and learn. We will surprise you with the outcome.