I am someone who has pretty considerable anxieties about failing myself by not finishing the work I have in mind prior to complications or death making it impossible. I half joke with my sister that if I die prematurely, I give her my full blessing to plagiarize me. But it does cause me genuine fear every now and then that I will pass unfulfilled or something if I do not churn out everything that’s in my head. Does this thought ever unsettle you as a writer? How do you go about coping with it? Do you have a contingency plan such as a loved one potentially finishing what you started if the worst were to happen? Do you never think about it at all? Regardless, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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No, dead men tell no tales.
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Dead men tell no tales.
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Unless you’re RRMartin I wouldn’t worry about it too much… Actually I don’t think even RRMartin worries much about it either 
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Dead men tell no tales.
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People don’t care that much about our writing when we’re living so they probably won’t care much when we’re dead 
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Unironically my third favorite POTC movie.
But I do sometimes but that’s only when I’m trying to sleep and start having existential thoughts. Otherwise no.
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It’s occurred to my mind in some form. But I think if I die, the half finished writing project is a pretty minor concern compared to dying. I have no contingency plan for writing. Anything that happens after I die is pretty irrelevant to me.
I would ask you if you are young and healthy, or if perhaps there is some health concern or age that causes these thoughts? If there is no reason to think that much about death, I would advise talking to someone. I had to go to therapy for a while, partially because I was preoccupied with worrying about death.
Anyway, hope you are doing okay and not struggling too much.
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My dude, I don’t know what the next sentence is going to be half the time. God help anyone else. Plus I would love to drop a stinky poo of a mystery like Edwin Drood and you can’t do that if you let some idiot son and his fan-fiction friend churn out more of your crazy sci-fi fever dream.
Also I have no loved ones and will die alone, so it’s not like there is a viable alternative.
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How would that even work? It’s in my mind, finishing it would require someone reading it from there.
Besides, I write to amuse myself. It would be pointless for someone else to finish.
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Dead men tell no tales.
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PotC jokes aside, an author’s work being finished by their loved one is not something without precedent—David Gemmell’s Fall of Kings was finished by his wife, for one—but I can’t recall any cases of that being planned. I think it only really happens after a writer dies a sudden death, or if the franchise is really popular and the author’s children decide to make use of the IP, Brian Herbert style.
In any case, even if the hypothetical scenario where I become a really popular writer and get a loving family at that, I wouldn’t expect anyone to continue my sci-fi work. To properly write stories for my setting, one has to achieve a certain… state of mind I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
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Unless you are Eiichiro Oda, I wouldn’t be concerned about this.
If I die, I’d want my wife to get someone to finish Grandparenting in return for a 50/50 split on the proceeds, seeing as how I already wrote the original and the first three chapters of the sequel (finished year 2 tonight, actually). Other than that, my stubs and story idea notes can just lay fallow until my kids grow up and see if there’s anything there they want to use.
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I guess that someone is taking half the proceeds, but who’s taking the other half? I’m guessing you have no need for it if you die.
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If you die, your royalties go to your next of kin as I understand it.
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No contingencies. The only way the world will know your works is if you finish one while you live. This goes double for a ChoiceScript game, where, let’s be honest, until it’s published and playable, it’s just a text file full of nonsense. Let that motivate you to get through a choice set or two whenever you can, or not! It’s your life and your journey 
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Ha. I must be doing something wrong then, since my text is fully readable.
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If I die untimely, my kids will have enough to deal with without also having to labor under the expectation that they’ve got to finish Daddy’s white whale fantasy CYOA series.
My wife will own my notes and the IP, and can sell it to CoG or anyone else interested in doing something with the gameworld.
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