There’s so many WIPs that come to nothing and I think reason number one for this is that people show their work here too early; before they even know where they want to go with their story. It’s a grave mistake. You don’t need that “cheap” praise for your writing to go on with it, it will either make you lazy and lose focus or it will make you bigheaded. Also it will give you the feeling you put your story, or fractions of it, “out there” somehow, and you will lose the drive to actually finish it. And in most cases you will need to do serious re-writing after the first draft anyway - the feedback on the basic framework on your story, or some images you had in your head and put to paper, is useless and harms you more than it helps you. So at a bare minimum finish your first draft, write out every chapter, a beginning, a middle part and an ending, and make yourself feel content and confident about your work, in the best case, finish your second draft as well, before looking for feedback.
Who are you to giving orders to people in a thread?. Maybe an author need helping to planing a plot of need cheers to gain confidence or find a co authors People shouldn’t limit themselves because others forum members.
@moderatorsI think this thread is negative for community and not useful
One way to look at it I suppose, but presenting your work at an early version will help guide you shape it better in the future, I think, since community feedback is invaluable.
IN ONE CORNER WE GOT MR GREEN IN THE OTHER POISON MARA!!!
PICK YOUR SIDES AND GET READY TO RRRRRRRUUUUUMBLLLLLLE!
Ding ding
Round one!!!
Besides that though a lot of writers make their stories along with community feedback and it becomes a type of community project. I do agree that they should probably have a vague idea of what’s happening with their story though as I see lots of writers on this site get writers block about where the story should actually go.
Also I personally got 5 bucks on the lady with red hair.
Edit: Match was left with an undecided verdict folks!
And no you can’t have your bets back.
I think this is a bit too much of a generalisation.
Yes, there are a lot of writers for whom this might be the case, but it’s not everyone. Some people might need the encouragement to continue being motivated to write their story, and having feedback during the creation stage can make you change things before you spend 3 months working on it, just to scrap it.
And while having a finished draft might be a good idea for a discovery type writer, I would say a finished outline works just as well.
Actually, they make a good point about the reasons a lot of WIPs die. I just don’t feel like it’s a complete waste of time to post the beginning of an idea. Even if it doesn’t work out, feedback helps the author with some of the basic aspects of writing. Ex: Grammar, structure, pacing.
Also, the WIPs are fun to play even if they are never finished lol…
I don’t feel Kafkaesque meant anything really negative and it’s an ok argument, I think. Managing WIPs can potentially distract authors in some ways, but some authors handle it differently. Either way, it’s a learning experience.
I don’t think it’s like that. I think wips come to nothing because it’s really difficult to write.
A friend of mine has been trying to write a normal book for 3 years now, and still doesn’t have much, so a choices game is even more difficult. Another factor is time (job, free time, etc…). And just creating the world your story is set in (If it’s an original one) can turn out in creating another story.
This will turning into a unproductive debate about what a wip is and what literature means. And will end remove a hundred post later. Limiting writers only lead to make people afraid to even trying some people don’t write to be published and wants to improve a language or just gain confidence for a future project. So force people to have a professional outline and etc… for that who needs feedback if all is done lol I need feedback now when I can change it
I don’t disagree with either of you. The WIP experience varies from author to author and it works as good experimenting even if the games aren’t finished.
He just mentioned some of the dangers that may come with making a WIP instead of working privately
No he is trying to FORCE people to do what he thinks is better and trying to make it sound and be a real rule. A rule that could end with almost no wip except the already published people . That will undermine the Hosted philosophy of bring amateur writers into professional. Most people need encouragement and has full time jobs to have full outlines full planning and all written previously
Interesting piece of advice, but I can’t say that I agree. I’ve gone on the record before - and will again, no doubt - that the main reason so many WIPs go unfinished is because writing is quite difficult.
Well he isn’t forcing anyone, he just stated his comment in a slightly demanding way. He isn’t forcing nothing bud.
I think that he’s just giving his opinions on why he doesn’t like WIPs as much as most people. He’s not trying to force a revolution or anything lol.
I wouldn’t worry too much about WIPs ever coming to an end either haha. Nothing to worry about there.
Wait there ain’t a revolution?
That’s a buzzkill…
sad pitchfork
Slightly demanding? We have to part from concept no single of us has right to trying to determine what and what can not posting others. That’s staff business
I think people have presented their views on the matter. Time to cool off.
Well now that I read his post over again I realised that the title is a thesis statement. So the rest is just trying to argue his point which is why he seems less demanding in the post and more so in the title.
So we should take this as less of a demand and as more of a argument that we should engage in for a bit.
Since we don’t have to abandon this idea, he would just personally prefer us to.
I, for one, think that WIPs are nice to post early if just for the fun it is to talk about them, and help people improve them (typo mistakes, things that didn’t fully work…) because I think it makes us all feel better with ourselves, and makes this forum feel more like a community of people who just love reading and helps it’s members.
Damn, that was cheesy
@resuri08 this isn’t heated or anything, it’s just healthy discussion.
@poison_mara they have every right to post their opinion just as much as everyone else has a right to post a WIP d: . But you’re right. If they were trying to make a call of action to stop WIPs, it isn’t their place. But I really don’t think they were.
And I don’t get why we have started a discussion because someone has put his point of view (Although I think they shouldn’t have made a post for it).