Joined: 29 Nov 2004
Posts: 183
Location: Northern UK
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We don't have any rules about that.
Theoretically, a WIP is a WIP until the author either removes it from all archives, OR makes a public statement that they are leaving fandom, and by implication the story.
You cannot tell a work is abandoned unless the author actually states that they are not going to finish.
Most of fandom thought the SS/HG fic, "Falling Further In" was abandoned, as it had not been updated for a year or more, but the author recently returned to fandom and updated.
I know several writers who have works that have not been updated for a good while (and which fandom has a lot of interest in seeing, for example "A Decoding of the Heart" by Textualsphinx) but who do intend if possible to update and eventually finish. Real life has been the issue for them.
Famous "never to be finished" stories are "Pawn to Queen" - which was publicly abandoned by the author who burned out of fandom two years ago, and "The Mirror of Maybe" a Snape/Harry classic that fans of that pairing mourn as the one that got away. Midnight Blue will not be finishing that one either.
The sort of stuff we have on SH is generally smaller potatoes than that.
Frequently WIP's are not completed because the writer is new and really had no plot as such worked out before she posted the first parts. As a result, the writer will run out of steam. Generally I'd advise that you can run two, maybe three chapters before you have to sit and work out what is going on. My standard advice to newbies is complete a full draft of your story before polishing, getting beta read and then posting.
I know for the reader it can be truly frustrating getting hooked on a WIP story and then seeing the writer run out of steam or lose interest. My advice there would be to do what a lot of more experienced fanfic readers do, and stick to completed stories. For my own part, I only rarely follow WIP's and then only when I know the writer has finished work and can therefore be expected (barring accident) to finish, OR and this is a very big OR - if the writer is so good (like say, Textualsphinx, again) that I cannot wait for the completion, and their partial work is still to be enjoyed.
From a SH admin point of view, I'd suggest that we lack the resources to contact all writers of unfinished work and demand they finish or pull the fic. And besides, in the case of a genuine reason for not completing, it would be rude. I'd hate to have to email a writer who actually wanted to finish a story but had been unable to for whatever reason. Stuck and harrassed writers do not need the extra pressure. |
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Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony ~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail |
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