20 chapters...

Wasting my time reading a fic and making me excitedly wait for every next chapter. Waiting and more waiting due to 'hiatus' when suddenly announcing that it was abandoned!?

How irritating!

 

The most annoying is when authors write 40k+ words and then starts writing another fic.

 

I'd say that it is more annoying when an author gets 20000 words into it, and drops it, than when he gets 5000 in, but, then again, there are many more of the latter, so it about evens out.

 

I think I'm going against the general consensus here, but normally it's the short one that are abandoned that annoy me more. I tend to read longer fics anyhow, but will read short ones that are unfinnished if they have the premise of a story that I really like the sound of/have been searching for for hours. With a longer one, at least you got to read quite a lot of it.

 

For me it depends on the story. I've enjoyed some long stories, which eventually ran into a cul-de-sac and were abandoned. It didn't bother me that much, as everybody could see there is a problem to solve the knot.

On the other hand some authors are able to create an interesting plot with fewthousand words and start another story and the next and one more ... and only some one-shots are complete ... *cough*razz*cough* ... that's sometimes much more annoying.

BTW: One member of this site, who didn't want to abandon his story, solved his writer's block in an interesting way ... http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2806167/11/ ...

 

Sheesh people. I always check the last chapter to see if it's done before I read the fic. You actually will get to chapter 20 before you realize it's abandoned?

As for which is worse? No difference at all in my opinion. Abandoned stories only serve as idea graveyards. There's more ideas in 20 chapters than in 2 or 3, but either way they're terribly unsatisfying to read. They just say different things about the author. Getting 20 chapters in and getting stuck is really common. If you write (and actually post) just two chapters before getting stuck then that's just plain sad.

 

I'm pretty much like Yarrgh in the sense that my chapters will probably take a month or so to get started. There's just so much real life stuff that needs to be taken care of first.

I'm pretty split on this as well. I would ahte to see a 20 chapter story abandoned because I did invest time and energy into reading it. But there are some stories that are only 2 or 3 chapters in that show amazing potential, then you realize the author just gave it up and it's pretty disheartening.

 

Well ... If I stumble across an old fic, I haven't read yet, then I do the same. But it's quite useless with new stories. With a timeturner that wouldn't be a problem, but who was able to anticipate Rosswrock would abdicate pot when he had just started smoking?

 

in my opinion its the 20 + chappie that gets abandoned that really irks me. there are quite a few good stories that have been either abandoned or just forgot about. dark minion, i read that story and was verily upset. the only good thing was that i knew it was finished and didnt keep checking it every month or two.

 

I like reading 20 chapter ones even if they are unfinished. Generally by then the stories reached the peak and from there you can mostly figure out how it will end. I've got a pretty good imagination so I just give it an end. It's not quite as good as it should be but at least I avoid the angst of wondering.
I was surprised so many here didn't favor the 20 chapter ones as I might had expected.

 

I'm actually with Fayr on this. 23 chapters or more, we've started to get some satisfaction. Its the storiest that stop right after the first act, but don't continue. Those suck the most.

Real example? I'm somewhat ambivalent if Fayr finishes Reign right now. Good story, but we could all see where its going. Plus, I'd have to re-read at this point. I'd be much more disappointed if he did that to Child of Mercy. That story I'm right in the middle of.

 

For me it all depend's on the story it self, at 20 chapter's we can all agree we can get pissed off when it ABANDONED, but at the same time even at a few chapter's 5/6.
one good example of this is C.Night's Inquiring Minds excellent story well written and then ABANDONED

 

For me, definitely the 20 chapter one. It's because of this that I no longer read WIP's unless they are something special, or something completely different.

There's (nearly) nothing more annoying than putting in a large amount of time to read a fic and finding it unfinished.

 

The thing that annoys me the most when reading a fanfiction is when the author hasn't updated for months and then posts a new chapter. Only, that new chapter is an author's note saying they've abandoned the fic and will be deleting it.

 

Depends the length of the few chapters, if they're say Seven thousand words each then i'd be irritated because i've just gotten into the story. On the other hand, i'd be irked because i would become alot more invested in the twenty or so chapter work.

I'm kinda split, if say the story is showing that its good, and that its going somewhere, then the writer goes, 'fuck dis, i'm over it' then leaves it, then yer, i'd get pretty annoyed.