[ SECRET POST #5403 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5403 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 07 secrets from Secret Submission Post #773.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. http://i.imgur.com/bRH5gMd.png

Transcript by OP

[fscom]

There’s a WIP fanfic I started reading in December 2019. I was enthralled. I couldn’t wait for more. I would whip out my phone wherever and whenever it updated. It’s now October 2021, and hoo boy… The shine has worn off. The updates have been pretty regular. The chapters are longer than ever, and instead of exciting me, I’m just gritting my teeth to get through them. Was the prose always this purple? Were the characters always this wangst-y? Did it actually get bad, or did I just stop enjoying it? Help!

[(Anonymous)]

I can only speak for myself, but going through some of my old bookmarks does make me cringe. Is that really what I thought was worth re-reading?

I think that as I read more, I became more discerning.

[pantswarrior]

Oh man, yes. I recently went looking for an "old favorite" of mine via the wayback machine, the author's page had vanished from the web. Mostly I just remembered one scene.

...I'll just say that although I still like that one scene, I think it was because there is so little material out there in general for that particular ship that I clung to anything that mentioned it. (Which sorta intersects with that other secret...)

[(Anonymous)]

Definitely the case for me. If a fandom has only one or two fics for my OTP, then I will read them even if they're shit. If there's mountains of fic for a pairing, I will get pickier as I read more.

[(Anonymous)]

Reminds me a lot of a fic I eventually stopped reading after enjoying it for quite a while. I keep telling myself I'd go back to it but every time I open the bookmark I see how many chapters have piled up since I stopped and then I remember how much of a chore it was to slog through the last few chapters I DID read and I close the tab and move on... until I try again some months later.

[(Anonymous)]

I sometimes find that fics I used to like a lot when a ship was brand new to me and hella exciting later lose the appeal completely. It's the emotional filter that just makes everything better, including fics. And yeah, it happened within one long wip for me as well - I just didn't ship the pairing as hard anymore and the fic I thought was brilliant just became okay and I kinda didn't want to spend my time on it anymore (I felt really guilty cos it was written for me specifically as a gift)

[(Anonymous)]

That's what happens to me too. When a ship or fandom is new to me, my rose colored glasses are super strong.

[feotakahari]

I’ve had the reverse. There was this one fic where the idea behind it was interesting, but the grammar was barely coherent. I looked it up again much later, and I actually understood it. Maybe it got revised at some point.

Go back to the beginning.

[(Anonymous)]

Read the first chapter. If it doesn't grab you, it's likely your tastes have changed somewhat. If it does grab you, it's likely the writing has changed somewhat. If it's somewhere in-between, the the answer is likely both, though story fatigue may play a part (both on your behalf and the author's). I don't know that having an answer will make you less compelled to finish, but maybe.

Re: Go back to the beginning.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

I'd also give it some space/enough time to forget some thingsabout it.

Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a few days late & a few dollars short, but this is actually really helpful! Thank you for the advice! :D

[(Anonymous)]

It sounds to me like an author who didn’t plot out their story (or went off plan) and now they’re dragging it out instead of tying it all up. I see it in a lot of WIPs and it’s part of why I only read completed works.

[(Anonymous)]

This. I've seen a wip floating around, in a fandom and pairing I like, that's already over 1,000,000 words. Seriously - one. million. words. Unfinished story.

The summary is attractive, but every time I look at it, I back away; it's too much to tackle in one story. Every time it crosses my path I think, "Why didn't you find some natural stopping places, and make a series of several sequential stories?"

IDK - there's just a different feel between reading a first story and liking it so much that you proceed to the sequels with cries of joy, and thinking about reading ONE story that's equivalent to 15 novels. And the longer it grows without being finished, the less inclined I am to even look at it.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but this is why I don't read WIPs. Either the author will run out of ideas and stop writing suddenly, or they'll endlessly drag it out because they don't know how to finish it. When a WIP gets finished that's great! But I'm not getting invested until it's done.

[(Anonymous)]

Ha, I once wrote one of these, endless purple prose, chapters that were miles long, posted regularly. It was fun up unto the middle of the story but a bloody awful chore by the end. Yes, I managed to end it. I knew where I was going but took all the detours that opened up. I still regret the time I invested in it, but I tried so hard to not let it just peter out (hating that in others), and the few regular readers I had were grateful and gracious about it, others donated fan art etc. and that was fun and made me grateful. I still have friends I made through it, but I can't get into fannish stuff anymore. The experience turned me off the whole culture for good.

[(Anonymous)]

Been there, done that. Several times. And you really can't figure out if the writing has gone downhill or your taste has just changed.

[(Anonymous)]

Seems to me that fics that take unreasonably long times to tell a story (about 2 years, at least, *even when* regularly updated?!) frequently tend to...outstay their welcome? You’re allowed to change your interests and preferences when a whole baby could gestate, be born and celebrate a birthday in the same time it takes a writer to give life to their freaking fanfic. Consider it abandoned/a perpetual WIP and move on to something you actually enjoy reading, I say.