When To Start Posting Your Fanfic ...

[BattleRanger]

As a fan of a few fanfics here and other places, it pains me to no end to have to wait for months on end to get new chapters for my favorite fanfics. Its almost like they are moving without any planned outcome.

I can't blame anyone for this ... when I first began rewriting my fanfic, Fire and Ice, I would post the chapters as I finished them ... but this would usually leave me in a situation where I would have a continuity-fuck-all and would either have to go back and edit previous chapters or limit myself in what I aspired to do in the current and future postings. I don't know if other authors have had this problem or if they adhere to what they originally wrote, but sometimes, there are issues that don't show themselves until way after the initial posting.

With my second fanfic, The Rising Storm, I have decided to finish the story completely and then post ... a new approach that is a bit hard, as I am just anxious as hell to release it to the public.

As fans yourselves, how much does it bother you to have to wait six to eight months to finish a fanfic? Would you rather see an unfinished product, or watch the progress of the fic and then read a 'director's cut' of the fic, with all the continuity issues resolved?

[ZeoFury]

I almost feel that I partially inspired this post with my habit of having gaps between when I post fan fics. But don't let me flatter myself.

I personally don't get on RangerBoard enough to sit down and read many other fan-fics save for a few, but I just write mine as I go along. I don't have a plan. I make a brief outline of how I want my chapter to go and then I go forth with it, not putting much thought into the next chapter. It's a hit-or-miss process really.

[project314]

Hey Battleranger,

My opinion on this question is posting as you go. Sure, there's the risk of painting yourself in a corner and being stuck there because you can't just undo what you just posted, but with that comes the challenge of finding creative solutions to those screwups. Always fun to try and figure that out.

Also, sometimes reader feedback can actually be really useful, particularly when some readers give you their detailed impressions on things like the pacing of a story or the accurateness of the characters' voices when your cast isn't made up of original characters. Finally, considering I like to end my chapters on cliffhangers and that I like to screw with my readers' heads (in a good way of course as I love them all), it's fun to post gradually. It's more rewarding, I find.

Obviously, it would be great if we could master a way to continuously release new chapters on a regular schedule (what I wouldn't give for that ability), but we do what we can.

Decent answer? =)

[FlashmanX]

I'm actually right there right now I have been working on my fic for going on four years shit just keeps getting in the way like a hurricane work marriage kids

I'm with you on not hating to wait for next chapters

For ex I was so hyped to read bradlee scott's pr movie remake which he hyped like crazy and theres still no ending to it.

[yami senshi youkaiou]

To be honest that used to bug me all the time when I would read a fanfic, and like it but then they'd wait forever to post anything new or just quit it altogether.

But then when I started writing fics myself I realized how time consuming it was just to write something that in my head would take about as long as say just for example sake a battle grid segment in an episode of VR Troopers let alone what I hoped would be the equivalent of a 50 episode show with a 2 hour movie finale.

And I also realized I didn't know how I was going to develop certain characters or even how they looked like since sometimes I'd imagine a bad guy being like an evil guy in black armor, and other times imagine them as some kind of Kaiju like creature, and other times I'd imagine them as something in between like a humanoid animal but dressed like a samurai, or scientist, or priest, biker, etc depending on what I wanted their job to be.

And I also realized that even if I could figure out an A plot like: "NASA sends Astronauts to unexplored planet/moon/asteroid/etc, Astronauts get exposed to weird substance or life form, Astronaut comes back but weird substance or life form took him over so now he's some weird space monster, Mutant Astronaut escapes, and starts infecting people, and/or eating them, government tries to track down mutant Astronaut, and keep everyone from knowing about it, Rangers find out about mutant astronaut, Rangers try fight mutant astronaut, Rangers destroy mutant astronaut, twist ending (i.e. the government decides it's going to send another space mission to the planet/moon/asteroid/etc that the first space mission went to/substance or life form that infected the astronaut is still around, and can still infect something or someone else, end.

I still couldn't really think up a B plot like the ranger find out that their school is excepting corporate sponsorship from big companies like the school health class showing healthy eating PSAs made by fast food companies, or making everyone watch some psuedo news show that's an excuse to make everyone watch commercials, etc.

[Ego Ranger]

I do things in a bit of a mixed way. Before beginning any story, I often go and write out the entire plot summary, from start to finish, and evolve the characters that way. I write the characters, then the setting, then the plot. I go through all of it and add as much detail as possible, then I go and begin writing the story. That way, any continuity problems that might arise don't because I already know where I want the story to go.

[Siraaj]

Ego Ranger, I'm the same way with the Fanfic that writing at them moment. I started the fic that I"m writing and I find myself going back going it and changing one thing after the other.

And I'm wondering am I ever finish it at all.

[Time Ranger]

When I get Ideas I usally write episodes left and right and then post a chapter. Then a week or a couple days Later I post a chapter when I have the free time God Willing :). Keeps my readers happy. Peace God Bless :)

[Beckoner]

My story tends to evolve as I write it. I come up with a general idea, and then as I write it, I flesh it out more in mind as I go along. Somehow, I manage to pull off these intricate plotlines with parallels and hints and red herrings. Everything is a rough draft in my head, and it gets more sophisticated as I go along. Sometimes I preplan it to the tiniest detail, sometimes I have a stroke of genius in the middle of writing it.

When I wrote Season One of World Bender, it was just an overall idea that grew bigger as I went on. Halfway through Season One, I decided that I wanted a Season Two, which increased to Three, then Four. I was basically figuring out Season Two as I was writing Season One. And similarly about halfway through Season Two, I began figuring out Season Three.

All that being in mind, I tend to post chapters immediately after completing them.

My continuity is quite sound, and I don't find myself having the fix anything because I tend to remember every last detail and nuanced bit of information I concoct.

[Jacen]

Posting as you go gives people reading time to post comments on your story.

[GreyRanger]

Q: When to start posting your fanfic?
A: The beginning.

[cyrax037]

I agree. One Ranger fic I've been working on, I've been planning this out since before MF started. Things just seem to keep getting int he way to actually sitting down and start writing.


My plan tho is, is to have atleast 5-10 episodes completely finished before I even start releasing promo materials. That will give me time to work on the others in between posting chapters, and it wont take long to post chapters, maybe one a week or whatever. I'm doing mine in "episodes" 25-32 episodes, hopefully enough that would fill a normal 30 minute episode. So it goes more like a series, instead of a book.


One story I've been doing on another forum tho, its been giving me trouble. I've only written 4 and a quarter in the past few months, and its been several weeks since last posted a chapter. And since I can't really write more then one thing at a time, I have to finish this one out before I can start my ranger fic.


One thing I don't really care for myself, is reedits to an already posted chapter. I wont go back and re-read a chapter. IMO, once its been posted, thats the final cut, like being published. You can't go back and re-edit a book, once its gone to print. Like our local paper LMAO. They make spelling mistakes and typo's all over the place. But once its gone to print, its done, thats it. My advice, to the serious fanfic writer, write several chapters ahead of time, use spell check, reread it yourself several times, to check for spelling, grammatical, and continuity errors, and find someone, maybe someone you know, maybe someone objective, either way, someone that is good at spelling and grammatical things, that can read it, and edit it and point out continuity errors they see.

With me, I usually don't post shit, until my dad has taken a look at it and does some editing. When i write, its usually kinda rough, and he goes in and polishes it for me.
You don't have to be good at spelling or grammar to be a good writer, you just have to have a good editor that is!

[GreyRanger]

My story tends to evolve as I write it. I come up with a general idea, and then as I write it, I flesh it out more in mind as I go along. Somehow, I manage to pull off these intricate plotlines with parallels and hints and red herrings. Everything is a rough draft in my head, and it gets more sophisticated as I go along. Sometimes I preplan it to the tiniest detail, sometimes I have a stroke of genius in the middle of writing it.

When I wrote Season One of World Bender, it was just an overall idea that grew bigger as I went on. Halfway through Season One, I decided that I wanted a Season Two, which increased to Three, then Four. I was basically figuring out Season Two as I was writing Season One. And similarly about halfway through Season Two, I began figuring out Season Three.

All that being in mind, I tend to post chapters immediately after completing them.

My continuity is quite sound, and I don't find myself having the fix anything because I tend to remember every last detail and nuanced bit of information I concoct.

It's scary how similar our writing/thought processes of fics are...this above is my exact method.

[cyrax037]

lol, me too. I like to start at the ending, know where it is I want it to end, and then important events in the story, then I fill in the blanks as I go. It usually goes pretty well. sometimes there are things that I need to change, or cut. Sometimes I put in too much filler, and it gets obvious.

[BLANKS]

When I was writing my fic SPD: The Return, I already had chapters 1-5 finished before I posted chapter 1. When I posted chapter 1, that is when I would start writing chapter 6. Post chapter 2, start chapter 7 and so on. I kind of plan it the way I would release a professional comic book. Always be ahead of production, that way if life throws a curve ball and ties up things from me actually writing for a week/month, I would have some stuff ready to just post at a moment's notice.