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katekatI told myself last night that I'd try to post while I'm at home - this post inspired by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
savoytruffle's post on why she likes WsIP (works in progress).
I am, at best, an ambivalent consumer of works in progress. When I first started reading fiction in the Btvs verse it was in the latter seasons of the show, and much of the rush of writing that had been done around my initial pairing (Buffy/Giles) was completed. Or, incomplete. And since I was scouring the web for fic that was several years old, if I came across a WIP it was generally not being added to, but instead was ... probably what one would consider an IW (incomplete work) instead. The author had often moved on to other pairings, other fandoms, or away from the internet all together.
As I expanded my reading to other pairings, and became more acquainted with those actually active in the fandom, I continued avoiding WIPs unless they satisfied one of two criteria:
1) they were from an author whose previous work I liked enough to want to read everything they were writing, no matter if I thought it would be finished or not, or
2) I had run out of completed fiction and was desperate for something to read
these two things happen far more frequently than I expected, which is good, because I've really enjoyed the experience of reading those works. I also think I began to shift my perspective after I participated in a couple of different ficathons and ended up with WIPs of my own. Granted, I don't consider myself a fan writer as much as I do a fan artist. And I mostly wrote the fic that I did to prove to myself I could. But still, I don't feel particularly guilty to have not completed those stories, and I think it would be hypocritical to complain about others leaving work behind.
That being said, I could make you a list right now of fanworks I hope someday will be completed by their authors, and I would literally squeel with delight should any of those authors return to offer more of the story.
And I will say that the WIP does provoke me, as a reader, to involve myself in the process.
Kristina Buss & Karen Hellekson, in their introduction to Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the age of the Internet: new essays, suggest that Work In Progress is the dominant notion in any fandom, because it is the way we engage with the "work in progress" of the media source material (after all, a new ep of Merlin adds to the cannon in much the same way a new chapter of a fan work adds to that text's fannon). Interestingly, they go back to Barthes' ideas of reader as someone who is the nexus for focusing the meaning of a written work; and suggest that a serial work is
savoytruffle's post on why she likes WsIP (works in progress).I am, at best, an ambivalent consumer of works in progress. When I first started reading fiction in the Btvs verse it was in the latter seasons of the show, and much of the rush of writing that had been done around my initial pairing (Buffy/Giles) was completed. Or, incomplete. And since I was scouring the web for fic that was several years old, if I came across a WIP it was generally not being added to, but instead was ... probably what one would consider an IW (incomplete work) instead. The author had often moved on to other pairings, other fandoms, or away from the internet all together.
As I expanded my reading to other pairings, and became more acquainted with those actually active in the fandom, I continued avoiding WIPs unless they satisfied one of two criteria:
1) they were from an author whose previous work I liked enough to want to read everything they were writing, no matter if I thought it would be finished or not, or
2) I had run out of completed fiction and was desperate for something to read
these two things happen far more frequently than I expected, which is good, because I've really enjoyed the experience of reading those works. I also think I began to shift my perspective after I participated in a couple of different ficathons and ended up with WIPs of my own. Granted, I don't consider myself a fan writer as much as I do a fan artist. And I mostly wrote the fic that I did to prove to myself I could. But still, I don't feel particularly guilty to have not completed those stories, and I think it would be hypocritical to complain about others leaving work behind.
That being said, I could make you a list right now of fanworks I hope someday will be completed by their authors, and I would literally squeel with delight should any of those authors return to offer more of the story.
And I will say that the WIP does provoke me, as a reader, to involve myself in the process.
Kristina Buss & Karen Hellekson, in their introduction to Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the age of the Internet: new essays, suggest that Work In Progress is the dominant notion in any fandom, because it is the way we engage with the "work in progress" of the media source material (after all, a new ep of Merlin adds to the cannon in much the same way a new chapter of a fan work adds to that text's fannon). Interestingly, they go back to Barthes' ideas of reader as someone who is the nexus for focusing the meaning of a written work; and suggest that a serial work is
the ultimate writerly text...[t]he open-source text in particular invites fan fiction as an expansion to the source universe and as interpretive fan engagement where the fan not only analyzes the text but also must constantly renegotiate her analyses. Ever fan story is in this sense a work in progress, even when the story has been completed [because once it is in dialogue with readers and shaped by their perspectives]I love the perspective they give here, and it makes me re-evaluate my position on WIPs. On the one hand, I read fan works for pleasure and one of those pleasures is having an ending to works. On the other, one of the pleasures of my life is being a critical reader in some way or another, and when I realize that my feedback on a particular fan work in progress is entering into a conversation with the author .... well, that's fun too.
