Hi guys. I know I told you I'd resume posting on Wednesday and I promise I will, but I just ran into something here on SOL and it pissed me off, so I wanted to rant about it like the angry bastard I am.
Even when I'm not writing, I'm reading. Lately, my SOL readings have led me to stories well outside my comfort zone. Yesterday, I found one that I won't name, but settled in to read it, thinking that reading something profoundly different might help me unwind after a long day. So I read. I disliked a lot of the story elements, but enjoyed others. The story was 25 chapters long and I thought that's a comfortable length, it's listed as completed and I'm in the mood to scratch strange parts of my imagination, so let's do this. I was having a great time and then the narrative stopped with the declaration that "Sorry, unfortunately we'll never know what happened after this."
WHAT THE BALL-FLAPPING FUCK WAS THAT!??! I read 25 chapters that needed me to Rosetta Stone what the author was trying to tell me in places, the grammar and spelling were that spotty and when I get to the end THAT is the last line in the story? Is the author dead? Because that's an acceptable reason that it's not going to update. Otherwise a note to the reader, letting them know that the story was abandoned SHOULD have been at the top of Chapter 1, right? At the very least, mark the story Incomplete and Inactive. That's just fucking shitty to do to readers.
So here's the promise: NEVER! NEVER, EVER! If I can't find it in myself to finish a serial and the muse has completely abandoned me, I'll find a way to get that story to a place where you, the reader, can read the words "The End" at the bottom and get a sense of satisfaction. You will never look at one of my stories and feel that disappointment until someone posts on here that I'm damn good and dead and I'll have chapters waiting for you when you get to the reading room in the sky.
Sorry to dump that out there in a cloud of rage, but I feel like those stories should be removed from SOL. Seriously, what do we need a 14k story that's been Incomplete and Inactive since 2003 for? If you took a break from that story to have a kid, that kid is now a teenager and is probably wandering this site with a mouse in one hand and a penis in the other and hoping his parents don't catch him. Imagine his disappointment when he sees that Daddy didn't finish that story he started way back when. Won't someone PLEASE think of the children?!!?