Quote:
Originally Posted by DuskyRose
A series of books is different from WIP's, or 'chapters'. Unless the book series is all cliffhangers (which I hate and won't read if I find this out ahead of time) a WIP, Chapter, or 'Serial' posted stories aren't complete stories until the last bit is given. They're just bits of the arc, however small, that don't have a conclusion or a natural stopping point.
It's not like getting to the end of the first Harry Potter story, for example. (snippage)
The author may not even know what the rest of the story will be. It's part of the reason so many WIP's are abandoned. Even the author gives up and moves on. (When I was saving WIP bits, years ago, I found that about 35-40% were not finished, even after five years)
(snippage for space)...
When it does come back on, will so much time have passed that 1) you don't remember what was going on, or 2) care?
At least with a book series, I can place my bet that that bit of story arc is complete. However small. But I can't count on that if I get invested in a partial story. Been burned WAY too many times with that.
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I agree. I've never gotten over being infuriated with Melanie Rawn and the
Ruins of Ambrai series--she either developed a writer's block the size of Manhattan, or wrote herself into a corner from which she couldn't get out, but she'd involved her readers in what, 8 books or so, in the Sunrunner's Fire universe, and then...kablooey? Nothing? No sequel, no last book in the 3rd trilogy, to wrap it up? First I waited a year...then 3...then 5, then 10, then 20...and still NOTHING. (Hell, someone would probably have to tie me down and force me to listen to the third/ninth book, at this point.)
(This is why I've never started GRRM's books. When it's done, fine, then I'll start 'em. He's...mature, for one thing and secondly, Melanie Rawn's behavior burned me on this for life.)
And
cliffhangers? I just stopped reading an author I'd come to really like a lot, over this.
Nope, if you cliffhang me, I'm breaking up with you. It's one thing to do it at the end of a chapter. It's another to do it at the end of a bloody book, with no sequel in sight.
I wouldn't even mind it, (cliffhanging) in Vella, IF (if if if) the entire series is up and posted. But as the last live one? No. I obviously now have trust issues.
And yes, with WIP stuff....
especially today, they are abandoned left, right and center. I keep hoping that Vella will clarify to all these
very obviously very young writers that it's not meant for WIP crap. 99% of it isn't even WIP stuff that you'd get from young/new writers in a CW101 class (or 102, etc.); it's this freeform worse-than-sh*tty-first-draft stuff from folks who don't know structure, don't know an inciting incident from a beat, etc.
Hitch