Unfinished fics

[holdouttrout]

I know it's a sin to post unfinished fics, but does anyone else have this crazy desire to post odds and ends? Things that didn't quite work, or morphed into something else, or just bits of smut that aren't worth the time you took to write? What do people do with the detritus fanfic leaves behind?

And how odd is it, really, that I just wrote 15 pages of crappy fanfic backstory for a crack!fic? Which I must fix and post soon. I mean the crack!fic, not the backstory. Because what am I going to do with this monster that appeared on my hard drive? It's not like anyone's going to really like the crack!fic, and then to have the 15 page backstory? It might just be is too much. Maybe I can post it with the rest of my crappy odds and ends and make a link to it or something.

On the plus side, it's got more plot than a longer, finished story I wrote a few months ago. Which is sad.

I'm contemplating fixing the stupid thing and posting it.

Comments

[venom69.livejournal.com]

A lot of forums and yahoo groups have places for people to post their own unfinished fic and then other authors can choose to pick them up and adopt them.

(Like dogs in the poud, but less sad and less-face licking... unless it's a smut fic.)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Face-licking smut fic! Oh, crap! *gets hit by flying bunny*

There should definitely be a community for these things. It would be frustrating as anything, but at the same time interesting...I don't know, though, about fic adoption. I've been offered the chance to finish fic before, and I just can't see myself doing it. (Although writing a missing moment from someone else's fic? Totally done that.) I've also written in other people's universes...hmmm...okay, maybe it's not such a weird idea, after all.

[venom69.livejournal.com]

I've had people do missing scenes from my fics, sequels, prequeles and someone even stole my universe and wrote that (With my permission).

It's a brilliant idea because a lot of authors have fantastic plot lines going when their muse buggers off to Fiji.

A community would be a good idea, but it would get confusing unless it was segregated into fandom/pairing etc.

And I want to see that face-licking fic...

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

It would have to be done in stages: have a posting stage where people put in their unfinished fics for adoption, then a claiming stage, where people claim the fics, then a due date. And yes, it would totally have to be done by fandom, at least.

I totally did not write a Sam/Jack scene based off the alternate universe in Jojo's "Theodore's Comet" and couldn't get up the courage to ask if I could post it.

The face-licking fic would be ridiculously hard for me to write. I have an aversion to the idea of face-licking in general...but I'll keep it in mind.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

I posted all mine on my website, for a while, with appropriate warnings to say that most of them would probably *never* get finished. Eventually I took them down. It was... cathartic. :D

I occasionally post odds and ends on my lj - things I'm working on that I want feedback about, or just feel the urge to share for whatever reason. Sometimes they don't get finished. *feels guilty*

I've come to the conclusion that, personally, I'm only really happy to show people about, oh, maybe 10% of my writing. That way I don't ruin the illusion that I can write.

The rest are songfics... :D

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

"The rest are songfics... :D"

Oh, man. Yes. And who hasn't written songfic? *ponders* I should really try, someday, to write non-bad songfic. Hmmm...What about fic poetry? Poetry fic? Yeah, like I've written any of that. *whistles innocently*

What kind of responses did you get from posting all the unfinished things on your website? Does anyone ever ask you about them? Did people respond to say they liked something?

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

Didn't get any responses. *sobs* But at the time I wasn't really involved in any fanfic worlds, as such - I was just putting it up... in the vague hope that someone would come across it, I guess. It was early days, for me. So I don't know what kind of response you might get if you posted stuff up, being on livejournal as you are.

I like the idea of posting all that to a forum or such, like venom69 mentioned... although I don't know how I'd feel about someone else finishing my story. But perhaps the relief would be worth it.

I have this songfic, and I can't quite convince myself to kill it completely... it commits the sin of karaoke, too... but still... She borrows Jack's leather jacket in order to dress up as 80s Madonna, and... argh. Every now and then I open it up and see if there's any way to redeem it. It's so wrong, and yet...

I can proudly state that I've never written fic poetry / poetry fic, though. Have drawn the line there. *g*

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

80s Madonna...leather jacket...it has to be done. The karaoke sin is a big one, but as long as it's actual karaoke, and not characters randomly bursting into song or declaring their "OMG SO HEARTFELT FEELINGS LOL" you can probably get away with it.

A lot of my teenage angst cam out in poetry fic. Lots of depressing imagery, bad characterization, etc. Yay. I'm not proud to admit that one of these was as recent as last year, but I'm willing to forgive myself and move on.

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

There's occasionally memes that go around for these sorts of things too. Fic pardons or some such where you post snippets that will likely never be finished just so people can read them. It can be sort of neat to read stuff like that.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I totally understand why people don't usually post this stuff. It give me great guilt to think of my abandoned stories--usually abandoned because they weren't well-thought-out, or because they were based too heavily on cliches.

[syxp.livejournal.com]

I think maybe you should start something where writers exchange unfinished fics like people do with presents at Christmas.
Then they need to finish and post them to the new community you will start just for this... :P


sharon

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Oh dear...that sounds complicated, but really, really fun. As in very. *considers*

[nandamai]

Amnesty them! Fic Amnesty = nobody can demand a sequel (though it's good to mention that part when you post ;)). Or you can offer it up to anybody who might want to finish it. I don't think posting unfinished work is a sin as long as you make it clear that it's unfinished and won't ever be finished. LJ is perfect for that.

And I don't think writing out backstory is ever odd. I have journals upon journals filled with backstory, exercises, brainstorming, characters ruminating about why they're behaving a certain way -- many thousands of words that were never intended to be part of the story itself, but make the story better anyway.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

It's not the backstory that worries so much as the fact that it's backstory (an actual story, not just timelining or info gathering) for a crack!fic.

Character ruminating, I have learned, does not usually make a good fic, but it makes sense that it makes a good backstory. Hmmmm....I may need to apply this concept to my original fic.

Fic Amnesty. This is a good term. I'm going to consider using this term instead of "fic that landed in purgatory."

[daisycm83.livejournal.com]

I second the call for amnesty. Give yourself an Amnesty day and just get there out there.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Motion seconded and accepted. :-)

Coming soon--Fic Amnesty day.