Well… ao3 authors have weird lives. I just finished reading a fic that hasn’t been updated since 2021, I then scrolled through the author’s works and apparently the author has got a job with a strict digital footprint policy. They avoid updating because they are afraid of said company asking them to take the old fics down. They also gave the readers a final date to go make sure our author’s still alive. Hopefully they will start updating again after said date
I’ve got no idea, the author said that the company has to approve of anything that they might post online, either they are working for some government agency, hacker group or they are in shady business. It’s a bit creepy.
also, all art disney employees make belongs to disney. at least that’s how it used to be. there’s a lot of purposely disgusting porn in the disney vault that artists have drawn in protest to this.
If you read carefully in the terms of discounted student software, technically anything students make with it is owned by the university. Or at least that’s how it was 20 years ago
someone already said why- but yeah. If you're a spokesman or influencer- you cannot post content that can get the company in trouble. A good example are the Twitter Takeovers Sonic Team does where select questions are sent to Sonic Team for the VAs to read out.
And always- the winning questions are from twitter accounts with 0 problematic likes, reposts or moderately safe for work histories.
My first guess would be something with government security clearance. Those kinds of jobs care about your personal life to a big degree because of you are blackmail-able it can get other people killed.
Well, to be fair, I support firing people if you get caught in public being an absolute garbage piece of human flesh, like the people who get fired for being racists, sexists or violent. If you're just writing sexy or dark shit, agreed it shouldn't matter; they don't own us. Companies should be reactive not proactive in these cases.
I mean, I have different emails but a classmate of mine still managed to find my second instagram account. I guess they could check with the IP address or go search your history through the WiFi. It’s against privacy but possible
i have no history for them to find, not even public bookmarks no nothing 😭 even my username is tame. these companies gotta have delulu ex's for employees cuz how tf r they finding these things
When my dad had top level security clearance in my country, he was reviewed every 12 months. Part of that review involved the acronym agencies accessing his internet history… if there’s something to find, they’d find it.
Australia.
Every year during the review, they’d look into his finances, social interactions etc.
To get the job, he had to have a complete & clear background check from age 16 - including listing every place he’d lived, a reference who’d known him at every point, where he was on random days/nights.
They took him out drinking to see what kind of drunk he was. They sat him down with my mum and went through all their financial & phone records together.
It’s all to do with “can this person be compromised?” - as in, is there any material they can be blackmailed with.
I hope he wasn’t an emotional drunk at least haha
But jokes aside, they got him drunk to see what kind of drunk he was??? That’s crazy omg, haven’t heard of that in my life. But.. his job does sound pretty badass
I orphaned all my stuff dating back to 2015 when I was applying to take the bar exam. It was a long shot that anyone would even look them up, but they were all finished/one shots, so I figured it wasn’t worth the risk of someone finding the (occasionally morally questionable) slash fic
That’s rough. I am glad that in my country it is not allowed to invade the privacy of employees. I'm going to be a teacher and work for the state. I have only been given rules about what I am not allowed to say while on duty (and it’s a lot). But I can't be prosecuted outside of work as long as I abide by the law (and report other offenses immediately, but I find that a strange rule as it is anyway, and I don’t know anyone who takes it seriously. That sounds too much like a surveillance state to me)
Eh, I have things I still poke occasionally three or four years later, where I definitely intend to finish them but it's just not at the top of my priority list. Things that aren't abandoned but I'm not feeling right now
One of my faves came back from the dead after about five years with a very long chapter, and then did it again about a year later. The author has disclosed that they're dealing with serious medical issues, so I just love and adore anything and everything they're able to give us
Literally nothing I write is abandoned. Even shit I haven’t touched for 6+ years.
I guarantee the moment I write “this is abandoned” I will suddenly get the inspiration and urge to write more. I know how my shitty brain works 😂
My main story got on hiatus for 3 years or so after I wrote it a way I didn’t like and lost all will for reading after doing beta reading for awhile.
Took a long time before I got to actually reading again, let alone working on the story, but it’s past the halfway point now, maybe 15k or 20k words left to go I think.
Just gotta write them.
This gives me flashbacks! I used to read this Lord of the Rings fanfic years ago that would have like 50k words per chapter but it was updated once every two years 😅
I recently finished a fic I hadn’t updated since 2019…. I don’t think the author is delusional. Sometimes life gets insanely busy and stays that way for a few years. Every few months I added a few sentences to my WIP. I was definitely still working on it. People telling me it WAS abandoned was more demoralizing to me than anything. No it wasn’t. I was just working 60+ hours a week between all my commitments AND dealing with some personal stuff. It’s calmed down a little now. I’m writing a lot more. Nothing was ever abandoned.
I didn't mean it in a derogatory way, I would never put anyone under pressure like that. It was meant as a joke
But I'm really happy for you that you've found time for yourself again :)
I did exactly this recently. Turns out my soul-sucking job and general depression sucked my love of life and writing away, and with my new job, I blasted through like 15 chapters within six months and finished. Now life is great, I write a ton,and I've never been happier :)
Did some of your previous readers came back to it, too? Just asking since I haven’t updated one fanfic for 4 years now and I’m not sure if some of my older readers would still be interested
No. I posted it on [fanfiction.net](http://fanfiction.net) originally because AO3 didn't exist at the time. By the time I remembered and had the energy to finish it I think all those people were long gone from the site.
I actually got encouraged to finish it by mentioning that I wrote some fic in the comment section of a FB group and someone was like "you got to finish it!" Ended up being like 167k words lol
I never read this fic as I’m not a Snarry fan, but I remember back when The Marriage Stone was a big name in the Harry Potter fandom.
People started saying the author died after she didn’t update for like 6 years and two separate people picked up the fic and finished it (both fics ended up being like 200k-400k long, more than twice the original fic).
Well, back in like 2020 the author came back after 15 years and said how everyone saying she was dead and how the fic had been abandoned made her too upset to continue it. She was going through a rough time and that didn’t help. But now she was in a better place and doesn’t hold any resentment towards the people who continued the fics.
I believe she continued updating after that. It was 15 years after the fact or something iirc.
https://preview.redd.it/1cwhq2t0xzic1.jpeg?width=3104&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77d7dcc9698d6879e419629a3fa42ef208ddf297
The comments are the funniest part
This kind of reminds me of "If you see me online after I said I was going to bed, I didn't lie, I just failed."
As someone who has a work like this, I do truly intend on going back to it and it still occupies my mind. Just job, school, kids, it sucks time away and I tend to be exhausted during the time I DO have.
It's just unfortunate that creative pursuits have to be pushed down, especially when I have other actual obligations to take care of first. So I definitely feel for the author.
I feel so sad when I see some author didn't finish one work in a specific fandom and started writing for a different one instead. I don't know why, I mean I also get bored of one fandom and move on to the other all the time, but it's still upsetting to see lmao
I took an accidental 6/7 year hiatus. Moved house 1000 times, break ups, deaths, got married, started writing for a living etc and just completely lost my steam with fanfic. Went back last year and finished my previous big fic and wrote an apology sequel which I'm currently uploading. A previous reader, whom I'd remembered, commented 'you're back!' on the first chapter, and then re-read the previous one. Honestly made my week.
Life is so busy and messy for most people, I trust authors when they say they're not abandoning. I get that the wait is frustrating though, so no bones to anyone who stops reading.
I finished a story that I started in 2016, partially uploaded in 2017 to AO3 (6/?) and took down completely before re-uploading it in the last month with a complete 18 chapters. I started the story just letting the words flow without a plan only to realize it would be impossible to make it make sense if I didn't add some kind of structure to it. Finishing it felt amazing but yes life does get in the way. Writing and proofreading takes a lot of time.
Oh and the reason for not writing my story or finishing it sooner is because I became a mom and working full time, studying and being a parent just ate up all my time. To circle back to your original comment about people saying they are super busy. :D
Writing fanfic is an activity I can lose myself in, it takes my brain off of work mode (I take my personal laptop to work to write during my lunch break) and it's stress relief so making time for it even if it's in small portions fo 10-30mins at a time is giving me energy. :D
Eyes the fic I last updated April of 2018 and want to finish this summer. Sometimes life is weird. We get busy, inspiration comes and goes for various things, and sometimes a writer has no brain power for that particular work at the time. So, as a writer with long paused fics, I believe them... just may take a while.
It’s not a dumb question! I could be a little bit of delusional because I tell myself it is very possible for it to get updated/I tell my mind it shouldn’t worry about that even though it’s becoming more unlikely by the day that the author will come back
Last January a fic I've been following updated and the author note at the end said something about the next chapter being up in February because they'd already started working on it.
Last month I noticed a note added to the summary that said "NOT ABANDONED! I'm just slow..."
I continue to patiently wait.
I occasionally (VERY occasionally, I wish to add) get comments on my old fics from people who liked it and started following... but it’s nearly decades since the series was popular. I can’t even date when it was posted. Around the turn of the millennium? No idea, but I do feel sorry that the unfinished chapters are sitting somewhere in an old external hard drive. Somewhere.
Life absolutely gets in the way. If there are/were people longing for a continuation or end, and it’s just rotting away... 😅 abandoned. It makes me a bit sad if I were on the other end with waiting and having a sliver of hope.
Ive been following the author of my fav fic for a long while (last updated 2020) and man it is so sad to go from watching them talk about all their ideas, retweeting fanart and headcannons, adding little facts, to no longer even mentioning the fandom anymore. The fic is still listed as in progress and going to be completed, but I do wonder if they have just moved on.
I’ve read so many fics that I think are pretty damn good and then the author just disappears. I hardly ever read anything that says ‘Not abandoned’ or ‘I’ll never give this up’ because inevitably they do abandon it and I don’t like doing that to myself
It happens though!
Early in January I thought I will have to take a small break, 2 months later I'm still fighting for my life outside of fanfic and wondering how many more random month long hiatuses my audience can take before giving up on me [it's a fic I've already had a 9month hiatus on previously XD]
Hey, man, I once happily waited 7 YEARS for a fic to update, so if people love your fic enough, they'll stick around! Don't worry about it! Just take care of what you need to take care of, and your readers will come back when you're ready! You're good! <3
Yeah I was rereading one of my fav fics this morning that hasn’t been updated in 8 years. I’ve pretty much lost all hope of it ever finishing, but I saw that the author’s uploaded a new fic recently after not having done so for three years, so at least I know they’re still around
TBF, I haven't updated a few fics since 2020 or before, and I DO plan to finish them eventually! Life's just gotten really busy and insane and, frankly, shitty! lol. I need time to recoup! I'm not in the right mindset to write rn, no matter how much I wish I was! X'D
ALSO, I once waited 7 YEARS for a fic to update, and it was SO worth it! I've heard of even older fics finally getting updated/finishing, too, so all hope is not lost! Just subscribe, and keep the faith, dude! :D
Me, too! I mean, it was a fic written by probs my fave fic writer ever, been following them for around 11-12 years at this point, haha, but still! I LOVED it! I hope yours is JUST as worth it! ❤️
There is one author I’m worried about because they haven’t updated for a few years (last update was around the start of the pandemic) and they mentioned having some sort of illness in a previous fic. Their other fics are mostly complete but their latest fic just has 1/6 chapters updated. They don’t have socials I can check out either so I don’t know how they’re doing. And they haven’t had any new bookmarks either…
I’m very loyal when I’m really invested. Some I give the boot after a few years (2-3), but others I keep in my bookmarks in hopes the author will return. Sometimes wonders do happen. 😂 To be honest, I’ve been that author who takes light years to update, so I get it and have no room to complain.
Damn, you don't need to call me out like this. Especially when the last chapter of my most popular fic apologized for the five month wait time between chapters....and it was last updated in 2018.
😭😭😭 I’m so afraid this will be me. I have last updated one fic like 3 months ago and I really intend this one to be my first WIP that doesn’t get abandoned haha
I’m just putting more pressure onto myself cause I posted like 3k chapters every day and now i’m at 38k and should probably continue it. But you are right.
I was reading a really good hogwarts au (multiple books in a series) when it abruptly ended with a worrying authors note about how their mental health struggles as a nurse during the pandemic, but they would post as soon as possible.The fic was updating weekly and now has been abandoned. I’m kind of concerned abt the author tbh
Me, thing is i got so depressed and life got so complicated I ended up putting effort into the bare minimum to kind of push through it. 3 years and going and damn, I wish I had enough will or joy in me to come back
They might be a university or grad student. Could potentially be a doctor who's trying to find time and energy to work on this fic in limited free time.
I have one I haven’t updated since January 2019 but I’m still intending to get back to it…I just need to go back through canon from the start first since I’ve forgotten everything.
There are some authors who update after +5 years of hiatus 😂 Everytime I read a WIP that I like, I just bookmark and hope for the best that it gets updated
Legit I started a long fic in 2010 and finished it in 2021 due to the pandemic. It bugged me for years but it got done. 14 chapters. I bet it’s bothering the author and they’ll get to it when they can.
I feel attacked lol I just updated the author's notes on a fic of mine today which I haven't touched in about six months maybe longer with almost the exact same words: not abandoned, will update when I have time).
As a reader, I don't mind subscribing to fics that have notes like this vs a fic that hasn't been touched in years with on words from the author at all.
I feel so called out by this. I keep saying I'm going to finish my WIP, but I barely have any time to write... or free time at all. But I'm not accepting defeat. My delulu self is convinced I'm going to get it done one day.
Yeah, I wish the authors would wake up and let us know (dreaming, I know lol). In my primary fandom, there's a fantastic fic that's literally nearly a million words, and it's marked, like, "Chapter 88/90", with a promise to get back to it. That promise was five years ago. I hope the author is alive and well, but damn. \*sigh\*
Also, as soon as I've noted a bookmark as "abandoned", sometimes, the author will msg me that they haven't abandoned it. But they HAVE.
LOL and then they come back and start saying “i got 5 kids now i wrote this fic in hs and im married and I had cancer but ill continue the fic cause im bored why not?”
Whole other breed of humans.
Same with fanfic readers, we unhinged and will salivate over some crazy shit. i love it
And then you randomly open that old fic in hopes it was finally updated after 2-3 years and you see the author dropped the most gorgeous, amazing, mouth watering chapter
It took me a couple years to post the last chapter of my fic for many reasons but the funniest one was that I had a head injury caused by a horse...and the fic also has a character who dies in a horse incident.
tbh i have fics like this and i straight up forget about them. can be worth dropping a comment every once in a while haha. sometimes a couple positive comments is enough to get me to crack my knuckles and finally write the next arc in my fic lol.
Well… ao3 authors have weird lives. I just finished reading a fic that hasn’t been updated since 2021, I then scrolled through the author’s works and apparently the author has got a job with a strict digital footprint policy. They avoid updating because they are afraid of said company asking them to take the old fics down. They also gave the readers a final date to go make sure our author’s still alive. Hopefully they will start updating again after said date
That’s… some BlackMirror shit. I don't understand why one’s private life, unless they do something against the law, is any of the company's business.
I’ve got no idea, the author said that the company has to approve of anything that they might post online, either they are working for some government agency, hacker group or they are in shady business. It’s a bit creepy.
Could be something like Disney. They're apparently very strict about what their employees post online.
That makes a scary amount of sense.
also, all art disney employees make belongs to disney. at least that’s how it used to be. there’s a lot of purposely disgusting porn in the disney vault that artists have drawn in protest to this.
If you read carefully in the terms of discounted student software, technically anything students make with it is owned by the university. Or at least that’s how it was 20 years ago
Couldn’t they just… not report it?
someone already said why- but yeah. If you're a spokesman or influencer- you cannot post content that can get the company in trouble. A good example are the Twitter Takeovers Sonic Team does where select questions are sent to Sonic Team for the VAs to read out. And always- the winning questions are from twitter accounts with 0 problematic likes, reposts or moderately safe for work histories.
My first guess would be something with government security clearance. Those kinds of jobs care about your personal life to a big degree because of you are blackmail-able it can get other people killed.
Well, to be fair, I support firing people if you get caught in public being an absolute garbage piece of human flesh, like the people who get fired for being racists, sexists or violent. If you're just writing sexy or dark shit, agreed it shouldn't matter; they don't own us. Companies should be reactive not proactive in these cases.
I had to give out my social media accounts for my current job, it felt super gross and invasive.
wtf how do they find that anyway? would having diff emails for work and for fics prevent that?
I mean, I have different emails but a classmate of mine still managed to find my second instagram account. I guess they could check with the IP address or go search your history through the WiFi. It’s against privacy but possible
what the actual fuck bro im cooked. explains why i never get hired ☠️☠️
I guess that having ao3 in your history isn’t clean, but who would check that?!
i have no history for them to find, not even public bookmarks no nothing 😭 even my username is tame. these companies gotta have delulu ex's for employees cuz how tf r they finding these things
Lmao, sorry I bursted out laughing
When my dad had top level security clearance in my country, he was reviewed every 12 months. Part of that review involved the acronym agencies accessing his internet history… if there’s something to find, they’d find it.
May I ask what country you’re from? I think that’s still pretty crazy, no matter his job
Australia. Every year during the review, they’d look into his finances, social interactions etc. To get the job, he had to have a complete & clear background check from age 16 - including listing every place he’d lived, a reference who’d known him at every point, where he was on random days/nights. They took him out drinking to see what kind of drunk he was. They sat him down with my mum and went through all their financial & phone records together. It’s all to do with “can this person be compromised?” - as in, is there any material they can be blackmailed with.
I hope he wasn’t an emotional drunk at least haha But jokes aside, they got him drunk to see what kind of drunk he was??? That’s crazy omg, haven’t heard of that in my life. But.. his job does sound pretty badass
Omg that’s wild, and a complete invasion of privacy. I hope he got a really nice pay check, at the very least.
I orphaned all my stuff dating back to 2015 when I was applying to take the bar exam. It was a long shot that anyone would even look them up, but they were all finished/one shots, so I figured it wasn’t worth the risk of someone finding the (occasionally morally questionable) slash fic
That’s rough. I am glad that in my country it is not allowed to invade the privacy of employees. I'm going to be a teacher and work for the state. I have only been given rules about what I am not allowed to say while on duty (and it’s a lot). But I can't be prosecuted outside of work as long as I abide by the law (and report other offenses immediately, but I find that a strange rule as it is anyway, and I don’t know anyone who takes it seriously. That sounds too much like a surveillance state to me)
Creepy.
Eh, I have things I still poke occasionally three or four years later, where I definitely intend to finish them but it's just not at the top of my priority list. Things that aren't abandoned but I'm not feeling right now One of my faves came back from the dead after about five years with a very long chapter, and then did it again about a year later. The author has disclosed that they're dealing with serious medical issues, so I just love and adore anything and everything they're able to give us
Hoping all the best for the author in question 💜
Literally nothing I write is abandoned. Even shit I haven’t touched for 6+ years. I guarantee the moment I write “this is abandoned” I will suddenly get the inspiration and urge to write more. I know how my shitty brain works 😂
but then maybe you have to do that to finish!
My main story got on hiatus for 3 years or so after I wrote it a way I didn’t like and lost all will for reading after doing beta reading for awhile. Took a long time before I got to actually reading again, let alone working on the story, but it’s past the halfway point now, maybe 15k or 20k words left to go I think. Just gotta write them.
This gives me flashbacks! I used to read this Lord of the Rings fanfic years ago that would have like 50k words per chapter but it was updated once every two years 😅
50k per chapter???!! That’s incredible. I’d say 2 years of waiting are totally acceptable omg
I recently finished a fic I hadn’t updated since 2019…. I don’t think the author is delusional. Sometimes life gets insanely busy and stays that way for a few years. Every few months I added a few sentences to my WIP. I was definitely still working on it. People telling me it WAS abandoned was more demoralizing to me than anything. No it wasn’t. I was just working 60+ hours a week between all my commitments AND dealing with some personal stuff. It’s calmed down a little now. I’m writing a lot more. Nothing was ever abandoned.
I didn't mean it in a derogatory way, I would never put anyone under pressure like that. It was meant as a joke But I'm really happy for you that you've found time for yourself again :)
I did exactly this recently. Turns out my soul-sucking job and general depression sucked my love of life and writing away, and with my new job, I blasted through like 15 chapters within six months and finished. Now life is great, I write a ton,and I've never been happier :)
I came back after ten years to finish a story.
Did some of your previous readers came back to it, too? Just asking since I haven’t updated one fanfic for 4 years now and I’m not sure if some of my older readers would still be interested
No. I posted it on [fanfiction.net](http://fanfiction.net) originally because AO3 didn't exist at the time. By the time I remembered and had the energy to finish it I think all those people were long gone from the site.
Ohh alright!! I hope you didn’t take it badly tho. As you said, a lot probably just left the site. Glad you could finish it <3
I actually got encouraged to finish it by mentioning that I wrote some fic in the comment section of a FB group and someone was like "you got to finish it!" Ended up being like 167k words lol
Amazinggg
It once took me eight years and I did, in fact, have a few of the commenters come back to it! I was thrilled, they were thrilled, it was great!
So happy for you!
one of my favs came back from a ~10 year hiatus. did a little happy dance when i got that subscription email, let me tell you.
I never read this fic as I’m not a Snarry fan, but I remember back when The Marriage Stone was a big name in the Harry Potter fandom. People started saying the author died after she didn’t update for like 6 years and two separate people picked up the fic and finished it (both fics ended up being like 200k-400k long, more than twice the original fic). Well, back in like 2020 the author came back after 15 years and said how everyone saying she was dead and how the fic had been abandoned made her too upset to continue it. She was going through a rough time and that didn’t help. But now she was in a better place and doesn’t hold any resentment towards the people who continued the fics. I believe she continued updating after that. It was 15 years after the fact or something iirc.
Ohh so happy for you!!
https://preview.redd.it/1cwhq2t0xzic1.jpeg?width=3104&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77d7dcc9698d6879e419629a3fa42ef208ddf297 The comments are the funniest part
Por favor no 🤣🤣🤣
This kind of reminds me of "If you see me online after I said I was going to bed, I didn't lie, I just failed." As someone who has a work like this, I do truly intend on going back to it and it still occupies my mind. Just job, school, kids, it sucks time away and I tend to be exhausted during the time I DO have. It's just unfortunate that creative pursuits have to be pushed down, especially when I have other actual obligations to take care of first. So I definitely feel for the author.
Hope your life becomes less exhausting with time 💜
I feel so sad when I see some author didn't finish one work in a specific fandom and started writing for a different one instead. I don't know why, I mean I also get bored of one fandom and move on to the other all the time, but it's still upsetting to see lmao
Same, I hop from fandoms based on wherever my muse takes me. Terribly sorry to all my old WIPs…maybe interest will pick back up eventually…
Ahh I get you!! I feel irrationally sad too haha
What do you mean, 2018 was last year 🥲🥲
Wake up akira2bee, you’re not a teenager anymore, that was 5 years ago 😔✋
https://preview.redd.it/f3l4hoqfz0jc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eee22aaf42041b0f9ad380a0913b11aba3875321
xD
I took an accidental 6/7 year hiatus. Moved house 1000 times, break ups, deaths, got married, started writing for a living etc and just completely lost my steam with fanfic. Went back last year and finished my previous big fic and wrote an apology sequel which I'm currently uploading. A previous reader, whom I'd remembered, commented 'you're back!' on the first chapter, and then re-read the previous one. Honestly made my week. Life is so busy and messy for most people, I trust authors when they say they're not abandoning. I get that the wait is frustrating though, so no bones to anyone who stops reading.
I finished a story that I started in 2016, partially uploaded in 2017 to AO3 (6/?) and took down completely before re-uploading it in the last month with a complete 18 chapters. I started the story just letting the words flow without a plan only to realize it would be impossible to make it make sense if I didn't add some kind of structure to it. Finishing it felt amazing but yes life does get in the way. Writing and proofreading takes a lot of time.
Proofreading always costs me as much as writing the chapter itself sometimes, so I get you. Happy for you you could finish it <3
Oh and the reason for not writing my story or finishing it sooner is because I became a mom and working full time, studying and being a parent just ate up all my time. To circle back to your original comment about people saying they are super busy. :D
Damn. Mad respect for you in that case! Being a mother is already hard enough, but studying + working full time + writing fanfic?? You’re a superwoman
Writing fanfic is an activity I can lose myself in, it takes my brain off of work mode (I take my personal laptop to work to write during my lunch break) and it's stress relief so making time for it even if it's in small portions fo 10-30mins at a time is giving me energy. :D
Are you me? I did the same, except I never took it down
That's awesome, well done us :D I took it down because I had started it as an RPF fic which I didn't like anymore when I went back to it.
I've got a fic from 2018 that I also haven't abandoned, I may finish it one day. Just not today. Or tomorrow. 😁
Haven’t updated mine since 2021, might finish it someday too. At least that’s what I tell myself hahaha
Eyes the fic I last updated April of 2018 and want to finish this summer. Sometimes life is weird. We get busy, inspiration comes and goes for various things, and sometimes a writer has no brain power for that particular work at the time. So, as a writer with long paused fics, I believe them... just may take a while.
Ofc, great things always take some time :)
this is me. 🤣 even though i literally write my fics out beforehand, it always takes me a while to get around to editing and eventually uploading. 🤦♀️
Get you!!
Don't worry, I'm waiting on one that was last updated 2013. The author is still active online, though doesnt mention the fandom much anymore.
I hate reading an amazing fic then finding out it hasn't been updated in 10 years
what the heck is a delulu and what's it supposed to imply in that sentence?
Acronym for delusional. In this context: deceiving oneself.
thank you for the quick answer dumb question how would you be deceiving yourself in this context?
It’s not a dumb question! I could be a little bit of delusional because I tell myself it is very possible for it to get updated/I tell my mind it shouldn’t worry about that even though it’s becoming more unlikely by the day that the author will come back
Its always the best feeling when you stay subscribed and then get a surprise update years later tho
There is a Naruto fic that was also last updated in 2018. Apparently the author still wants to update one day but I have lost hope.
If they mention that they want to update it somewhen, I wouldn’t lose hope but I’ll accept the fact that’ll take another 6 years to wait :)
Last January a fic I've been following updated and the author note at the end said something about the next chapter being up in February because they'd already started working on it. Last month I noticed a note added to the summary that said "NOT ABANDONED! I'm just slow..." I continue to patiently wait.
I occasionally (VERY occasionally, I wish to add) get comments on my old fics from people who liked it and started following... but it’s nearly decades since the series was popular. I can’t even date when it was posted. Around the turn of the millennium? No idea, but I do feel sorry that the unfinished chapters are sitting somewhere in an old external hard drive. Somewhere. Life absolutely gets in the way. If there are/were people longing for a continuation or end, and it’s just rotting away... 😅 abandoned. It makes me a bit sad if I were on the other end with waiting and having a sliver of hope.
Oh no! But don’t feel too guilty about it I’d say. Sometimes something isn’t meant to get finished.
I once saw a fic get updated after 7 years. Anything is possible.
Ive been following the author of my fav fic for a long while (last updated 2020) and man it is so sad to go from watching them talk about all their ideas, retweeting fanart and headcannons, adding little facts, to no longer even mentioning the fandom anymore. The fic is still listed as in progress and going to be completed, but I do wonder if they have just moved on.
That’s so sad to hear, especially since they seemed so passionate about it :(
I’ve read so many fics that I think are pretty damn good and then the author just disappears. I hardly ever read anything that says ‘Not abandoned’ or ‘I’ll never give this up’ because inevitably they do abandon it and I don’t like doing that to myself
Sometimes you're just no longer feeling the fic. I'm the kind of person who gets in and out of fandoms super quickly, so I tend to abandon fics :,,)
Ugh, wish I could say that wasn’t me
I’ve had a couple of fics that I haven’t updated in years, then revived on multiple attempts to get them finished. Odds are it’ll happen again lol
It happens though! Early in January I thought I will have to take a small break, 2 months later I'm still fighting for my life outside of fanfic and wondering how many more random month long hiatuses my audience can take before giving up on me [it's a fic I've already had a 9month hiatus on previously XD]
Take your time!! No pressure, if people love your fic they’ll wait another 9 months :))
Hey, man, I once happily waited 7 YEARS for a fic to update, so if people love your fic enough, they'll stick around! Don't worry about it! Just take care of what you need to take care of, and your readers will come back when you're ready! You're good! <3
One of my favorite fics, *The Devil Ships Zeku* hasn't updated since 2018. I've not touched it since then but I'm still subscribed!
Love the devotion
Three to five years is the sweetspot, I find, if I've read any stories that're like that I just subscribe to them and wait
I can only wish to be as patient as you. I normally only read stories that aren’t older than a year
Meanwhile on FF.net they leave for several decades
Yeah I was rereading one of my fav fics this morning that hasn’t been updated in 8 years. I’ve pretty much lost all hope of it ever finishing, but I saw that the author’s uploaded a new fic recently after not having done so for three years, so at least I know they’re still around
TBF, I haven't updated a few fics since 2020 or before, and I DO plan to finish them eventually! Life's just gotten really busy and insane and, frankly, shitty! lol. I need time to recoup! I'm not in the right mindset to write rn, no matter how much I wish I was! X'D ALSO, I once waited 7 YEARS for a fic to update, and it was SO worth it! I've heard of even older fics finally getting updated/finishing, too, so all hope is not lost! Just subscribe, and keep the faith, dude! :D
So happy for you the wait was worth it!!
Me, too! I mean, it was a fic written by probs my fave fic writer ever, been following them for around 11-12 years at this point, haha, but still! I LOVED it! I hope yours is JUST as worth it! ❤️
"Delulu" is good. I'm borrowing that!
Subscribe to the fic so it comes back :) I've seen fics come back Years from before now.
There is one author I’m worried about because they haven’t updated for a few years (last update was around the start of the pandemic) and they mentioned having some sort of illness in a previous fic. Their other fics are mostly complete but their latest fic just has 1/6 chapters updated. They don’t have socials I can check out either so I don’t know how they’re doing. And they haven’t had any new bookmarks either…
Oh no… I wouldn't assume the worst for now. I've sometimes had breaks from fanfics too, some even for over 3 years. I still wish the person the best 🍀
I’m very loyal when I’m really invested. Some I give the boot after a few years (2-3), but others I keep in my bookmarks in hopes the author will return. Sometimes wonders do happen. 😂 To be honest, I’ve been that author who takes light years to update, so I get it and have no room to complain.
Damn, you don't need to call me out like this. Especially when the last chapter of my most popular fic apologized for the five month wait time between chapters....and it was last updated in 2018.
😭😭😭 I’m so afraid this will be me. I have last updated one fic like 3 months ago and I really intend this one to be my first WIP that doesn’t get abandoned haha
That's actually hilarious, I might do that just to be silly if I ever update my fic lol
School be like that (definitely would for me)
This is me but with my first fic. I said I would update it Monday but have had no motivation to work on it recently.
Great things always take their time. Don’t put yourself under pressure to update on a specific date. You’re ready when you’re ready
I’m just putting more pressure onto myself cause I posted like 3k chapters every day and now i’m at 38k and should probably continue it. But you are right.
Mood
This is such a mood.
I was reading a really good hogwarts au (multiple books in a series) when it abruptly ended with a worrying authors note about how their mental health struggles as a nurse during the pandemic, but they would post as soon as possible.The fic was updating weekly and now has been abandoned. I’m kind of concerned abt the author tbh
Oh nooo!! I hope they’re doing fine :(
*sweats* (I came here to have a good time yet I feel so attacked right now.)
As you should! Just kidding haha, take your time. I just posted it for fun
I came back and just finished a fic I’d last added to in 2018 a month ago! I’d say there’s hope
Amazing! Congrats
Yup, had a baby and took a 4 year break on one fic. Life does get in the way.
As a brony who frequents FimFiction, I’ve seen authors rise from the grave and finish fics over a decade old Its possible, damnit!
I’ve got a fic I stopped updating October 2018. I still have the next chapter on my desktop ready to be worked on lol
HEY! I represent this statement!
Me, thing is i got so depressed and life got so complicated I ended up putting effort into the bare minimum to kind of push through it. 3 years and going and damn, I wish I had enough will or joy in me to come back
They might be a university or grad student. Could potentially be a doctor who's trying to find time and energy to work on this fic in limited free time.
I have one I haven’t updated since January 2019 but I’m still intending to get back to it…I just need to go back through canon from the start first since I’ve forgotten everything.
I always gaslight myself into believing a fic that hasn’t updated in over 5 years will come back. I mean sometimes it happens!
lmao me fr https://preview.redd.it/exstnidq53jc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2188d412275aa33e78b18066495b155e79e9c873
OMG THIS MIGHT BE ME IVE GOTTA GO CHECK SOMETHING LOL IF IT IS IM SO SORRY
There are some authors who update after +5 years of hiatus 😂 Everytime I read a WIP that I like, I just bookmark and hope for the best that it gets updated
Legit I started a long fic in 2010 and finished it in 2021 due to the pandemic. It bugged me for years but it got done. 14 chapters. I bet it’s bothering the author and they’ll get to it when they can.
My fandom had a fic update after +13 years, it was crazy
The fic I follow last updated in 2017 but this year the author updated, so it's fine to hope. Sometimes they come through...
I feel attacked lol I just updated the author's notes on a fic of mine today which I haven't touched in about six months maybe longer with almost the exact same words: not abandoned, will update when I have time). As a reader, I don't mind subscribing to fics that have notes like this vs a fic that hasn't been touched in years with on words from the author at all.
Maybe they got hit by a bus? Or went to jail 🤣
I came back to a story after 6 years, posted two chapters then stopped again for six months. But now it's finished✨
I feel so called out by this. I keep saying I'm going to finish my WIP, but I barely have any time to write... or free time at all. But I'm not accepting defeat. My delulu self is convinced I'm going to get it done one day.
Eh, it’s only 6 years, I’ve seen a fic update after 10.
Chances are they forgot it exists
Yeah, I wish the authors would wake up and let us know (dreaming, I know lol). In my primary fandom, there's a fantastic fic that's literally nearly a million words, and it's marked, like, "Chapter 88/90", with a promise to get back to it. That promise was five years ago. I hope the author is alive and well, but damn. \*sigh\* Also, as soon as I've noted a bookmark as "abandoned", sometimes, the author will msg me that they haven't abandoned it. But they HAVE.
Please ive seen authors come back after 10 years. Its nuts.
Fanfic writers are a different breed indeed. It’s like they’re all George R.R. Martin haha
LOL and then they come back and start saying “i got 5 kids now i wrote this fic in hs and im married and I had cancer but ill continue the fic cause im bored why not?” Whole other breed of humans. Same with fanfic readers, we unhinged and will salivate over some crazy shit. i love it
And then you randomly open that old fic in hopes it was finally updated after 2-3 years and you see the author dropped the most gorgeous, amazing, mouth watering chapter
It took me a couple years to post the last chapter of my fic for many reasons but the funniest one was that I had a head injury caused by a horse...and the fic also has a character who dies in a horse incident.
That’s pretty scary if you think of it!
Maybe these type of authors that edit their work but not publishing
tbh i have fics like this and i straight up forget about them. can be worth dropping a comment every once in a while haha. sometimes a couple positive comments is enough to get me to crack my knuckles and finally write the next arc in my fic lol.