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Post by Dabeagle on Jan 17, 2016 16:54:25 GMT -5
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Post by Lugnutz on Jan 17, 2016 22:18:45 GMT -5
I'll await the start, then whine because I have to wait for chapters.
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Post by silentreader on Jan 19, 2016 13:07:49 GMT -5
I'll await the start, then whine because I have to wait for chapters. I like this. (I mean, I like the cover picture for the new story because it makes me wonder what's going to happen inside the story... AND I like Lugnutz's comment, because that's how I feel waiting for chapters once I really fall for a story. And then I feel disappointed in myself for being impatient, because I realize authors are giving me a gift and I shouldn't whine about a gift...)
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Post by Dabeagle on Jan 20, 2016 7:50:41 GMT -5
I can relate. Unfortunately, for the length of time it takes to create, if I post it all at once - if you're like me - you'll blow through it right away and then it's done and you're looking for something else, somewhere else, to read. Method to the madness, I guess
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Post by Lugnutz on Jan 20, 2016 11:15:26 GMT -5
It's all good. You can re-read it a chapter at a time until it's done.
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Post by Cynus on Jan 20, 2016 15:39:02 GMT -5
I can relate. Unfortunately, for the length of time it takes to create, if I post it all at once - if you're like me - you'll blow through it right away and then it's done and you're looking for something else, somewhere else, to read. Method to the madness, I guess I completely understand. It's why I release my stories at GA on a 1/week posting schedule, too, though apparently it's starting to blow up in my face... Very few people seem to be reading my latest story...
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Post by Dabeagle on Jan 20, 2016 18:07:46 GMT -5
I can relate. Unfortunately, for the length of time it takes to create, if I post it all at once - if you're like me - you'll blow through it right away and then it's done and you're looking for something else, somewhere else, to read. Method to the madness, I guess I completely understand. It's why I release my stories at GA on a 1/week posting schedule, too, though apparently it's starting to blow up in my face... Very few people seem to be reading my latest story... I HATE that.
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Post by PaulR5 on Jan 20, 2016 21:09:19 GMT -5
Well, Samuel, I'M reading it on both sites. Interesting story. Looking forward to seeing which direction(s) it develops.
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Post by TeddyBower on Jan 20, 2016 21:32:45 GMT -5
I'll await the start, then whine because I have to wait for chapters. I like this. (I mean, I like the cover picture for the new story because it makes me wonder what's going to happen inside the story... AND I like Lugnutz's comment, because that's how I feel waiting for chapters once I really fall for a story. And then I feel disappointed in myself for being impatient, because I realize authors are giving me a gift and I shouldn't whine about a gift...) Well, after being burned countless times I now totally refuse to read a story until it is complete and announced as complete. The only thing worse than reading a story chapter by chapter as it's released only to have it peter out for months or years on end, is for the author to kill off one of the main characters that you've come to love. Not much worse, granted, but worse.
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Post by PaulR5 on Jan 20, 2016 21:44:29 GMT -5
I know what you mean. One story I read posted 7 chapters up through 2002, then the 8th and final chapter was posted in 2008. Frustrating!
Another story stopped posting in 2007, and in emails with the author he had told me that he had already written the last chapter, so he knew where he was going. However, I also know some major personal stuff was going behind the scenes, so there may be mitigating circumstances in some cases....
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Post by Cynus on Jan 21, 2016 0:17:05 GMT -5
Well, Samuel, I'M reading it on both sites. Interesting story. Looking forward to seeing which direction(s) it develops. Thanks, Paul. I'm glad at least there's still a loyal few who are reading it.
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Post by Cynus on Jan 21, 2016 0:21:34 GMT -5
I like this. (I mean, I like the cover picture for the new story because it makes me wonder what's going to happen inside the story... AND I like Lugnutz's comment, because that's how I feel waiting for chapters once I really fall for a story. And then I feel disappointed in myself for being impatient, because I realize authors are giving me a gift and I shouldn't whine about a gift...) Well, after being burned countless times I now totally refuse to read a story until it is complete and announced as complete. The only thing worse than reading a story chapter by chapter as it's released only to have it peter out for months or years on end, is for the author to kill off one of the main characters that you've come to love. Not much worse, granted, but worse. Was going to say something about how I almost always have the story finished writing-wise before I allow it to start posting, then read the rest and realized something else. If you've read some of my stories, you probably aren't too interested to read more if you hate authors killing characters. I've been known to do it in some of mine. Of course, I can't say whether or not anyone important dies in this new story, either, as that would be a spoiler, and I would never give such a spoiler away. Hope my killing of characters hasn't ever made you hate me, but I still wouldn't apologize even if it did. I saw a plot reason to kill any character I've ever killed, and I did it for the story, not gratuitously.
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Post by Dabeagle on Jan 21, 2016 7:14:34 GMT -5
I'm of two minds on that question of killing characters. As a person who frequently thinks with their heart and emotions, I'm no fan of tragedy type stories and tend to stop watching/reading things if characters I like or are invested in die. One of my biggest examples of this was Stephen King and his Dark Tower series. Now, King won't give a rats ass what I think and the loss of my purchases doesn't affect him, either. However, he killed a character in the first book and it took me a few years to come back to it. As happens sometimes in fiction, the character was brought back and I devoured the books until the final one, which killed him again, cruelly. I haven't read King's work since.
As an author, I recognize that death is a reality and it comes for the characters as well. The death, like in a mystery, should have meaning within the story. Doing so, however, runs the risk for the author of alienating the reader and, so, should always be done with consideration. I point to the time Charlie was killed in the Sanitaria Springs universe and the weeks worth of back and forth Ryan and I went through before settling on that decision, which made many readers unhappy and fingers were pointed about a trite choice to place two characters together. As an author who loves his characters, I don't write them off easily or lightly, but that sometimes doesn't come across on the page. We understand that characters have to suffer, have to be damaged to be real and to be interesting, but they cease to be so when dead.
I have decided that, no matter what, it's always the fans that get screwed in the end. We get invested in stories, characters, worlds and then have them yanked away from us. With books or stories, if you take away what interests me, I won't like your story and probably won't read you anymore because of that. It's a balance between what the reader, as a whole, will endure for the sake of a 'good story' and what the author wants to write. If, as a writer, you are bound and determined to write a tragedy then you know from the outset that you've blocked out a certain set of readers who won't read a tragedy regardless of whatever other genre it is set in.
I started the Game of Thrones books, but gave up on them because people I was interested in and enjoyed and cared about were cast aside - and considering how many characters there are, a new one is promoted and the story continues. I won't bother to finish.
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Post by TeddyBower on Jan 21, 2016 19:51:25 GMT -5
I read, and for that matter write, this particular genre of story because I want some kind of a happy ending. I read to feel good. I read to fall in love with the characters. Certainly I'll admit that there is some degree of escapism in my purpose for reading but that escapism simply MUST have a happy ending. It's why I read and why I write.
That said, I do understand that there are times when a character dies, maybe even one I've come to love. I'm not so naive as to think, or want, there to never be sadness or grief in the stories. But in that grief the story must serve some purpose. Dave mentioned the death of Charlie. That is a perfect example. Yes, it stung a bit when Charlie was killed but his death was handled well by the authors. Even though his death was problematic to me, the reader, the story of Robin and Lucien and their growing relationship was heartwarming. It left me feeling fulfilled in the outcome.
The original version of the very first story I ever had posted quite some years ago had the main character committing suicide, or so it seemed. The next chapter would have revealed that he did not. That version of the story never made it online but was rewritten at the request of the website owner and became a short story. I still think it was a good story in its original form but I'm glad it remained unpublished as originally written.
As I said, I read this genre to feel good and escape for a while, so bottom line for me on the subject of killing characters is that if an author is going to do it there needs to be a greater purpose and I've got to have some kind of happy ending or the author has lost me. One thing that I've found that helps alleviate a problematic killing is if the author weaves some hints into the text that something good is coming as a result.
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Post by TeddyBower on Jan 21, 2016 20:02:53 GMT -5
Cynus said: Hope my killing of characters hasn't ever made you hate me, but I still wouldn't apologize even if it did. I saw a plot reason to kill any character I've ever killed, and I did it for the story, not gratuitously. Well, I've not read everything you've written but what I have read I've not been particularly offended. I've actually appreciated your work a great deal but then I do not recall having run across a story yet where a main character has been killed off let alone killed in a way that leaves me twisting in the wind either.
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