Dropped stories and vanishing authors.

[Anonjohn20]

That's why you follow me and join my cult.

By finishing 6 stories, she earned the right to say this.

 

[Corty]

By finishing 6 stories, she earned the right to say this.

And I post daily

 

[Racosharko]

Hate to bring everyone down, but just to say... sometimes people die.

 

[NoFcuksGiven]

Different writers have different reasons for dropping stories and vanishing.

First, for me personally as a writer, if I output 30,000 to 40,000 words (which is nearly a quarter to a third of a normal full-length book) and it’s not getting the traction that I expect it to get, then it’s a good indication that the story is just not good enough and that I’m better off devoting my efforts elsewhere to a new story that might become popular later on rather than wasting time and effort on continuing a failing story, thus risk dooming myself to a sunk-cost fallacy. Sure, you might try your best to socially engage yourself in certain stories but you’re just one person among the masses. For a story to be popular, the majority of people has to like it, not just a few individuals. It may sound harsh but that’s reality.

Second, writing is just so damn tiring, man. It can be fun but it can also be tiring work sometimes. And if you have a Patreon that’s not going so well financially, it’s essentially tiring work that you basically do for free, which gives you even less motivation to work at a productive and consistent pace. And if you push yourself to write to the point where it’s no longer fun and also does not benefit you financially, you’re going to run into serious burnout, which can really negatively affect your mental health. That is just not something I want to subject myself upon. That’s the reason why I would occasionally take long breaks in between long writing sessions to prevent myself from going completely insane.

I will keep writing, for sure. I cannot say that I’ve had any luck in making writing a financially viable career path for me so far. With that said, I still haven’t lost my love for writing completely. Not yet, at least. And as long as that love is still there, I will continue to write. But I will do it at a manageable pace where I won’t put too much mental strain on myself. And do it in a way where I can express the ideas I want to express.

 

[JayMark]

And I post daily

What the? My idea bag is full but the execution drip feeds through an IV.
How do you do it!? How I say! Moooooooooooooooooooo!

Different writers have different reasons for dropping stories and vanishing.

....

I will keep writing, for sure. I cannot say that I’ve had any luck in making writing a financially viable career path for me so far. With that said, I still haven’t lost my love for writing completely. Not yet, at least. And as long as that love is still there, I will continue to write. But I will do it at a manageable pace where I won’t put too much mental strain on myself. And do it in a way where I can express the ideas I want to express.

Well said.

Writing is the only profession where the greatest majority of employees are expected to do it for free, produce beyond perfection, never stop doing it, take insults for any real or perceived mistake, produce high output to compete with AI, pay to promote themselves, wade through a sea of contradictory advice, navigate a range of diverse preferences, become popular without pandering, be seen and invisible at the same time, be lambasted for seeking to monetize but thought of as second rate if they can't or don't, be original but stay within the lines of conventions, be okay with no support, and compete with each other in a death game in hopes of getting noticed.

At this rate, we should all be grateful these people who aren't getting paid still write anything.

 

[Zirrboy]

In my experience a lot of story ideas, both by other people and those I had myself, are expositions more than anything else. High level abstracts that deceive you into thinking that carrying on is just a matter of putting them into practice while not actually being much help there. Vague outlooks tend to be more appealing than the writing usually ends up being (if it ends up being at all)

Take for example the idea of a self-necromancing undead protagonist. You write about an adventurer kicking the bucket in a suddenly vicious dungeon, maybe even throw in a betrayal by colleagues, the reanimation, a few fights with dungeon monsters to display the protagonist's new capabilities...
and as a reader (assuming you liked it thus far), you'd probably think the story is just about to kick into gear. The undead will claw their way back up, take revenge on those who wronged them, etc.
But in terms of the premise that's actually the end of continuous unique content that you need to extent with new ideas.

 

[015]

[HIATUS]Waking up as a Tiefling, Violaceae, Vamp Dragon Fox Girl, Umbra Frontier Online – A Casual Playthrough of the Umbra Witch, Two Faces [NSFW] [choose-your-own], The Sword Saint Also Has A Succubus Class, The Spirit Dragon's Gift, The Soul Mirror, The Most Violent White Mage, The Gyaru Next Door, The Dragon's Stolen Bride, The Death of Captain Liberty, Succubus Rising, Stellar Horizons, Slimegirls, Succubi, and Sticky Situations, Shinobinekoden: A Ninja Catgirl's Tale, Reincarnated as the Strongest Dragon. Here is a small sampling ofthe over 100 stories on Hiatus

I do my best to comment on every story I read and I try to be encouraging.

A lot of Isekai, a focus on fantasy settings, Some superhero, urban fantasy and some romance I try to look at titles and synopsis and read stories that sound interesting

We have similar tastes in genre. Your list is much more massive than mine. One story thats currently on a 4 months hiatus that i believe has so much potential of being a fantastic story. If you want to check it out its called The Necro Empress. But here the things, the traction for the story is pretty good, the author has people commenting on every single one of his or her chapter so my only conclusion for the hiatus is due life reasons. But they did say we will be getting chapters. Just dont know when. I really hope that author comes back because i really like that story. Still havent dropped it. Could be a fools errand on my part ?

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

This reminds me that I need to set my works to "completed" soon when I soon finish book I despite technically continuing.

All these people that just want finished stories ...

 

[zephyrtrillian]

Honestly, I've considered not writing on ScribbleHub anymore just because organic discovery seems slow, and I think my work may be a mismatch for ScribbleHub's audience. It's possible that some (although not a lot, but some) of the writers that dropped off ScribbleHub went on to post somewhere else for a similar reason.

 

[2wordsperminute]

Totally not me realizing I actually haven't said much of anything here in a while

I actually do have a small stockpile of chapters ready to release, but I'm waiting on a cover I commissioned *checks calendar* close to a year ago now. I should really check in on the guy.

Sorry for my small part in this problem.

 

[sicks]

One author is deliberately dropping stories and marking them as complete, with the remaining portion on Patreon only. It's a strategy, I guess, but one that led to me blocking them entirely. They also have a suspiciously high number of stories being released in parallel--Additionally, all of them would violate Patreon's terms but I'm not going to be the one to rat on them.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

No one pays them for writing, it's a hobby.

 

[Alski]

One author is deliberately dropping stories and marking them as complete, with the remaining portion on Patreon only. It's a strategy, I guess, but one that led to me blocking them entirely. They also have a suspiciously high number of stories being released in parallel--Additionally, all of them would violate Patreon's terms but I'm not going to be the one to rat on them.

Report them both here and on patreon, if you have proof.

 

[Talmus]

We have similar tastes in genre. Your list is much more massive than mine. One story thats currently on a 4 months hiatus that i believe has so much potential of being a fantastic story. If you want to check it out its called The Necro Empress. But here the things, the traction for the story is pretty good, the author has people commenting on every single one of his or her chapter so my only conclusion for the hiatus is due life reasons. But they did say we will be getting chapters. Just dont know when. I really hope that author comes back because i really like that story. Still havent dropped it. Could be a fools errand on my part ?

If you check out my reading lists on the main site, I have over a hundred in hiatus. over a hundred in finished, sadly at least three authors have passed that I was reading stories from. have a folder of considering or paused by my reading and an active reading folder. Do not bother reading my stories they are not good. Maybe Careful what you wish for is okay it is completed at least.

 

[melchi]

Bribery is the answer

 

[Navillus]

Thoughts on how many authors just seem to drop their stories or even drop off the site?
I am about to just give up reading any stories with less than 50 chapters.,
Lately it seems like more than half the stories I read just get dropped after two to five chapters, usually with no warning. Add to that numerous stories getting deleted by the author I feel like I am wasting my time getting invested in new stories.

I feel this but it’s just a part of the cycle unfortunately… for example I’ve got a story 3 stories I’m still continuing but I’ve been unable to write more of it for well over a year now… there are also the times when a story just isn’t fun to write anymore and the author just can’t bring themselves to continue… that happens quite often… sometimes you find yourself at a wall that just doesn’t feel surmountable-nyah.

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

I'm almost done writing my first Webnovel.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Thoughts on how many authors just seem to drop their stories or even drop off the site?
I am about to just give up reading any stories with less than 50 chapters.,
Lately it seems like more than half the stories I read just get dropped after two to five chapters, usually with no warning. Add to that numerous stories getting deleted by the author I feel like I am wasting my time getting invested in new stories.

I was forced to remove two stories by PocketFM, and those two have taken most of my writing time so my others are all stalled at the moment. I suspect I'm not the only person in a situation like this (though I have started three other stories but then shelved them to keep my focus)

 

[LuoirM]

I wanted to make money, not meaningful art

 

[ElijahRyne]

Thoughts on how many authors just seem to drop their stories or even drop off the site?
I am about to just give up reading any stories with less than 50 chapters.,
Lately it seems like more than half the stories I read just get dropped after two to five chapters, usually with no warning. Add to that numerous stories getting deleted by the author I feel like I am wasting my time getting invested in new stories.

I usually get severe writers block after getting ~10k words written. However I take it as my code of conduct never to delete a story. No matter how much I wish to delete The Mist of Love….