WIP Challenge: Day 27 Check-In

[lacerta]

Poll #8166 Tuesday

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

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Tell us what you've been doing today:

View Answers

writing
2 (25.0%)

planning/researching
3 (37.5%)

sent fic to beta
0 (0.0%)

posted
0 (0.0%)

took a break
0 (0.0%)

something else
5 (62.5%)

For discussion: What do you all do about these WIPs that have been sitting in the WIP folder for such a long time, the ones you've maybe lost interest in writing? Do you keep them with plans to come back to them eventually? Do you salvage bits and pieces to incorporate into other fics or delete them entirely after a while? (And if you don't have any such files in your folder, please tell me how to do that ;) )

Comments

[meridian_rose]

Delete? Never! I keep almost every single thing. Sometimes I do salvage bits and pieces from them, sometimes I rewrite them. Mostly I just keep them, and sometimes look at them for inspiration - although sometimes I just make myself feel bad for having so many unfinished fics :P

[rhi]

I keep the ones I might still write in the appropriate folder (I sort mine by fandoms, to be able to find them, and one folder for my Crossovers100 stories), but I also have a folder entitled 'Probably dustbunnies' for the stories that just feel too stale now. Which is a pity.

And if I can salvage something out of an abandoned story, I do. If it's from a story I might yet finish, I have to stare at them both for a while and decide which way to go. Tricky, that one.

Do you have any idea when WIP Amnesty Day is?

[jagnikjen]

So far I've been working. :(

I ended up not writing last night even though I should have. Hopefully tonight or early tomorrow am.

Discussion topic...I save them. I have a couple I really *want* to finish even though I'm not into the fandom that much anymore. It's the principal of the thing. :)

[littlebutfierce]

Today was my long day at work, made longer by train delays, so I didn't have the brain to do anything but a laborious snippet for Tumbling which is really not v. good at all, but sparked by a comment thread in this comm, so yay!

I've got TONS of WIPs, technically, b/c all the snippets I write for my 750 Words are in theory WIPs! Some of them get incorporated into other fics, some of them get put aside. A lot of them I don't really intend to use from the start; they're more... kind of brainstorming in fictional form? Sometimes I'll just write a little snippet w/the intention of just feeling out how it feels to write a character, or to get a better idea of how I think their mind works. Sometimes I'll write something the opposite of what I think (I'll write a ship I hate or a character I can't stand) just to stretch my mind a little, heh. I think a lot of my 750 Words snippets are the equivalent of playing scales on an instrument to warm up: worthwhile, but nothing particularly beautiful in & of itself. It's what it helps me get to afterwards that is the good stuff!

[rebecca2525]

Edited like a boss! \o/

I save everything, outlines, WIPs, ideas and all--neatly sorted into folders. Those text files take up so little space, why delete them? Might come in handy one day...

[katzenjamming]

No work done today on the big WIP, but I did get a lot done. About 3K words between rewriting the a next chapter of a fic I thought was dead, plus I started and nearly completed a chapter that probably isn't going to be posted but helps me work out everyone's motivations.

I try not to delete anything, even if it doesn't get posted for some reason or another. If it's a self-contained, complete enough thing, I do sometimes post snippets on their own, or as "bonus" pieces to longerfic. Conversely, I might try to work it into another fic. But it usually just ends up something I look at every once in a while, to think, "one day... I'll find something to do with you." *shakes fist*

[bay_alexison]

Was able to finish off the editing of my short story this morning before I went to work. I want my betas to look over the ending, but not sure if they're be online tonight. I might send them the ending through PMs at a forum we frequent to if that's the case.

I was also originally going to work on the next chapter of my Big Bang, but am a bit tired after getting back home later than expected and instead felt like watching a couple shows online, LOL. I feel I'll be in a better mindset to get going on the chapter again tomorrow. Maybe later tonight I'll work on finishing up/rewrite two scenes I wrote for the Big Bang as I really wanted to get those done (hates leaving unfinished scenes behind, haha).

My original works I delete them as I HATED them, LOL. My newer works though I keep as sometimes I might go back and finish them if inspiration suddenly hits.

[lacygrey]

I was working. I stopped on the WIP to catch up with paid work. Both have exhausted me in different ways but it feels good to have finished the work and not to have RL things hanging over me for the rest of the week. The GYWO big bang have relaxed the deadline. I don't know what to feel about that because I like to push myself but I want to take my time to get it right.

Anyway, I'm hoping that having thrown myself into something else entirely for a while will have helped me get some perspective on the WIP.

As for the discussion topic, I don't so musch have a WIPs file but plans in notebooks. Sometimes they have been really useful. I never throw them out.

[linaewen]

I have all my writing files loaded on my temporary computer now, so I should be able to accomplish something -- if real life would allow it! I'm hoping for some time tonight to get back into writing.

I save everything I write or make notes on and have scads of folders to try to organize it. I have not really lost interest in anything, I just don't have time to pursue it all at the same time -- so it's worth it to me to save it in case I want it someday. I have done some salvaging, and rarely delete anything, unless I know for certain that I am done with it.

[ficwriter1966]

Wrote and posted a little one-shot yesterday.

I don't have any *serious* WIPs at the moment. I've got a couple of little snippets saved, and a whole notebook full of possible titles, bunnies, and other notes, but nothing far enough along to call it a WIP. Unfinished things make my head crazy!

(This is true of my current fandom. I've got a couple of unfinished works in old fandoms, that I simply ran out of inspiration for. Those will probably remain unfinished, because trying to finish something without *loving* it any more... Not gonna happen.)