WIPs?

[forestofglory]

SO I'm still pretty new at transformative works fandom. So one thing I've been trying to figure out recently is works in progress(WIP). Its common for people to post stories on AO3 one chapter at a time. Either because the work is still being written or sometimes because the want to serialize it.

At first I was like well I'm really bad at serialized work, I don't even watch TV as its airing. But then I was tempted by something that wasn't finished. So I started reading along, and actually it was fun to wait and also to have the whole social thing with people commenting on each chapter. So now I sometimes read WIPs.

I'm trying to develop some guidelines for WIP reading for myself. Here's what I have so far:

I'm far more likely to start a WIP if I know the author a bit or if people I know are talking about the WIP

If I find a WIP that already has big chunk posted I'll probably wait until its done rather than get caught up and then follow along.

I'm trying not to read too many at once. How many is too many? Maybe 4?

I don't always go off and read the next chapter of WIP as soon as it lands in my inbox. I did this for a bit and it was too stressful.

Those are my personal guidelines at the moment. Things have been evolving though so this very subject to change.

Do you read WIPs? What kinds of personal guidelines do you have for them? How do you kept track of new chapters?

Comments

[goodgriefcharlie]

I definitely read WIPs, although the number I'm okay with reading at one time varies greatly on how intensely fannish I feel about a fandom at the time and how big the fandom is/how much fic is being created. The greater my fannish feels, the smaller the fandom/the fewer the fics, the more likely I am to dive into a bunch of WIPs. I am also more inclined to read a WIP if it has one of my favorite tropes (e.g. time travel fix-its are my kryptonite) or written by an author I know has a consistent history of finishing WIPs.

I do most of my reading on AO3 and so just subscribe to the fics I'm interested in. When a new chapter is released, I typically re-read the last chapter or two before starting the new one to remind myself of the details, although I'll skip that if the author has a really quick update schedule. (Depending on how busy I am IRL and how much leisure time I have to actually read, I also sometimes will let the new chapters build up and then read them all in one go when things calm down.) If it's been a number of months (or years!) since the last update, I may or may not go back to the story; it really depends on if I still am interested in the fandom or if something about that particular story really sparked something in me.

Some of my approach to WIPs may have to do with the fact that Harry Potter was one of my first fandoms? I feel like most everything written in the early-to-mid 2000s for HP was an epic serial and so I just got used to stories being doled out in pieces over several months. There were also a lot of abandoned stories that I found and still loved anyways, so the possibility of never getting a proper conclusion has never deterred me from starting a fic. I will say I tend to read WIPs that already have a lot of chapters posted (because there's enough of the characters/world building/plot/whatever to enjoy) or ones that are very very short (because they're almost like what-if plot bunnies rather than full stories). If the author continues, great! If not, I can still be satisfied with what's there.

It is also possible that I am somewhat of an instant-gratification reader? (Not sure if that's the best way to phrase it, but that's all I'm coming up with right now.) My brain literally goes oooooh shiny MUST READ and then I'm four chapters in before I know it :D It is amazing to me how many people have the patience and self-control to wait until the whole story is posted before they start reading!

[forestofglory]

Thanks for this long comment. It's interesting to think about how your history shapes how you handle WIPs -- but it makes a lot of sense. I'm having to learn some new reading protocols for fanfic, and some of them have to do with the different pacing that comes with most long things being serialized.