Author:
Taxonomy upgrade extras:
Some people are misunderstanding something here. The Retro Classics are being brought back so you can see what our writers were like in the past and what we have hidden in the author lists. This is not some game about trying to have everything complete - because not everything here can be completed. Some of our authors have died, others... in more trouble than most of us can know. Others decided to stop writing. But what they left behind is a treasure for us to gaze upon. We can learn from what they did and write new things. It's to show our newer readers just what we have here and for the older readers - to remember.
Erin commented earlier and I will paste in right here again for everyone to see:
The value of unfinished stories
Submitted by Erin on Sun, 2009/09/27 - 1:12pm.
Whether some people try to make authors feel bad for not having finished stories, there is nothing wrong with an unfinished story. It's just not finished. Completion is not the only justification for existence of a story.
I didn't create BC as a place only for finished stories, unfinished ones have their place here, too. And every complete story was at one time incomplete, it's the nature of reality that a thing must grow from nothing into being.
You see me jump in here frequently when someone says that they would rather people would not post stories that are incomplete. That's just selfishness and obstructionism, to be quite frank, though I seldom say so to anyone directly.
An incomplete story has value, and not just the value it might have if it is ever completed. Some of my favorite stories here are not complete and for some of those, when they are completed I will be sad because a beautiful process is over, like a sunset. There's a satisfaction in a complete story that makes up for that sadness but the anticipatory pleasure of waiting for that satisfaction is very nice.
I have lots of unfinished stories, some of them posted, some of them just sitting on my various machines. When I can, I work on these stories, working to finish them. But I don't work just to finish them, I work to make them better as finished stories than they are as unfinished ones.
Thirty Million Reasons is still sitting there, unfinished. I sometimes go to my files and write a few pages on it, though up until now, I've kept erasing those words or moving them out of the mainline of the story for consideration of the ideas they present. I do intend to finish Thirty Million Reasons, but I do not reqret posting it in an unfinished state nor do I feel guilty for not having finished it yet. I'm not breaking any contracts with anyone because I do other things rather than working on the story.
I left Sam I Am in an unfinished state for a long time until I realized that it was finished, all it needed was a coda because the main character had solved her principal problem, that of existence, and the solution to the mystery of just what had happened to her was not needed for the resolution of the story. If I had pushed through to a conclusion based on my original idea for the story, it would have made the story less than what it was in its unfinished state.
With Mercedes, I pushed myself into completing that story because its reason for existence was the catalog of all that could happen to the main character, while it was work to finish, there was never a spot where the story did not lead naturally to the next scene and to the conclusion I originally worked on.
I've got an unfinished story on one of my drives, it's called, "Betty Learns to Whistle". It's been unfinished now for seven years. I have shown it only to two people who both want me to finish it but the story is hung up on just how to get past the main character's reluctance to commit to a course of action, which is the same thing that is holding up Thirty Million Reasons. Even unposted and unread by many people, that unfinished story has value.
Sorry for the rant. :) I've got more to say but I'll shut up now.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Hope that clarifies things a bit. Tuesday, I will post the rules for the October Contest.
Sephrena Lynn Miller
BigCloset TopShelf
TGLibrary.com
Comments
Thanks
Thank you for the reality check. Truth is, I'd rather have a complete story over an incomplete, but I'd still rather have an incomplete over none at all :-)
-Christelle
"Fun-loving geek-chick looking for someone who doesn't give a damn about her past"
-Christelle
"Fun-loving geek-chick who's addicted to sunlight!"
I Realize...
...that I'm in no position to complain about anything I get. And I'm certainly not saying that old unfinished stories should be removed from the site, as long as people know they're unfinished and likely to remain so (if that's the case) before they start reading.
What I AM saying is that finishing a story -- creating a solution or conclusion that's consistent with the plot and satisfying to the author and the reader -- plays a large part, IMO, in any evaluation as to whether the author has "succeeded" -- however you want to define that term.
So highlighting older unfinished stories that are already on the site -- immense as the effort to create them might have been -- doesn't strike me as a good use of a front page which (I gather) many consider inconveniently long already.
As a writer whose attempts at fiction always bog down long before the ending and never see the light of day, I can't claim a preferred position like the authors here, let alone a say in the administration. But I feel a need to state my opinion: without denying that, as Erin said, (some) unfinished stories have a value, I think it's very seldom that said value extends to putting them back on the front page.
Eric
Everything falls apart at the end. - Gunn's Law
Unfinished stories
Thanks, Sephrena for posting this. It is a good reminder even for everyone that there is value in just about everything.
I for one very much appreciate everything I find here. I'm a bit picky about what I take the time to actually read, as in doing so I inevitably invest myself emotionally into the story despite trying to remain aloof. It is simply my nature to become involved in the emotional roller coasters, and I find myself caring for the characters, and their friends and families, even if I don't always like them. I'm always a bit disappointed when I get to the end and find no resolution, but I never regret having read a fine story. If my eyes were better and I had more time, I would try to read more than I do.
When I have found a particularly great story, I try to locate the author and let them know my appreciation, regardless of its status. Many of us write from the depths of deep emotional turmoil, and find that writing is a form of carthartic therapy. On the other side of the coin, many of us read the stories in an attempt to satisfy the same need. It is a beautiful thing when the heart of an author can touch a reader, so letting that author know is truly beneficial for both individuals. To the reader it's as if there's someone, somewhere, that knows how to pluck the strings of our heart. To the author, sometimes it's great to know that out there somewhere, someone "gets it." Of course, there are stories created solely for entertainment too.
No one should ever criticise or otherwise demean an author's efforts. It takes a huge amount of emotional capital and plain hard work to write a good story, and any reader can come here with no emotional or capital investment, and read the fruits of the authors' efforts. Considering the effort involved it is not hard to imagine why so many stories remain incomplete. Whether the author is deceased, or prevented from writing due to emotional or physical health or even a change in priorities doesn't matter. Consider the beauty and execution of a well crafted storyline and appreciate the part the author has fleshed out.
Rather than try to lay guilt onto an author for posting an unfinished work, consider it a blessing that you are free to imagine whatever conclusion you wish. Some of my favorite stories are unfinished, and for each of them I have multiple resolutions for the plot already sketched out in my head. All of these are satisfying in their own right.
If you don't agree with what I have said, I would have to ask if you consider the sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci to be of value, or if the Venus Di Milo is lessensed because her arms have been lost to history.
Thanks to Erin and all the others like Sephrena who work so hard to make this such a successful community. I'm just very happy to be part of it, however minor that part may be.
Hugs
Carla Ann
The glass half full
When I first saw unfinished stories that I had enjoyed I desperately wanted to see them completed and felt frustrated. Then I realized that Erin is right when she says "An incomplete story has value". It offers the rest of us a springboard for our imagination to craft a personal and satisfying conclusion.
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram