Ratbag...

Well, as you can guess, I feel more sympathy for Akarii than Inusaga...
In fact, I don't know if I will restrain myself enough to don't said very harsh things to her/him...>_>;

The reasons which mades me think that WIP are worth to exist?

_Helpfull suggestion from readers: I've suggested to Saitana to gives a more important role to Akako in Magician Waltz, she have listened me and, my God, I would have never dreamed a better story about Akako.
Besides, if you have made a mistake, it's far more easy to correct it with a WIP when your reviewer point it to you.
After all, when the mistake is in the beguining of the story with a WIP, you could fix it and then, continue the story.
But when the mistake is in the beguining of the story with a WUSS?Well, you could not fix it without rewriting the entire story and if we're talking about Dostoievski lenght stories like mine...Yes, we could said that the story would never be fixed.

_The lenght of the story. I wrote VERY long stories sometimes, Roses are red? 208 000 words. I am human and I need to be loved?70 000 words.
My crossover Detective Conan/Death note? If it's completed, it would be, in the best case, as long than Rose are red.
My thriller with Hakuba?It's the same thing.
Honetsly, readers who have enough patience to read that in a single time?They are pretty rare, even with an awesome story.

MW is one of the best stories I've read in my single life, not one of the best fanfiction, one of the best stories. I didn't have finished to read it despites that.
And I'm the kind of weirdo who could read The Karamazov brothers in three days.
But with a WIP, the reader could read and enjoy a very long story that he would't have read if it was finished when he had discovered it.

_Playing with the readers's mind and feeling it work. There is few pleasure more intense than reading a review where the reader is asking question about how the things would evolves, who was the culprit(if it's a mystery), et caetera... A review which made us feels that the readers is trapped in the story and want to have the answers to his questions the sooner possible.
It's an awesome motivation for the author, and the reader would not let this kind of review if the story was already finished.

_Some author pretend to don't care about review?Well, fine with them, it's not my case.
And I'm pretty amused by author pretending they're writing stories only for themselves.
Hello?By definition, a story is writen for a reader, it's created to be shared, it serve only one purpose: having an impact on the reader, making your readers doubt, thought, having an emotional impact on him/her.
Writing exist to communicate, at least with yourself when you will re-read your own writing.
An author who write for himself?Well, it's an author who care for only one reader(and if this author pretend he would never had feedback, I'm allowed to laugh).
And, let's said it, it's pretty easy to bring pleasure to this kind of reader, but bring pleasure to a perfect stranger? Ah, it's harder, you know.

The reader is not me, how could I know if the story will affect him or not without review?
The answer is very simple, I will never know.
And my purpose is to affect the reader.It's not only my purpose, it's my motivation.
With WIP, I could be sure that I've reach my purpose. With WUSS? I would never know if I am just masturbating in my corner or trully writing a story before the end of the fic.
And since long stories takes month, if not years, and if you remember that real life exist...Yeah, it's hard to have enough motivation to reach the end.
Maybe I'm just a weak author, or maybe that I've not an oversized ego.

_Re-read the previous chapter? As a reader, it didn't bother me, sometimes it allows me to love the story more since my tastes have matured between the updates, sometimes it allows me to look at this story with a new perspective.
It's not limited to fanfiction, it works very well with philosophy's books.

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_Puting stories in hiatus?Sometimes, it allow them to evolves, it allow myself to be influenced by authors I've read, experience I have, feedback I've get for other stories, et caetera...And it could change totally the story.
If I've forced myself to finish I am human and I need to be loved at once instead of puting it in hiatus for six months, it would not have been one of my favorite stories in my own fanfiction.

_If the reader don't have enough patience, have limited attention or suffer too much when he learn that his favorite story would not have a end?
I DON'T CARE!
If he had takes the risk to read a WIP, he should assume, period.
Writing is a hobby and a passion for me, I don't do it for money or for moral duty toward my reader, if I lost inspiration or love for a story, I will abandon it.Period.
If a reader could gives me inspiration or love for the poor story, fine, I would continue it, otherwise?No.
I'm not my readers's servant.
Oh , a little contradiction in my thoughts since I was making fun of the author pretending to wrote for themselves?
Well, let's clear a misunderstanding.

"L'art pour l'art?"(The art for the sake of the art)?
Nietzsche had made the best translation of this sentence.
"I will not made art to made propaganda for moral or political views of the world. I will made the kind of art that I want to made!And if it's not morally or politically correct or don't match with the taste of the mass,I couldn't care less!"

"I wrote for myself"="I will not wrote the kind of stories which would pleased to the average readers, any group of readers who have different tastes than mine, or which are "fanonically" correct. I will wrote only the kind of stories I want to read!"
That's the only meaning which could allow me to accept this sentence.
I wrote for myself because I'm not submissive to stranger's expectation, not because I don't care to have reader or not.

Besides all, I'm a bit tired to see the poor little readers cuddled. Oh, poor little things, the mean WIP author don't give to them what they deserve!
Well, and the poor WIP author? Of course, he had not excuse...>_>;
When the spoiled brats will understood that authors are not their slaves?
(sigh)
I begin to say nasty things, so I will stop here...^^;

But I will still said that if you have not the patience for WIP or couldn't take the risk to read story which could be unfinished, then don't read WIP, but stop to transform your tastes(/weakness?Hey, lack of patience is a weakness!) in the objective norm of what is a good writer or not...

Well, my thought on WIP are over for now. XD
I hope that I didn't disappoint you(too much), Dag.^^;

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"Well, as you can guess, I feel more sympathy for Akarii than Inusaga..."
If you'd didn't I'd be staring at your ff.net profile in disbelief. XD

"But when the mistake is in the beguining of the story with a WUSS?Well, you could not fix it without rewriting the entire story."
Apparently that's what betas are for. (*Whispers something about that yuri fic I owe you. 8D;*)
But it is true that unless you make the story available to such opinions, it's hard to get them.

"Honestly, readers who have enough patience to read that in a single time?They are pretty rare, even with an awesome story."
Big point. XD It's a rare time when I willingly sacrifice 50+ pages of printer paper to read a story whole, and usually it's with "valeurs sures" (authors that have proven excellent before). *Pokes at Ysabet's Windfall.*

"It's an awesome motivation for the author, and the reader would not let this kind of review if the story was already finished."
Debatable, but it is true that if the author is writing a WIP, such reviews would have more strength because the author too is in the middle of the story, and can see what creates this reaction more than had they already finished the fic and the details had gone hazy.

"By definition, a story is written for a reader, it's created to be shared, it serve only one purpose: having an impact on the reader, making your readers doubt, thought, having an emotional impact on him/her."
"To bring pleasure to a perfect stranger? Ah, it's harder, you know."
I'm gonna go with WORD here because that's something we often seem to forget. XD; Go Claude! \o/

"If I've forced myself to finish 'I am human and I need to be loved' at once instead of puting it in hiatus for six months, it would not have been one of my favorite stories in my own fanfiction."
The wait was worth it. ♥

"No. I'm not my readers's servant."
Truth. 8D

"if you have not the patience for WIP or couldn't take the risk to read story which could be unfinished, then don't read WIP"
Agreed. That's what the "complete" filter on FF.net is for. &heart;

I guess we agree that it is best for everyone to do as they please regarding this question and respect the other's right to do so, right? I can see why you are annoyed at the presumption that one "shouldn't" do one or the other.

Thanks for the detailed response Claude. *Huggles*

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"Apparently that's what betas are for. (*Whispers something about that yuri fic I owe you. 8D;*)
But it is true that unless you make the story available to such opinions, it's hard to get them."
Well, it's a good point but 1)you need to have a beta first(and it's not so easy to find a beta.A good beta?It's harder. And if you're new on the fandom, it's harder too...) 2) the point of view of the beta is still limited.

"Debatable, but it is true that if the author is writing a WIP, such reviews would have more strength because the author too is in the middle of the story, and can see what creates this reaction more than had they already finished the fic and the details had gone hazy."
Well, as Rae said, a clifhanger had more impact if it's a TRUE cliffhanger and that you're trapped in anticipation without the possibility to have answer.

"The wait was worth it. "
Thanks. ^__^

"can see why you are annoyed at the presumption that one "shouldn't" do one or the other."
Yes, it's my main issue.

If a reader don't have the patience or don't want to take the risk to never know the end of a good story, he could just read WUSS, I wouldn't care and wouldn't despise him for that.

If it's easier for an author to post stories only where he had finished them and if he don't want to take the risk to give up a story, it's fine with me.
Every author should write how they want to write.

But when someone is trying to tell me that writing WIP is stupid and not worth of true author, the pill is harder to swallow.

Besides, I hate the double stantard between reader and author.
The poor little reader is allowed to be impatient and to suffer, the infamous WIP author don't deserve as much sympathy in the eyes of someone.>_>;
I called that acting like a brat.
(And my god, this sentence about how much the poor reader suffer enough in real life to learn patience that it's pure sadism to force him to be patient with fandom. Spoiled brat is an euphemism to describe that)
And I didn't love much her condescending pity/judgement toward the "weak" author who needs review to write a story.
I called that act like a self centred jerk.-_-;
Otherwise, I wouldn't have care much, just schruged and said "each one his own".

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Annnnnddddd...to counter Claude's no doubt detailed and justified explanation: It doesn't really matter.

If you have it planned, write it out and post whenever you want. If you don't, write whenever and post whenever. S'long as you wind up with something interesting, and have fun along the way, it doesn't matter whether you had a roadmap or not.

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*thumbs up*

So I guess there isn't that much debate in the end? XD

*Needs to go see FS's response*

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Well, admittedly that was only the authors' side. XD;

For the readers...most of them have problems with WIPs and not WUSSs, so I guess I'll address only that side.

The author is not a court jester to your king and doesn't have to listen to a word you say. Ask for chapters, sure, if it motivates 'em; but let them work at their own pace.

Besides, there's plenty to be said for cliffhangers. How much impact can one have, when the total pause for effect is however long it takes for the next page to load?

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As a reader I'm not too bothered by WIP (I may moan about the slow publishing rate of Hunter x Hunter though, doesn't mean I don't respect the author's need for a well deserved break.) Obviously no one has problems with WUSS. 8D

As for Cliffhanger and WUSS: having a completed story before starting to post doesn't mean you need to post all in one chunk. It's just giving the reader the security that it will be complete in a regular fashion, since it already is on the person's hard drive.

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Though the author shouldn't have to bend over backwards just to give security to every fickle reader.

But-*shrugs*-as a reader it doesn't matter to me what's on the author's harddrive. (S'long as I'm not dedicated beta and therefore dedicated to getting it off the hd. XD) If the story's good enough I'll favorite it, and let updates come when they will.

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As I said to Dag, I wouldn't have cared if it was only a reader explaining why he is avoding WIP or an author explaining why he prefer to post stories only when it's finished.

Each one his own.

But when someone is explaining to me that WIP are the evil and that only iresponsible/stupid author and attention whore are worth to write this kind of story, it's harder for me to keep my temper.

I respect different opinion, as long my opinions are respected as well.

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Ditto the last line.

Though lately I've been changing so that my only reaction is to lift an eyebrow and look amused when people take things too seriously.

*lifts an eyebrow at the whole argument* *looks amused*

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I should act like that.

Lookings at evrything in the smae way I look at harry potter fandom, like something whioch is definitly worth of laugh and not tears and anger.XD

But if I act like that, I will lose the pleasure to lost my temper and beeing condescending and harsh!
(shudders)
I've the right to be a wanker too!Xp

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XDDDDD

It is fun to lose your temper once in a while. And lol at your icon. XD

But problem is, it's usually not too fun when people lose theirs first...

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