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So I am planning to post a few chapters of a story that there is a REALLY good chance will never be finished.
This story was started by Kim EM a few years back. It's actually a re-write of someone else's story that she got permission to re-write.
Back when she first started working on this story, I think she managed to push out 3 chapters. I REALLY wanted her to post them to TGF but she told me she wanted to wait till it was finished, and she had also promised Erin that it would release @ BigCloset first for a few weeks.
As a compromise, I plan to post the finished chapters here, and then use the "Off-Site Links" module (I copied Erin's Story Link idea, I am SUCH a CopyCat) to post the stories @ TGF...
But I know there had been some "backlash" at the idea of posting stories that people don't wish to finish...
I WANT to finish this story... I even helped plan the re-write so I know some decent bits, but I'm having issues finishing my own stories, and finishing Expo Summer is at the TOP of my list of things to do...
So the question is... Do people want me to post this story? Should I lock it away and never let it see the light of day? Or should I just leave it on my back burner and only post it if I finish it?
-P/KAF/The Little Girl with BIG Ideas....
Comments
Promises
Although people frequently offer me promises to only post on BC or to post first on BC, I only accept these promises for items appearing in the Hatbox. Otherwise, I try to encourage multiple posting because as recent events have proven, there isn't a safe place to post on the web.
Now, if something does happen to me, I have arranged with Bob Arnold to save BC (he has all the permissions and passwords) and either run it himself or find someone to run it. So let's not worry about that. :)
But multi-posting remains a good idea.
Back to the specific question; I love Kim's writing and I don't mind unfinished stories though of course, I prefer finished ones. So do what you think is appropriate, you have my support.
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.
As a clarification I will
As a clarification I will post them to TGF the normal way after a while. But I honestly want to support her decision to post them here first. :) I would love to also support her decision to wait till it's finished, but I have recently wished to share more of her "in progress" works with the world as I fear they will never be "finished".
-HuGgLeS-
-P/KAF/The TearyEyed One....
Do as you think best
Keeping your word to Kim would seem to be the most important thing here. Perhaps a dedication to Kim along with a disclaimer stating the unfinished nature of the stories would satisfy those who insist on only reading finished works.
In the end, you have to feel you have done the right thing, for yourself and for Kim's memory. Anybody else's feelings are at best of secondary importance.
They know they can survive
To post or not to .......
Hi Piper
To be honest, I'm one of those people that like to finish a story (although I don't scream and create about it, I just don't start to read it in the first place:) ) So I wouldn't be to worried about the unfinished story.
Expo summer on the other hand, I sit here with bated breath for you to post the conclusion. (Hop hop hop hop) I first read E.S. 2 or 3 years ago on Crystals, And Kim really left us on a cliff hanger, Of course I had no idea just how ill she was at the time and I was really sorry to hear about her passing away last year and I hope you are doing better now.
Huggs
Sammi
Edit: P.S.Thanks for putting the warnings on the JulieC stories, I really don't need to read things like that at the mo.
Huggs
Sammi
Since I Seem...
...to have started this controversy (if that's what it is), please let me say that if it's announced in advance that a story is unfinished and is likely to remain so for some time, I don't have much of a problem with it being posted, though I may decide not to read it. As I said about Catherine's piece, what I find frustrating about such stories is investing time and thought in reading them without ever being able to determine how they come out (and, in cases like that one -- many serials, actually -- where the narrative and the format seem to be allowing or encouraging us to think ahead, to ever find out if I had analyzed it correctly).
I'm reading Princess and the Plague now even though A.A. warned us at the beginning that she hadn't yet figured out how it ends. For one thing, I feel I've been warned; for another, A.A.'s handle on the characters is so sure after 60-odd chapters that I'm confident that it'll come. (Actually, it's her Healing a Princess that I worry about. And maybe Kayleigh's Short Chapters, now that it's started and stopped again...)
So if you feel you have good reason to post the start of Kim's story, I'd say go ahead.
Eric
Post away and let the devil take the hindmost!
The "unfinished and likely to remain so" tag suggested is a good way to go, though. I, for one, have so much to thank Kim for. She started me on the writing path, along with Prue and Neri, and I would love to see Kim's work perpetuated on as many sites as will have it. She was such a wonderful person and a great writer, and I don't want her work to pass as she did.
I miss her every day, and this would be yet one more way for me to keep a part of her close to me, always.
Thank you Piper.
Love from,
Catherine Linda Michel
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
There is no such thing as an unfinished story!
Just because the author has not reached the climax, or provide a conclusion, doesn't mean the story is any thing less. You get the chance to make your own ending. Maybe you shouldn't post it without the writer's permission (that would mean others couldn't make their own too). Heck, writing a conclusion to stories is a fascist thing to do. It limits the freedom of the readers to take the story where ever they want it to go!!
OK, I wouldn't really go that far. I do like it when writers give the own ideas of the finish, but still the end doesn't make the story, the story make the end! Or maybe I'm to much into instant gratification; when I read storys with lots of parts, I expect each part to be entertaining and contained within it's self. If it isn't, I won't be opening the limitless parts before the end and ploding along with the hope of getting a pay off later.
When I write too I try to make each part that way, maybe I don't always get there, but it is the goal, and I think it is for most. So what's the problem with the unfinished tale?
Maybe it's justme, (Wait, I mean only me, justme might feel totally differently.)
joy, Jan
OK Jan, I'll take the bait ;)
No, it's not only you, it's justme too.
I can certainly understand being frustrated with an unfinished story; I have been, many times, myself. My answer wasn't to stop reading unfinished stories; I get far too much enjoyment out of what's there to want to give that up. No, my answer was to write my own.
Stop laughing.
Yes, ironically, my own effort currently languishes unfinished as well. I am still working on it, believe it or not, but the current global financial crisis has sort of dogpiled on top of my already-too-complicated life and opportunities are sparse. And, like Admiral Krunch with Being Christina Chase, I currently intend to have it finished before I post more--or mostly finished anyway, possibly with much of it still needing serious polishing before posting and with maybe a few minor gaps to fill, but essentially all there.
When I'll get it to that point is anyone's guess though.
So, there's my stand on unfinished stories. Obviously I have a horse in this race so take it with a big grain of salt.
As one of the advocates
-or so I think- of finished stories, I have no qualms with posting whatever incomplete story and/or serial. The one issue I have with posting these is when one knows it's incomplete, AND it's known that it -probably- never will be finished, AND the story is published without any warning or notification about this. If that's the case my issue shows itself by me asking questions like: Will it be finished? If so when? If not, well, why? is none of my business, but I would appreciate a why.
And this is only when I really like a story, in most cases I just grumble and shrug my shoulders. Oh curses, foiled again. Never mind, you, Jo-Anne, don't write jack! So shuddup.
Also when said state is known -for some time- why don't you, author, or anyone else who's able to, raise some kind of flag about that?
So please, post it here, but also give some kind of notice: *Readers beware: This awesome serial will not be finished.* Or: *Following kick-ass story won't be finished for at least some time to come.* It's not mandatory, and readers are responsible for their own choices to read or not, but it would be nice beforehand.
Serials like EAFOAB could have a header like *Never ending story* or *Beware: Soap!*
Jo-Anne
I'd like to promise
that my stories will be finished. That isn't to say 'complete', since the end of one story is always the beginning of another.
I know the terminating point of 'Boys of Summer', but I'm having trouble balancing realistic emotions with getting there. 'Echoes', well, I THOUGHT I knew where it would end, but now I'm not sure.
One thing IS for sure, though- my next story Will be finished before posting.
I hope ;p
As for something that will never be finished, I have no problem with it so long as i---
I won't make the promise...
that I'll finish stories before I start posting. SOME stories I may well do that way, but others I'll post As I get them done. (Not one to take a definite stance huh...). How will I decide? I dunno. We'll just have to see. That said, I do not intend to write/post a never-ending story and/or to start posting a story I don't plan to end... (Yes, for the dozen that are interested, there IS a planned ending point for Hidden Gifts, and as I've said, no it's not been abandoned.)
As to Piper's question... I don't have any issue with her posting them... I would like to see them finished, specially those where Kim gave Piper more info on where the story was to go. If Piper doesn't have the time/energy/whatever, I'd like her to find a friend to help draft the stories... As long as she kept the control and insured they went the way they were supposed to. If this is done, I'd also like it well marked where Kim's writing ended, and where the authorized successor's start.( Purely academic interest... I'd be likely to try and guess, and that'd take away my enjoyment of the story.*sighs*)
Thanks,
Annette
Finish them, if you can!
I know it can be hard to work from someone else's stories, and Lord knows that I'm well aware that your own voice can drive you to distraction (I'm wondering if I'll EVER get some of my stories done!), but yes, I would love to read the stories, if you can!
Wren