How I Learned to Live with WIPs

[fullygoldy]

Firstly, Imma need some more lambert or kradam icons.  And also Die Hard (as in Live Free Or), and possibly Hawaii Five-O. Shoot, I gotta have some White Collar too.  Although I swear I at least downloaded some of those.  Help a fangirl out?

Anyway.  I know I've ranted (or at least mentioned) in the past that I can't deal with WIPs.  I had to defriend a couple of my favorite writers because they'd caused me to wander into WIP hell, and I was never going to get out.  One of them, Em Brunson, was actually a large part of the reason I wandered out of CSI fandom.  I just couldn't take it any more.  I love long meaty stories, but I hate reading them piecemeal.  Part of it is I don't like exercising the patience it takes to deal with WIPs.  But a big part is that an epic story can get off track or wander down a path it doesn't really need to explore, or get backed into a corner during the writing.  Sometimes the POV will inexplicably change, or the characterization(s) will get shaky.  This is why writers have drafts, and betas, and savagely rip out whole chunks of work before the final version gets posted.  I LOVE a well crafted, brilliant story.  I appreciate the blood, sweat and tears it takes to bring the story to life, but I prefer not seeing all of that until maybe afterward (in a DVD commentary).  So reading a story that gets posted in bits and pieces (sometimes not even in chronological order) is excrutiating.  Usually. 

There are a very few writers who can post WIPs that I will gleefully follow, because their "chapters" always feel complete enough to stand alone.  And these writers are experienced enough to think ahead and avoid disastrous pitfalls well enough, and they usually finish before moving on to something new.  china_shop  and synecdochic  are notable examples.  The former is a master at short stories, so her chapters are delightful little bites, and the latter writes in great flowing chunks, posting no less than 10k words at a go, so that you need the break anyway (also each break makes sense).

However, I am now firmly devoted to kradamadness , a monthly challenge com that is home to many, MANY WIPs, the majority of which get abandoned by the time the next challenge rolls around.  And I love it.  I mean, I do mourn my unfinished favorites, and sometimes I wonder why the hell I'm reading a 50-part piece of utter fluff, littered with grammatical errors and egregious spelling, but when the next challenge rolls around, I gleefully dive right back in.  I can not get enough of these adorable boys.  And while I love all the flavors of Lambert, the Kris/Adam combo is my absolute favorite.  So, I'm in WIP hell, but I'm here with a bunch of crazy, amazing, creative people who are all having a blast.  It could be worse.