Zen Master: Blog

Awright, it appears that all the votes are in. Actually, they've been in for a while but I didn't think of doing any kind of analysis until now. I had asked the blog-readers for an opinion on whether or not I should post my stack of unfinished stories with an admission that they were unfinished and were likely to stay that way. See, I started writing as a sort of therapy when my life wasn't very good, and now that I'm happily married to a woman who is much too good for me I don't write much.
I have, over the years, published 17 different stories. Not all under the pseudonym "Zen Master", and not all on this site. I have 24 more that have made it as far as owning their own set of working files. I have another 28 that haven't made it that far, they are still in the "I wrote this scene" stage.

Of the 24 that I can seriously consider in-work, three are almost done and I'm trying to finish them. The Swarm Cycle novel "Ending This Mess" has gone out to the proofreaders and I'm cleaning it up. Another short story "Learning to Please" just needs one scene finished and it'll be done. And, really, 4 more are reference files for the Swarm Cycle, not really 'stories' per se and they wouldn't be published here anyway.
It's the other 15 or so unfinished works that I'm thinking about putting up on SOL, and I asked for feedback. I got enough answers to be worth reporting the results here, instead of trying to answer each one. The replies all strongly grouped into three answers, of course. "Sure, good idea" (60%), "Who cares?" (20%), and "NO!" (20%) pretty well sum up all the possible answers, right? I also grouped by 'reader-only' and 'has published under that name'.

I'd like to start with the "NO!" answers first. At least one responder was polite enough to say "Please don't do that." The others were considerably less polite, along the lines of "For even THINKING about publishing an unfinished story you should eat shit and die." Um, I checked all of the user-names I got replies from. Not a single one of the "NO!" group has posted any of their works on SOL. So, they read stories posted on a free site but don't themselves contribute anything for others to read.
Granted, that probably is a far larger group of readers than those who both read AND write here, but I think of SOL as a sort of free test-bed for those who are interested in writing, just to see if they can do it. I've seen some pretty dreadful crap here, so clearly the site accepts just about anything as long as you don't focus on sex with people younger than 14. If you haven't been able to get anything published here, it's because you don't want to bother. So, even though the "no" group is pretty strong, they are outnumbered by the reader-only "yes" group even before I add in the author "yes" votes.

If I throw out the middle, the "Yes" group was 3/4 of all votes. Even including the ambivalent group, the "Yes" group was still a clear majority of all answers. They also had some good ideas on how it should be done. One was to not admit in the title that they were unfinished (as no one would read them if I did that), but I really needed to admit they were unfinished in the forward.
One reply pointed out that if I started the title with "Unfinished", then an alphabetic sort would place them all in the back where no one would find them unless they went looking for them. I don't like that as it seems to say that "Unfinished" is the most important concept in the story. If I thought that, I'd throw the file away.
A suggestion I saw over and over again was to publish them and give readers my permission to take the incomplete stories over and provide their own endings. Frankly, that was in the back of my mind anyway, since some of _my_ stories are alternate endings for stories I read here or elsewhere. So, that's what I'm going to do.


-ZM

(This blog post was manually formatted using HTML codes supported by SOL, just to see if we could force some formatting into the entries. It worked great in the preview, but when it came out on the home page all I saw was the raw codes so I went back and pulled them out.)

I hate reading unfinished stories. When's the next chapter coming out? Some authors are regular, every Wednesday or whatever. For those, it's like a serial TV show and we wait for the next exciting episode but it's not a problem because we know it's coming. Some stories, however, haven't been updated in four months or three years and you know that the author never finished it.
I have one long story, the Swarm Cycle "Ending This Mess" which is done except for going through all the proofreader comments. I have another short story "Learning to Please" that is almost done and I'm trying to concentrate on filling in the last couple of gaps. Right now those are my priorities.
I have 20 or so unfinished stories in my own files. I work on one or another whenever it seems right. Are any of them ever going to be completed? I don't know. My life is getting busier again, and as I get older it seems my ability to concentrate is fading away anyway.
I don't want to post them on SOL yet 'cause they ain't done. Still, that's an awful lot of labor that I don't want lost, and I'm egotist enough to think that some people like to read my stories. I was talking to another author here about one of his unfinished stories, and something that's been in the back of my mind for a while jumped forward.
What if I started publishing them with titles like "Unfinished: Lessons" and "Unfinished: The Burglars" and "Unfinished: After the Party"? That gets them out where people can enjoy what's there without any expectation of another chapter soon. All three of those examples are over 100K, so there's something there if people want to read an unfinished story.
Pros? Cons?

-ZM

One reader has asked me how much longer it's gonna take. I don't have a good answer for that, yet. I've gotten the manuscript back from one of my proofreaders, and I'm going through the mass of red ink. I really like TomKen, he's a good friend, but dammit when he sends my masterpieces back with all that I don't like him very much for a while.
I'm expecting similar from several other people, and I frankly have no idea how much longer they will take. It's not like I'm actually paying them for their work, ya know?
And I can't just say 'screw them, I'm publishing', because the day after I do, I'll get their work back, showing me another 40 typos and a horrible plot hole that I never noticed. I gotta wait patiently.

-ZM

...The Swarm Cycle novel "Ending This Mess" has been sent out to the proofreaders. What is on SOL right now was just a scene and I was happy with that, but the damn thing kept growing. Sometime soon I'll be publishing a new story with the same title. What do I do with that old story, that's just one scene from the novel?

I just submitted the 3rd and last part of my short story "PCSS7". It's not a typical story. It is formatted as a letter from a charitable foundation's director to a prospective donor, explaining what the next fundraiser is about. Clearly, it's touched some nerves as I've gotten both '10' scores and '1' scores.

I've received email telling me how awesome it was. I've also gotten email from one reader who took the time to explain why he gave me a '1'. It's not really a story. There's no plot, there's no characters, and it's boring.

I have to admit that he's right, he's right, and that depends upon the reader's interests. If you have an imagination, you can provide your own character. Think of it as one of those reader-participation books where "If you go down the stairs, turn to page 36. If you continue through the door, go to page 31". No, those things have no 'plot', either. You're supposed to provide the character.

(And I'm really hoping that it will spark someone into writing a story of their own, using the contest as the background. Whoever wants to do that has my permission and best wishes.)

-ZM