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Like nearly everyone else here, I enjoy these stories, some more than others.
I encourage all of the authors to continue writting so I can continue reading.
One thing I would like to see is some way to track the status of the various series being written.
I haven't counted, but there must be dozens, if not hundreds of series on this site, most still in work.
Now I do have trouble following each of these many different story lines I would like to know when one series is completed (or at least when a major portion of it is done), so I can read it all at one setting.
I know that there are many who agree with me, just as there are many who won't; but this is one woman's opinion.
Gerri
Comments
Gerri
Just to let you know, If you look at my stuff, I usually finish the story before I begin to post.
Usually, I prefer a story to be complete, so that I can read it as I have the time. (Or..., at
least I used to.) My latest is all but complete. It was fully written, and I was posting, when
I actually lost about 150-160 pages to a computer nmishap. I am rewriting it now though, and have
secured the services of two good editors to help me with proofing as I post.
I always marked my stories as "Complete" if it is a stand alone, or as "Completed" if it is to
be published in parts. I only publish in parts, to make the coding and things less confusing for
me, as I get them ready for posting!
Erin made some rules as to how we were to mark stories as complete, after I'd been doing this for a
while, and I always try to make her life as easy as possible, by following the rules. In this case,
I may well go back to marking each chapter/part/posting as being part of a completed story.
So now you know. Go to the tags and search for 'Complete', or 'Completed', and let me know what you
think.
The Unicorn series will not leave you hanging, provided nothing happens to me in the next couple of w
eeks.
Also, and more importantly:
There are many series out there that are just left hanging. Some are just wonderful. I find it
heartbreaking when you read one, and then find that the author loses interest.
On the freakish chance I am one of them ...
I've not given up, I'm just a slow typist.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Perhaps you should consider Dictation...
... And, if you can't find anyone willing to listen to you dictate - voice recognition... :-)
I can think of a few series that I was following that appear to have "languished" on the pile... Some, if you would believe it, by authors that are still posting here. (I wasn't referring to you John, you've said your stories aren't languising... They're stuck in your Smith Corona.) Yes, that is frustrating, a story building to a climax and then Poof. Where did it go.
On the other hand, I seem to enjoy some serials just as much as complete stories. (Though I prefer to read LONG stories on paper, and I hesitate to kill too many trees printing.)
And the "COMPLETE" tag Erin introduced has been used by some recently (myself included). Perhaps an "abandoned" tag to be "automaticaly" applied to series that have not been posted to in over some period of time (a year?) might help some avoid the lurching ending - where did it go? Am I missing something. I dunno. In any event, when I started posting here, I made a committment to one of the two that encouraged me to post, to complete any story I post (including serials) and I have every intention of fullfilling that committment.
Annette
Not languishing at all
Though I admit I got frustrated about six months back and stopped working on it. What is happening now is a ton of health issues I have. Even when healthy, my muse can be uncooperative. Duty Honor Country Family needs tons of research too(Who's to blame for that I ask? I look in mirror for the answer...) that slows down the writing process. Topics like Dental forensics, marine geology, or dresses for charity galas are challenging for me.
Then after taking a snooze for about a month, my muse is kicking into gear just days before I go into the hospital again. Part 9 of DHCF is looking as if it will become parts 9 and 10. Before I go for surgery, I will drop off copies of what I got done so far with two people who are editing and or critiquing my work. I just hope to come out of surgery alive to read their work and comments for me in a few weeks.
The part after where 9 or 10 ends, is actually half written. So I could have 3 parts ready in a few weeks time after I come home and am able to concentrate on my writing again. I do know where I want to go with the rest of the story. Just pray heart surgery and pain meds don't turn it into a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Ok?
Danielle
Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the result to change. Was Albert a reader of TG fiction then?
Daniel, author of maid, whore, bimbo, and sissy free TG fiction since 2000
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.- Oscar Levant
Better than me
I fully intend to finish everything I have started, both posted and not. It may take me a while, and my Summer Romance entry looks to be a Fall Memory instead, but they WILL be finished and posted!
Eventually.
Melanie E.
The Beauty of the System
What you want is something that would have to be done by somebody, by hand. I don't have the time to create and maintain such a list as it would have to be added to every day. Some of it could be done with some custom coding, but my philosophy here is to avoid custom coding because it is a box; unless one is willing to develop the resources to maintain custom code, sooner or later the situation arises where the site desperately needs the code updated and there's no one with the time to do it. Resources like that require payment of some kind or a dedicated group of volunteer programmers.
What I've got here is a dedicated group of authors. This is how I designed the site to develop. Since the code is off the shelf with only a few tweaks by me, I don't need any full time programming help. In two hours a day, I can do everything that needs doing here and I have a few volunteers to take up some of the slack.
One volunteer provides a feature that would not exist without a lot of hand work -- Edeyn does the Shortcuts. There's a button that shows a list of all the serials in the top area. To get more info would take hand work by somebody.
However, that said, I am working on adding in some more features; off the shelf stuff but some of it could do part of what you want. Right now you can use the |add to favorites| button to sort of keep your own list. For a serial, use the up button at the bottom of the story to go to the title page, then favorite the title page. The title page of each serial will have a list of all of the chapters.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Serial Property
One current thing each author can do, is set the complete status for a serial, which would be one way to tell if a serial is complete. However, that does not help readers to find completed serials, just provides a method to identify that state.
A possible option that would require the initial changes, but not ongoing maintenance would be to add a free-form, 50 character, status property that can be attached to a publication, in particular serial title page. It could then be displayed in a second column on the serials (Books) page. Of course, it is a lot easier to recommend than do.
I think the free-form text is the way to go, rather than a pick box so that people could say things like:
Much ado
Sure, it would be nice if each story on here was complete. It would also be nice if Erin had the time and resources to make all these wonderful suggestions reality. It would be nice if I won the 100 million dollar Powerball lottery! :-)
Unfinished stories, (which does not necessarily mean the same thing as an unfinished serial), are part of the facts of life of the writing trade (not that any of us actually earn a living at this). It sometimes even happens that commercial publications don't finish a story, for one reason or another.
In the last couple of days I've had occasion to look at many of the TG fiction websites, and BC by far is the best, and most flexible. I suggest, if a reader is sufficiently concerned about starting a story and finding out it is incomplete, then they should take the time and make the effort to check and see. This, rather than expecting each author and/or BC to protect their delicate eyes from looking at a story that is still "a work in progress".
Now, if everybody is really concerned about BC, how about kicking a few bucks into the operating costs? According to the meter over on the side, donations are way behind expenses. I have made a decent contribution in the past, and will likely do so again in the future. It would be nice if everybody helped as they are able to. Think how many incomplete stories there will be if Erin has to shut BC down for lack of funds? :-(
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Much Ado
So too is your post much ado about nothing. Honestly, I am not sure why their was a need take the time to heap scorn and mockery upon my post, specially when part of the wisdom you are trying to dispense already existed in the post to which you responded, that being:
Scorn? Mockery?
What makes you think it was aimed at you personally? I have been assured by another author on here that her appending her comment to a comment of mine awhile back in no way meant that she was addressing me personally. No matter that her post was far ruder than anything I said here.
As for the wisdom, well, a number of people seem to get upset whenever they discover a story that is incomplete and hasn't been added to in awhile, so apparently the wisdom bears repeating.
If I had a problem with you, AE, I'd take the courtesy to comment to you in a PM, not slam you in an open forum.
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Actually, that would work to find completed serials
If all the completed serials were marked complete, then one would but have to click on the "Complete" tag and it would list them all that were so marked :)
"Complete" category
If it were actually used correctly, every time, it could be used to find all the complete serials. Just click on it where it appears on a story.
Big if, though.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Innit how Shortcuts! got started?
You saying, "That's too much work!" and me going... "I can do it," and well... here we are nearly 10 months later.
I know what you mean.
I've been working on a story but have run out of plot. Also I've been writing something with a partial girls' school theme. The trouble is I don't have the foggiest about a girls' school. That requires my reading up on the subject, observing schools from a distance without being arrested as a pervert who loiters around children and digging into issues that teenage girls have without ever having been one or had one in the house.
And I wish I had Angharad's skill at dialog writing.
However, nothing gets published until I consider it done. It's annoying when you're into a story moving at a good pace only to stop dead because there's no next chapter.
Ciao e amore.
marie c.
marie c.
Serials and chapters and finishing The Sight
Okay, I confess.
For ages I left my series hanging and mostly put it down to being at work, having something of a family life and being pissed-off with the whole bloody thing.
Now I'm not pissed-off, have found some time to come and write although because of work, I don't have the time I would really like to devote to writing.
Best of all, my muse seems to have returned--evil snicker **this is not a chocolate/nut bar with an attitude problem . . . oh never mind**
I would like to say that not only has chapter 13--unluckily enough--of The Sight gone to the editors queue, but chapter 14 is currently being formed with painstaking noodling, fettling, folding, spindling and a fair amount of mutilation--however, many will be pleased to note that no descriptive mutilation occurs in either of these chapters after being informed that chapter 11 actually scared the panties off one or two people.
One thing I cannot say, is when The Sight will finish.
It was never meant to be this long, but after AA (that's Anistasia, not those anonymous folk) cajoled me into drawing some bits out, I must say, its format has kind of stuck and seems to vary from 2000 to 2500 words per chapter, hopefully leaving each time in true Dr. Who fashion with a cliffhanger--even if that cliff is only ever a couple of inches tall :)
My characters are writing this for me and usually, I have no idea what the hell's going to happen until it does, so sometimes it's as much a surprise for me as it is for you lot.
Anyhow, my intention is to finish this, even though it has been at the expense of not being able to find the time for the romance contest in sticking with it (grumble).
So there you have it. The Sight has not only returned, but take it from me, it will continue until its natural conclusion and if it is to continue into a further series (i.e. The Sight 2 [or whatever I decide to call it]) then take it from me, that will also conclude when done.
If there is a fan of The Sight reading this, that pause in chapter posting was a mere hiccough . . .
NB
I don't just look it, I really AM that bad . . .
The "Complete" tag
It's perfectly reasonable... the thing is, each author has to mark her own work. Erin made the "Complete" tag recently, but each author has to put it up herself. I don't think the administrators would necessarily know when a story's complete, and it's not fair to expect them to check.
One thing I've done is to make a page that lists my stuff, and it says quite plainly what's incomplete.
A Doctor Who style cliffhanger, Nick?
Does that mean the Daleks and Cybermen are about to enter your serial?
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. That would be one way to get even with that bitch reporter.
-- EXTERMINATE!--
I had been hoping she would get kidnapped -- the kidnappers/killers think she knows too much, and our heroine, um hero, um maybe still a heroine with any luck, saves her. If there is justice, the bitch's sprit will flee her body in terror and the nice murdered girl will get to inhabit her body, possibly gradually changing it into her original body.
The kids mom is a right complex woman. She ignored him after the injury then got real motherly and now she pulls this HRT to jumpstart his maleness returning without telling him/her what they were doing. Is it out of love or is it for her own convenience? And now we know he might well prefer to be a girl.. Great characters.
John in Wauwatosa
Daleks and cybermen?
Great heavens, no :)
And anyway, if I were to introduce such characters, would I be silly enough to announce them ahead of the chapter?
I think not!
I was going to give a sneak preview of chapter 14, but just for that, I'm not giving anything away.
NB
I don't just look it, I really AM that bad . . .
I understand now, Nick …
It’s the Sontarans. I’ll keep quiet.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa