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Post by Sai on Jun 13, 2008 5:20:04 GMT
So, there has been something I wonder about fan fiction authors. I know that some write their chapters and put them right up on ffn. There are some, however, who write several chapters at once and slowly put them up.
I was wondering which one all of you did, and the pros/cons of each.
As for me, I normally try to write a little bit to another chapter before putting the next one up, but I tend not to be able to do it. I'm too impatiant. How 'bout you?
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Post by NRGburst on Jun 13, 2008 7:28:37 GMT
That sounds just like me- I usually have new ideas for the new chapter going before I'm finished editing the chapter that still has to be posted. So I suppose it makes me the impatient type. But that's probably because I write and edit so slowly that I only post once every three weeks at my fastest anyway.
Actually, I've noticed that people who update their fics faster tend to get more reviews.
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Post by Mengde on Jun 13, 2008 8:09:12 GMT
When I was writing Schism and Big Trouble in Little Wutai and more or less managing to keep to my 3- to 4-a-week update schedule, there was no stocking. There was only the present, and the next three thousand words.
The Red Cloak was half-and-half. I wrote it as it came to me until around Chapter XVIII, had a long break, and then wrote the rest of it and put it up a bit at a time.
On the far end of the spectrum is Choice, the Kingdom Hearts fic I wrote. It was an experiment in laying out an intricately detailed story-map and then writing the whole thing out before putting it up piecemeal, which also turned out well.
Overall, I don't particularly favor one method over the other. Stocking means you can stick to an update schedule very easily, but you're also sitting there on a mountain of stuff your readers could be gluttonously throwing themselves at and you want their reactions now. Then again, as I fondly recall from the last days of The Red Cloak, it's fun putting up a cliffhanger and then counting down the days until people get to find out what happens next. Really up to the individual, I think.
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Post by T. Costa on Jun 13, 2008 8:14:15 GMT
I tend to write, and send it off to my beta, and then if I have more writing in me I'll start writing right away. I rarely stock chapters, however - I almost never have more than two at a time. Once I get them back from Cally they go up.
I guess because my writing spurts come sporadically so I can never tell for sure when I'll have more chapters to put up. I've never been one for update schedules.
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Post by piedflycatcher on Jun 13, 2008 12:21:06 GMT
I prefer to stock chapters. That way I can stick to a semi-regular schedule and I have chapters ready if I'm going through a dry patch or I'm too busy to write. A long while ago, I was around five chapters ahead, which meant that two months could go by between the writing of a chapter and posting it. Exams and plot difficulties have since eroded all that away, but I would like to get ahead again if I can. It takes the pressure off updating if you know you have a chapter or two waiting in the wings.
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Post by Pen Against Sword on Jun 13, 2008 14:48:15 GMT
I've done both, and I've discovered the pros and cons of each.
Let me just say that even though I try to hide it, I do enjoy reviews (immensely), and mapping out and writing A Fine Line took me almost a year, with me sitting there at my computer desk thinking, "I wonder if anyone will like this as much as I do. Is this even as good as I think it is?" But when I finished with it, I put the chapters up once every week (except for the few times when ff.net got glitchy and I waited), and my readers were pretty satisfied with knowing the story was complete and they only had to wait a week for a new chapter.
And then I'm doing the one chapter at a time thing for The Need to Know, and I have to say, I think I like stocking better. Pied's right, it really takes the pressure off.
However, I think a happy medium would be great. Be a few chapters ahead, like Pied said, and that way you've got some time to write the next chapter on the list. I'm trying to get a little ahead on The Need to Know so I can stop posting chapters every month and a half. The only thing getting in the way is my own laziness, really.
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Post by NRGburst on Jun 13, 2008 15:15:27 GMT
I guess I'm trying to look at it like a publisher would: deadlines. Fanfiction is hardly as high pressure because nobody holds you accountable. But if this was your real job, someone is going to be on you for that update, holding your paycheck at ransom. That said, most publishers won't look at your manuscript until you are actually finished that first novel, or so I'm told. But few things are as irritating as a never to be finished fic. It just feels so irresponsible.
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Post by ladyvaltaya on Jun 13, 2008 15:43:08 GMT
I put up every chapter I get done shortly after I finish it.
While I would like to write faster, I don't feel any sort of pressure to get any of my chapters written for any of my fics done and posted in any particular order.
I just work on whatever I feel like writing at the moment and the first one done gets posted.
I suppose that having multiple stories to work on might be kinda like having extra chapters done on the same fic though...
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Post by T. Costa on Jun 13, 2008 22:43:10 GMT
NRG is correct - in the realm of actual publishing, you do sorta have to have a stockpile of stuff (assuming you're writing say, a continuing story or something akin to a penny dreadful). When it comes to professional writing I buffered - I had a BUNCH of filler columns that could be used at any time (With titles like "Programs you should download" or "All about AMV's" or "Keep your Bach; I've got Square", et cetera) in case I came up short on an idea for a column that week or nothing of note happened in the technology world. I kept about five to ten of those on file at all times and would yank one out, dust it off, give it a read-through and submit it for publication if that happened. My editor really appreciated that I always had something on-hand. If something happened of note, of course, those columns stayed as filler for the next week they were needed. I had a filler ready to go one time and then there was an RIAA decision so I decided to write a derisive commentary about that instead, so it went back IN to the pile. It's nice to have filler. So I'm assuming that in a continual-story sort of thing it would be the same; you write like ten chapters ahead of what you're actually publishing. That makes sense. It just doesn't make sense to me in the fanfiction realm (me, personally, not for anyone else) because I have no deadline and answer to nobody but myself. When it comes to fanfiction, I am, essentially, my own boss. I mean, I suppose I could say that I have my readers to answer to, but frankly, as much as I adore them, I write for me first. They get to read it purely because I like getting critique so I put it on the web.
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Post by unwinding fantasy on Jun 13, 2008 23:03:42 GMT
But few things are as irritating as a never to be finished fic. It just feels so irresponsible. *waves hand guiltily* For me, it's far better if I've got absolutely everything done. There have been too many instances where I've started a few chapters and then let the thing die. (Will never happen to Two Roads Converged. That was my first fanfic ever and I refuse to see it fall into limbo even if it takes me half my life.) I even started writing a KH multi-chapter fic when I had a burst of inspiration that just had to be typed out but no, I will never post that until TRC is done with and it has at least 3/4 of its chapters done. It's terrible to leave your readers hanging. @.@
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Sztorm
Recruit
I crush on dead men.
Posts: 191
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Post by Sztorm on Jun 15, 2008 0:52:51 GMT
I am more or less incapable of writing something in numerical (and in many cases, this coincides with chronological) order, so I have no choice but to stock chapters for my longer stories. The one time I tried posting the first chapter *cough*badmistake*cough* of an unfinished story, well...let's just say I have yet to update it, and that was over a year ago.
Fanfiction being a hobby, I write when inspiration strikes. And rarely does my inspiration for a story start at chapter one (or, in the case of my one-shots, the opening paragraph). More commonly it comes in erratic patches, which I then have to link together.
So yeah, not so bad for one-shots; terrible for multi-chapter stories.
That was kind of swaying off topic, I now realize. I guess the gist of that is that I like the idea of stocking chapters better, even if I wrote them in numerical order. Yeah, I hate having to wait until it's all done to begin posting, but at least then I'll be able to steadily update it.
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Post by Neophyte Ronin on Jun 15, 2008 2:36:20 GMT
I did something utterly asinine: put all the chapters up at once after painstakingly editing and re-editing them ahead of time. This produced the result of being shoved into the bottom of a cesspool where nobody would see them again, because they didn't get updated on a more regular basis, thereby whetting the appetite of regular readers (much like a novella being posted in installments throughout multiple issues of a literary magazine). Do I have to tell you which avenue to go?
Of course it's: write a bundle, but post one every two weeks or so. As long as you have eight chapters or so written ahead of time and can post the next one after a bit of a revision cycle, and continue to draft more chapters for a later date, only to suffer the same process later, then you're golden.
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