My dilemma...
Nineteen months after I started it, I have just finished writing No Time for Ducking to the point I'd originally intended to reach.
While the fic's not terribly long, it's has, obviously, taken me a long time to reach this point. Apart from the outside factors of the rollercoaster of a nineteen months that RL has been, having to divert my attentions to various challenges and generally just being a 'when the mood takes me' kind of writer, one thing that has held me back is that I feel that Ducking is very much my version of events - it's how I picture things happening - if not in the specifics then in that quick and all-consuming love affair: my explanation for how things go so very wrong in HBP, and DH helped me out there with the early marriage, so I've agonised about the relationship progression and the mindset of Remus and Tonks along the way, to quite a large extent.
At several points I've considered making this a full OotP, HBP, DH length fic. At others I've just wanted it finished because I hate to keep people waiting for my schedule, and it's been so nice - so very nice - that people have asked about it and maintained interest over all that time. Over the last week, I've gravitated back to wanting to continue the storyline of this 'verse, and I'm pretty much married to the idea of doing that.
What I can't decide is whether to do that in Ducking or whether to think of this as a series and to pick up their story in a new fic. This 'verse already has three separate fics: Of Mischief and Responsibly, No Time for Ducking and Asinus Protego, so I could very well use fic events to flesh out the in between. I just can't make up my mind, though, and I've never been able to through out all the time I've been thinking about this.
So here is my question to you: how do you feel as a reader about following a fic serial? Does it make the overall story arc harder to follow, or do you like the idea of separate storylines within an ongoing plot of relationship development? As a writer, have you ever faced the same dilemma? Those of you who are writing or have written a series - why did you choose to write that way and do you ever regret that decision? Those of you who are writing long epics - do you ever wish you'd chosen to break it up a little?
Thanks in advance if you have any input to this - I'm in such a quandary!
Hope you all have a good weekend and happy May Day weekend to those on my side of the pond.
While the fic's not terribly long, it's has, obviously, taken me a long time to reach this point. Apart from the outside factors of the rollercoaster of a nineteen months that RL has been, having to divert my attentions to various challenges and generally just being a 'when the mood takes me' kind of writer, one thing that has held me back is that I feel that Ducking is very much my version of events - it's how I picture things happening - if not in the specifics then in that quick and all-consuming love affair: my explanation for how things go so very wrong in HBP, and DH helped me out there with the early marriage, so I've agonised about the relationship progression and the mindset of Remus and Tonks along the way, to quite a large extent.
At several points I've considered making this a full OotP, HBP, DH length fic. At others I've just wanted it finished because I hate to keep people waiting for my schedule, and it's been so nice - so very nice - that people have asked about it and maintained interest over all that time. Over the last week, I've gravitated back to wanting to continue the storyline of this 'verse, and I'm pretty much married to the idea of doing that.
What I can't decide is whether to do that in Ducking or whether to think of this as a series and to pick up their story in a new fic. This 'verse already has three separate fics: Of Mischief and Responsibly, No Time for Ducking and Asinus Protego, so I could very well use fic events to flesh out the in between. I just can't make up my mind, though, and I've never been able to through out all the time I've been thinking about this.
So here is my question to you: how do you feel as a reader about following a fic serial? Does it make the overall story arc harder to follow, or do you like the idea of separate storylines within an ongoing plot of relationship development? As a writer, have you ever faced the same dilemma? Those of you who are writing or have written a series - why did you choose to write that way and do you ever regret that decision? Those of you who are writing long epics - do you ever wish you'd chosen to break it up a little?
Thanks in advance if you have any input to this - I'm in such a quandary!
Hope you all have a good weekend and happy May Day weekend to those on my side of the pond.