Works in Progress

Questions for readers and for writers.

For readers: Do you read Works in Progress, or do you wait for the work to be finished? If you read some WsIP and not others, what criteria do you use to make the decision of whether to start reading one?

For writers: Do you post stories while they’re still WsIP, or do you wait until they’re finished? If you do both, what criteria do you use to decide whether to post a particular WIP or to wait?

My answers: As a reader, I generally wait for a story to be finished before reading. I’ve started a few WsIP that were written by authors whose other work I really enjoyed, but I don’t like waiting months or years for the conclusion, and I especially don’t like being left hanging if the conclusion never comes. As a writer, I very rarely start posting until a work is completed; I find that I almost always want to go back and change something from an earlier chapter as I go along. So I’ve started posting a WIP a very few times, but I’ve almost always regretted it.