Okay, I always title my fic documents with a number – I find it works for me. Different versions of the same fic have the same number, but with an a, b, c, etc, added. My counting system doesn't always work – sometimes stories split, or become amalgamated, but for the most part, it's an accurate guide. I started off with SG1-001.doc, way back in 2006 sometime, and I'm now up to SG1-207.doc. Of those, I've posted about 70-something (wtf? When?). That leaves 130-odd unfinished Stargate fics.
Some of them are pretty damn long, some are nearly finished but missing some element that I haven't put my finger on yet, some are just a few paragraphs of inspiration, some are rubbish but I like aspects of it and with some editing and rewriting they'll work… there's lots of variation. There's only a few that I definitely consider 'dead' fics. Pretty much all of them I'll go back to, occasionally, and chip away at. Sometimes I do finish ones that I thought I'd never get done, unexpectedly, years later (I did that more than once in a previous fandom, and they tended to be some of my favourite stories that I've written, and often some of the longest).
But surely I don't have 130 WIPs? I have hordes of fics from previous fandoms that never did get finished, and probably never will (well, unless the Wolverine film inspires me – which it might…). The same rule probably applies here, especially as the series has come to an end. My Stargate writing has certainly slowed down (much though I don't want to stop). About a year ago I did a WIP meme (posts here and here), and posted several snippets – two of them have since been posted (amalgamated into one story), the rest are still unfinished. And yet… I have worked on several of them, since then. And, prompted by this meme, I've picked up and worked on three of them again this week.
So, do you consider your WIPs to be things you're actually working on or thinking about? How recently? Do you have a shedload of unfinished fics, too, or am I spectacularly lacking in focus? What's your dividing point between work-in-progress and work-not-going-anywhere?
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Comments
I am a bit iffy on doing such a meme, because I feel that if I put stuff out there, I'd have to write it as it is in the open and public. But luckily, my muse is pretty damn silent as I only had about four. Plus future fics that I know will be written.
Now that I have made this comment all about me, let's actually answer your question. For me, a WIP is something that has moved beyond an idea and has at least 500 non-sucking words.
Yeah, I definitely feel guilty about posting WIPs and then never finishing them. But not guilty enough, it seems. :) The thing that mostly stops me talking about WIPs now is that I have the same problem as holdouttrout and annerb: talking about fics seems to doom them to stall instantly.
"Crap that I have written that is crap" folder-- this is basically a trash folder but because I can't actually delete anything, they end up here. I have from time to time pulled a line of dialogue or something from one of these for a different story, so I guess it's good that they're not deleted forever, but they will live and die on my hard drive.
"Doomed or dead fic" folder-- this pretty much covers the stuff that you mentioned that's iffy, like fics from old fandoms that at this point I probably am never coming back to. Stuff that I started and I'm not sure about and have sat on it for at least several months without me looking at it or thinking about it... That kind of stuff. It's not bad, not trash-worthy, but will it ever get done? Chances are better that I'll win the lotto.
"WIP" folder-- This is where I have what I would call active stories. They are all things I've add to or edited stuff out of sometime in the last three weeks. To me, these are true WIP because they are being *worked on* in some way. I could be as simple as I'm considering changing the opening line so I open the file up and reread that line every once in a while, fool with it a bit. But there is *something* active about them and active in the last 3-4 weeks.
"Ready" folder-- I don't call these WIP because they *will* get posted. They're at a point where there's no doubt about that, but they maybe need a title, or I'm waiting to get one final OK by my beta, or something.
that's how I look at things, but maybe I'm weird?
So do things ever get resurrected from your "doomed" file, and make the progression to "WIP" or even "Ready"?
Resurrection happens. There was a time when I did go back and finish off a story for an old fandom when I never thought I would. I also recall off the top of my head having a half-written fic that felt like it was dead to me and I stuck it in the doom folder. But then when I watched the end of AoT I had this great idea and was able to take the dead fic, add elements of what happened in AoT, and make it an AoT tag. *shrug* It happens from time to time.
So, I think that I've got plenty of fragments, fully completed stories that suck, and random jumbles of words. :-)
(but I just don't have as many ideas as you...*boggles*)
Stories I'm thinking about or don't have a lot written yet are only ideas. It has to be an actual work that is actually in progress.
Stories I'm thinking about or don't have a lot written yet are only ideas. It has to be an actual work that is actually in progress.
So you're defining a WIP as a work that's in progress. Hmm. You might have got something there...
:D
So you're defining a WIP as a work that's in progress. Hmm. You might have got something there...
:P
It differentiates it from an idea that hasn't gotten anywhere yet! (though I think I prefer your version - works in purgatory)
Fic's I've actually started writing...or have pretty fully plotted out in my head/as an outline and definitely intend to finish and/or feel an obligation to finish because they're committed to someone/something.
Also, it's weird, but like say a ficathon comes along, and I have a story idea already that maybe could fit that thing...I won't use that story. I'll have to come up with a new idea. Isn't that weird?
What's sad is I try, or at least when I started this, I try to only work on one story at a time. I do the draft thing too of numbering variations.
Yay to you working on your fics! *waves pom poms*
Oh, completely not weird. I know what you mean. It doesn't feel like you're really writing for the prompt you've chosen / been assigned. I did try to use a fic I'd already started for the previous apocalypse_kree. Maybe that was why I failed so utterly.
And, aw, attempting to keep fanfic orderly. *pats you*
Holy. Cow!
I have no methods. I have some things in folders that are waiting for inspiration to strike again. Periodically I look to see what I have in case inspiration has snuck up on me. But so far, nothing I've put aside for months at a time on my computer has actually become a fic. That's probably not good--especially since I do have several of them, and one of them has two really meaty scenes and some outline.
I know - it sounds crazy when I write it like that. :)
And I'd say, don't give up on those fics! You never know. But that's my experience, and it might not be true for you. It's very satisfying to pick one up and finish it, after a long time - like the inspiration for how it should go was just waiting for the right moment.
I have eight chapters of a story in another fandom that I abandoned when I came into SG1 but I probably will go back to it as its a sequel to a story out there which needs to be finished. I still care about those characters a lot, its just their version of TPTB really fucked about and so I left that fandom in disgust.
I am also up to chapter 11 in the SG1 crossover and have a few short fics out there dotted about.
I also have SG meta on the go; the Big Honking Ascension Meta which I keep adding to in my head and plan to add pictures to too sometime when I get the energy. I have also promised two more bits of meta (help! help!) which makes me panic because I have a hard time working to a timetable (see below).
I should say I write not for anyone but for actually myself and for therapy. If people like what I write, so much the better. What I tend to do is get hold of a character who I identify with and feel is going through similar things to I am and then write stuff and get a sort of catharsis. I've even discussed this, and how I do and why I do it with counsellors and therapists and they got quite gleeful. The fact that I am a fan of Jung and comparative mythology makes Stargate a lovely sandpit to play in.
Writing for me takes a lot of energy - I'm dyslexic and despite the fact that somehow I can touch type (thank goodness and thankgoodness for Macs which spell check everhthing) getting the words from head to screen can be hard and painful. Its a big rush when I can, and writing really helped my vocabulary and flow of words. The whole thing about this though, is that my muse has to be talking to me and I have to be in the mood. If not nothing comes out.
On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for not pressuring oneself to write - especially when it's something like fanfic, where it's purely voluntary. Turning it into some kind of work is perhaps a bit of a muse-killer... I dunno. :)
For a fandom I'm still into, like Stargate or Doctor Who, I basically consider it a work in progress if it's one that I can still mentally slip into the action and character voices and walk around in the story. It's the ones that I think about while I'm bored at work. They're the ones that I actually have the passion to finish even if I don't have the focus or confidence.
Of course the longer they stay WIPs, the less passion I have for the story. I'm always sort of horrified when I click on something that I remember being really intensely focused on and realize there's 20 pages and it'll never get done.
All of my WIPs from last year's meme are still WIPs. God that's depressing.