Firstly, this certainly isn't a stab at anyone, I'm simply curious as
to others' opinions and experiences.
After becoming stalled time and again with all four (now including DC)
writing projects on which I'm currently working, I've come to the conclusion
that for me at least, trying to write and edit simultaneously or abandoning
something for more than a week with the intention of getting back to it is
almost a certain formula either for complete failure or the work progressing
at a snail's pace. I wrote and edited the three preludes and the first 2
chapters of DC in a few days, and have spent weeks fiddling around with the
first 60K of chapter 3 while fighting to maintain impetus and interest. I
mention this only because I've noticed what I sense might be the same tendency
with some others (at least concerning 'fics posted to the RAAC archive and not
withstanding the current hiatus) although perhaps for very different reasons,
I.E. someone begins what looks to be an excellent idea, writes a (sometimes)
huge chunk of story, posts it and then seems to give up. Several examples
come to mind; `Prisoner Of War' (BGC), `Largo' (BGC/Ravenloft), `A Once and
Future Akane' (R1/2), `Two Sides of a Coin' (R1/2) and the `Elseworlds' series
(R1/2) to name a very few. (I might have included `P: S-boy' (Project A-
ko/Superboy) :) but Kent has assured me that he has not lost interest and has
been simply too busy to do more.) Others; E.G. `The Last Warrior' (DBZ) (BTW
does anyone have an undamaged P-21 of that - it was truncated in the RAAC
archive) and `Bubble Gum Collision' (BGC) build up to an excellent climax only
to end in what I can only describe as an `STTNGesque' headlong rush leaving
you with the impression that either the author got fed up and decided to tie
everything together in 2 pages or ran out of ideas and ended to avoid having
to do more. Still others; E.G. `We Just Want to Help You' (BGC) start with
the promise of a fascinating tale and then simply stop. Whether this is
usually a symptom of taking too long initially to do too little, an attack of
anxiety concerning how the story will be accepted, indefinite procrastination,
authorial intent or a lack of C&C I've no idea. I can only say that it can be
*unbelievably* infuriating to read a 300K fanfic only to discover that there
is no end in sight and the last update was in late 1994. For my part, not
being one to plan anything but the most basic concept beforehand, I have to
begin forcing myself to keep going if I let an idea simmer for too long after
its inception. This is compounded by the fact that a sight deficiency and no
colour perception means that I tend to waste a tremendous amount of time
trying to see that descriptions are visually accurate while never being
satisfied with the results.
Whew! All that turned out longer than I'd intended. I'm not really
certain why I started this, save that I'm dead tired, in a quandary about how
to end DC Ch-3, furious at my own past procrastinations (which have probably
cost me the chance to publish my own work years ago), interested in what
others have to say and *really* disappointed that I'll probably never see more
of some of the 'fics mentioned above. IMO they really shouldn't be consigned
to the `might have beens' - they deserve far better than that.
Craig(who will finish DC and find it a decent name if it kills him :) )
PS. On a totally unrelated note; how do you avoid the [FFML] in the
Subject:? I noticed that some posts don't have it and am curious about that
too (Gods, I must be tired! :-) )