WIP Challenge: Check In, Day 8 - Monday

[the_rck]

I took a nap this morning rather than writing. I'm still waiting for one of my beta readers to get back to me, and I was tired. Maybe tomorrow.

Poll #13187

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

View Respondents

Today I

View Answers

planned
0 (0.0%)

researched
0 (0.0%)

wrote
2 (33.3%)

sent to beta
1 (16.7%)

edited
1 (16.7%)

posted
0 (0.0%)

had a rest
2 (33.3%)

did something else
2 (33.3%)

How I feel about today:

View Answers
Mean: 4.83 Median: 4.5 Std. Dev 2.67

Awful 1		1 (16.7%)
2		0 (0.0%)
3		2 (33.3%)
4		0 (0.0%)
5		0 (0.0%)
6		1 (16.7%)
7		0 (0.0%)
8		2 (33.3%)
9		0 (0.0%)
Wonderful 10		0 (0.0%)

Today's discussion question-- How do you feel about posting a WIP, chapter by chapter? If you've done it, how did it work out for you? If you haven't, what are your reasons?

I did it once, and I'm still working on finishing the story more than a decade later. If I had it to do over, I don't know that I'd start posting so soon. I mean, I had nine chapters written when I started, and I was writing quickly. Then I had a baby, and everything changed. There are still people following the story, though. I have other stories that I've started that I hesitate to post because they're WIP, and I don't know when I'll finish them or even when I'll update them. I want to finish my current WIP before I commit to one of the others.

Comments

[lea_hazel]

It's encouraging to have readers who urge you along with their curiosity of the story and characters. Except when it isn't.

I've had it go both ways. The saddest is when I lose my muse not for the story but for the whole fandom. I'm ambivalent about WIPs, because I know that when it comes to long stories, I don't have the wherewithal to push myself to the end without encouragement.

[ladygriddlebone]

I almost always post my WIPs chapter by chapter as I write them. It really helps motivate me to know people are reading it and looking forward to the next piece. Without that, I tend not to finish things because the story is already in my head, what do I need to go to all the work of writing it for?

I'd love to be able to write an entire story in advance and then post it, but that just doesn't work for me.

[lea_hazel]

I do that all the time, tell myself stories in my head. I can skip back and forth to the part I'm most interested in at the moment.