4.1 KiB
A question about reader participation in fanfic [Q]
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Author: u/avret SDHS rationalist*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3h1bfy/a_question_about_reader_participation_in_fanfic_q/
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Score: 3
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Created: 2015-08-14T23:07:17
Post:
Every so often in my fanfic, I leave challenges for my readers(normally in the form of asking them to solve cases). Once, a few chapters back, I made plot developments contingent on how well they thought up plans. This worked spectacularly, and the story progressed with the reader's ideas.
In my most recent chapter, I decided to try that again, with the main character's life at stake. I received zero submissions within my time limit(assuming I get none in the next 48 hours). Should I end the fic with a sad ending?
EDIT: I will be unavailable to respond to suggestions for 26 hours or so due to religious reasons.
EDIT 2: One of my reviewers submitted an excellent solution(FFN name: The Anguished One). Thanks for the advice! I may write two endings anyway, just because.
Comments:
u/alexanderwales [+11] Time flies like an arrow (2 hours later)
No, don't give it a sad ending unless that's what's most appropriate to the work. A piece of serial fiction lives on much longer than its initial run and the first audience that read along with it. I get comments and reviews years after the fact by people finding stuff I've written for the first time.
If you give it a sad ending just as a matter of consequence, you're weakening the work for everyone who will read it in the future.
u/Pluvialis [+2] Second Age Sauron (17 hours later)
It depends on why the author is writing it. Do they want the fic to stand alone, or if is it more of a sort of DnD game where the purpose is the journey of writing it collaboratively with his audience?
u/avret [+1] SDHS rationalist (a day later)
Ok, I think I'll use a fake ending style thing and then put out a new chapter the day after. It should work well with the canon.
u/Sagebrysh [+6] Rank 7 Pragmatist (44 minutes later)
I generally just hide all sorts of hints that my characters will figure out eventually but a perceptive audience could figure out far sooner. And then I don't say anything, and if people work it out, good for them.
The whole 'testing your readers' think worked on the final exam, but that was a rather specific case, at the end of a very long fanfiction with an already very dedicated reader base. Its not something to really throw around lightly unless you know you have readers who would be able to figure it out.
u/Transfuturist [+2] Carthago delenda est. (22 hours later)
To be fair, he actually had a very low standard for winning. Partially transfiguring CNTs to decapitate the Death Eaters was not a hard leap, particularly with the excerpt at the beginning of the story. I think there were at least half a thousand comments with the expected answer.
u/DCarrier [+1] (4 hours later)
Didn't he also do it in Three Worlds Collide? Although he did give both endings, and it might be that the only difference is what's canon.
u/avret [+1] SDHS rationalist (a day later)
Ok, thanks. See my response to Alexander Wales for my plan about what to do.
u/redrach [+3] (20 minutes later)
That seems rather harsh, especially on future readers. You're effectively punishing them for the disinterest (or incompetence) of your current readers.
Perhaps you could write two endings?
u/None [+3] (4 hours later)
Write the ending that happens, with a preface saying that "this is what happens!". At the end, leave a lot of white space, then "Fooled you! Tune in next time for the worst ending that doesn't end in death!"
u/Transfuturist [+1] Carthago delenda est. (22 hours later)
Write it like Clue. :P
u/xamueljones [+1] My arch-enemy is entropy (5 hours later)
What's the story you're talking about?
u/alexanderwales [+1] Time flies like an arrow (5 hours later)