Checking your inbox, or your alerts, you're surprised - there's not been an update to that fic since 2017! You'd thought the author was dead! But no, there's a fresh set of 5,000 words. A quick scan, and there's no Author's Note at beginning or end saying it's a one-off.

You might vaguely recall the story, but checking the previous chapter, you don't quite remember everything, so maybe it's time for a re-read, just to catch up? Or do you drop it, unwatch and unsubscribe?

We're (probably) all familiar with it.

There's been a few fics and authors semi-recently that came out of hiatus, either long or short-term, and I have to admit it's interesting to see continuations of things I used to enjoy, five/ten years ago, or those that dropped for a few months during this whole lockdown thing.

Generally, if there's been an update in the last year or so, I can probably pick the story back up without having to go through everything - some authors might only be doing an update once a month as standard, so this wouldn't be too far behind the curve. Depending on what I might be already reading though, that's no guarantee that I won't start again anyway. Longer term breaks, where there's a year or more, I'm not going to be able to pick up without having a re-read, unless they're a long-term favourite, one I've read many times before... In which case I'd probably do it again.

But if we're looking at a story that hasn't updated in over a year, and I know I need to catch up on it, but it's not a burning favourite, I'll often tend to let the update lie - I don't want to have to re-read the whole story, just for an extra 5k words on top, if the author's then going to delay the next chapter until 2022. So I'd generally let those lie until I've got the email alerts for two or three chapters, before diving back into it.

If the fresh update is a huge one, especially in comparison (we're talking a 20k chapter, when they're normally 5, for example), then it's definitely more likely I'll start again. I guess maybe it's the thought that it must all be recent - why would the author have sat on a standard 3+ chapters if they could put them out already?


So what's your thoughts and behaviours when it comes to fics back from the dead? Do you delete the alert and ignore it, jump in straight away?

 

I suppose it depends on the fic and the time passed in between postings.

If it is one of my favorite favorites, I'll check my notes and see if they do anything to me - if they do, I'll probably read a couple of last chapters only to get into the story (even more if the hiatus period was a couple of years and in a meanwhile, I forgot about it).

Those that I follow because it was the best thing I could find to read at the time, I don't write notes for and in that case, I go from the beginning. Unfortunately, I often realize they aged terribly or weren't that good to begin with, and leave them be after a few chapters, but if it is readable to an extent, I don't mind reading them again.

Every once in a while there's that nice gem that tingles me just in the right way that I forgot about. Boy do I love it when those get updated and I get to read them all over again as it was my first time.

Rarer, I read an alert notice and get immediately ashamed of myself. When that's the case, I look left and right, and once sure no one sees me, I delete the notice and none is wiser. There really are some moments like, Why the fuck would I follow this?

 

Its a tough one, but often times I'm just not in a position to go and re-read a couple of hundred thousand words just to understand the latest update.

If its a fic I remember really enjoying, and I don't have the time, then I'll often set it aside and check on it periodically to see if the updates continue to come through. If they do then I'll make time for a re-read and catch up. If not, then I'm not going to take the time for a single update after months or years of inactivity.

I actually cleared out all my alerts a couple of years ago, after getting a series of stupid alert emails. I remember one being a guy sending out an update to say "This fic is now officially abandoned" - after having not updated for 3 years - and another was "I've given up on writing cause I'm no good, but you should all go read this other fic that I'm reading right now, its amazing".

So I removed all my alerts that weren't for the 2 or 3 things that were actively being updated.

 

I did mostly the same, deleted anything that had been more than two years since update, with the exception of two stories: The Long Journey Home, and The Well Groomed Mind. Either of those update I'll binge the whole thing from the start again. Otherwise, it's just not happening at this point.

 

It really depends on the story. If I can't remember anything at all, and I'm not hooked by the new chapter then I'll probably discard it. Otherwise it's a full re-read from me.

You really never know when a work is going to update - Dark Times by Treenahastal for instance, nothing for six years, and then just weeks after I'd first read it, and had finished with a vague feeling of disappointment that I'd never see the story end, it updated.

 

Depends, really. When Raven Studios Mass Effect series came back, I cheerfully went back and read the three existing stories in the series to refresh my memory, some 800,000 words, if not more. On the other hand, when The Sound of Sorcery updated last year, after 12 years, I was delighted, opened up a tab to chapter 1 to reread...and then didn't. The tab stayed on my phone for about a year before I closed it, never having read it.

That might partly be a fandom issue; I've got much less interest in HP these days, so even if regular updates for SoS had continued, it might still have fallen by the wayside. It's possibly also something to do with how easy a read it is? Something I can pretty easily skim through to refresh is more likely to get reread than something I need to really focus on.

 

is that a fanfiction or the game spinoff books? Can you link it? I remember reading and enjoying mass effect books, even though i haven’t played the game.

 

Fanfic; in the library, complete up to the end of ME3 with an epilogue to come.
https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/cause-and-effect-by-raven-studios-t-mass-effect.37578/