do you follow (m)any WIPs?

[ratcreature]

I'm curious, how many, if any, WIPs do you currently follow? Also which they are, especially if they are in one of my current main fandoms, to see whether I'm missing anything good. I know not everyone likes WIPs, so obviously this is not the post for WIP haters. I like following WIPs along, which has become obvious to me once again now that I read ST: Reboot, where WIPs seem more common than they are in SGA, so the number I keep track of has increased greatly in a short time.

So here's the list of WIPs I currently follow, i.e. WIPs I subscribe to updates for or regularly check (I stopped reading some HP WIPs I used to follow, because currently I'm not much interested in HP, so I'm not listing those). For simplicity it's just title and author with a link, as these are not recs, though I recced some before, and obviously want to know what happens next for all of them:


SGA

Crimes Against Humanity by seperis (unfortunately not updated in a while)
Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves by auburn
In Ways You Can't Possibly Imagine by telesilla
The Little Sister by saffronhouse
Pegasus Ascendant by Tielan
Qui Habitat by Domenika Marzione
Strange Aeon by slybrarian
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by tassosss (unfortunately not updated in a while)

Star Trek: Reboot

24 x 22 cm by leupagus and rageprufrock
As Morning Shows the Day by jade_dragoness
Conversational Vulcan by Blue Moon3
Divergence by 13empress
Don't Stop Believing by kianspo
Evolution by rhaegal
Finding Home by mizzykitty
For I Have Been a Stranger in a Foreign Land by mortigi-tempo
Home by Lanaea
The Ivy Crown by ladyblahblah
Leave No Soul Behind by whochick
Like Ghosts by eldritchhorrors
A Little Left of Ordinary by Anonymous (may have been abandoned, hasn't been updated in a while anyway)
Nothing Lay Between by dancing_mercury (unfortunately not updated in a while)
Only Good for Legends by leupagus
Reverse Order by blcwriter
Secret Vulcan Mating Rituals by Chase820
Slings and Arrows by gone_ashore
Symptoms of Fatigue by JadeMac2442
Take Refuge in What You Know by Corpus Invictus
Through Thorns To The Stars by black_regalia and calicokat (unfortunately not updated in some months)
Two Kirks Are Better Than One by RuthR
Western Skies by anruiukimi

Supernatural

Agents of Fortune by Karasu Yurei
Bent by Rachel Martin (I live in hope but probably abandoned)
Dromoscope by Emily Brunson
Rain Falling Down by maychorian
Teufelshunde by july-july-july
Untitled Riderverse by cofax7
Wellspring by scourgeofeurope

White Collar

Untitled Kink Meme response by Anon

That were actually fewer than I thought, though I may have forgotten some.

Poll #2497 do you follow (m)any WIPs?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39

View Respondents

How many WIPs do you follow?

View Answers

none
5 (12.8%)

none in principle, but there is that one special story I broke my no-WIPs rule for...
8 (20.5%)

a few (say less than ten)
16 (41.0%)

more than a few but not that many (say more than ten but less than 25)
4 (10.3%)

more than 25 but (probably) less than 100
2 (5.1%)

more than 100
0 (0.0%)

more than 200
0 (0.0%)

too many for me to keep track the number even approximately
2 (5.1%)

I have no idea how many, but not because the number is too large
2 (5.1%)

Comments

[auburn]

I try not to read WIPs if I know they are such (labeling! labeling is important, and, please, no feedback extortion, that will have me blackmarking both the story and the author), but there are a few I'd say I follow. I don't read them, but I bookmark the beginning and when an announcement goes up that they're done I read from the beginning. I'm doing that with the The Little Sister. I love saffronhouse's writing, but for me, the wait between posts can kill the story love.

If something is labeled as abandoned story, but looks good enough and is long enough to have some satisfying development even without an ending, sometimes I'll read it anyway, but it's sort of from a different reading space. I don't expect a conclusion, so I'm not disappointed. Does that make sense? I approach Crimes Against Humanity with that attitude, though at one time I hoped the author would return to and finish it.

On the subject of SGA WIPs -- I think maybe there were fewer or you saw fewer, since SGA was very much an LJ fandom and the LJ dynamic seemed to draw more mature fans with a kind of work ethic toward their fan writing. Maybe. This is off the top of my head. Pit of Voles has thousands upon thousands of potentially epic stories that are abandoned after a week or two when the writer loses momentum or runs into the realization that they had a really cool idea but started without any idea of what the solution/ending would be. LJ makes it easier to support the writer and keep the enthusiasm whipped to sparkly froth even though the damn writing has metamorphosed into its own kind of work.

Personally, I'm going to be watching developments on AO3 with interest, to see if the environment eventually skews more toward the archival model of Fanfiction.net or the more interactive community model from the journaling services. That is, will it fill up with WIPs. [I want clearer markings on them and easier filtering to avoid them while searching. I want some kind of graphic that will show all the dates between postings so you can easily figure out what's been abandoned. I want a cookie and a new SUV, along with a good hair day too. :-) ]

On a embarrassed but pleased note: I've finished the first draft of the last part of Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves. It still needs to be beta-ed and revised, but sometime this month it'll shift from being a WIP to complete and then I'll post a link to the entire thing at my site as well as posting to Wraithbait and AO3.

[ratcreature]

What I love about ff.net that I hope AO3 will do eventually are the story and author alerts. They make it really easy to follow WIPs. For example the Secret Vulcan Mating Rituals story that I linked on AO3 because there you can see the whole story and it has no ads potentially carrying malware (a problem on ff.net as well recently from what I heard), I actually have on alert on ff.net, because AO3 doesn't offer that yet. (I just hope nobody will complain about that story, because I'm pretty sure its level of graphic content goes beyond what ff.net would consider still "M" rated.)

And I'm happy to hear that about GT&T. Though I actually still have the last part in my "to read" pile, because I've been reading a ton of Star Trek with only some SGA recently.

[tassosss]

(I want clearer markings on them and easier filtering to avoid them while searching. I want some kind of graphic that will show all the dates between postings so you can easily figure out what's been abandoned. I want a cookie and a new SUV, along with a good hair day too. :-)

Put in a feedback/feature request! The coders may not be able to swing the SUV or the good hair day but some of them are Magic and might be able to get you the rest.)

[auburn]

What? No good hair day? That's a deal breaker, I tell you. Are you sure they couldn't do something about the frizz if I donate to OTW again?

[tassosss]

...well they do give out pretty nice swag for donating... You could probably get someone in your timezone to show up at your house and do your hair - they're just crazy enough to do it too.

[auburn]

My absolute horror at the thought of anyone 'showing up' to do my hair is hilarious. Concentrating that much crazy in one small area in addition to my own might cause the planet to implode or something.