The torment that is the WiP - Discuss

[moonlite_tryst]

That's discuss people, not flame!

As an author who has been a bugger for starting to post chaptered fics and not finishing them this may seem a strange post, but here goes.

Whilst spring cleaning my LJ, I clicked on a link for one of the greatest H/D WiPs ever written IMO. Although labelled as catagorically not abandoned, it has not been updated for almost three and a half years *cries* and who knows if it ever will because the author is now writing in another fandom *cries some more*, which leads me to wonder:

If a WiP has been abandoned for a period of time, e.g. over 2 years or more, and the author was close to the end, should said author post a synopsis regarding how things were going to end for the reader's benefit?

Does an author have any obligation to readers who have followed/are following a WiP, or does the label WiP translate into read at your peril?

Thinky thoughts authors, readers?

Comments

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

good writing is about the writing

Yes, and that's why it's such a bloody tradgedy that several WiPs I can think of will never be finished. The pull of the wordsmithing *is that a real word?* is such that I do re-read them, particularly SoHW, but God, I'm left feeling bereft at the end when it just stops.

Why re-read then? Because no-one makes magic leap off the page the way she does. I really couldn't care less if Harry and Draco only ever kissed in her fic, it's the journey - as you say - the joy, the angst, the complexity that makes me want to scream, " OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE FINISH THE FIC ALREADY!!!!!" especially when it's only a couple of chapters from the end. *goes to wimper quietly in a corner*