a Teaspoon Posting Q

[magnusgreel]

Do people ever post stories on Teaspoon that are really blatantly unfinished, maybe even stories that aren't really underway yet, that are just starting? Or would that just get everyone PO'd at me?

My neurological thing, involving a lot of "blanking out", means that I have to improvise ways of jump-starting thoughts and ideas. It seems that without feedback, my brain and imagination stay in neutral. It's NOT that I'm looking for other people's ideas to feed off of-- it's that I need evidence of being heard and knowing I'm "connecting", with what I've written thus far.

I seem to go on needing it too, apparently. I mean, I go back into "neutral" shortly after I get the feedback that spurs me on to write more. It's embarrassing. That's why a Four story of mine posted here kept having bits added to it after someone commented, then when comments ceased, no more additions.

I know Teaspoon has a box to check where you say if it's finished or not. I don't know, though, if people post *really* unfinished things. My story is just at the point where Dr and companion have obligatorially (?) split up, so they can then spend the rest of the story saying "Oh no we shouldn't ever split up and we already knew that so why did we do it again?" I have some small further ideas, but this seems to need to flow out in chronological order. My particular form of "blanking out" these days means that, if I don't get gradual bit-by-bit input as I go along, my imagination won't get going. So I want to post there, hear things, then write more. Is this too un-Teaspoon?

When people don't click "finished" it may just mean they want to tweak things a little, not write the bulk of the story!

[aquabluejay]

People normally post complete chapters or sections of things, but obviously then you can post additional chapters or parts to that story, or create a series or something if they're only loosely related.

My experience with the mods (when they're working diligently) on Teaspoon has been that they're reasonably picky about the quality of thing, so it depends on what you mean by unfinished, I suppose. You can always throw out a one shot or brief piece and ask people for feedback.

In essence I'd say it's always OK to post short things and then follow them up. It doesn't have to be your completed, polished magnum opus complete with appendices, but whatever you post should probably have at least a certain amount of cohesion to be a thing of it's own.

[magnusgreel]

What I mean by "unfinished" is that just after the split up between Dr and companion, it just STOPS. I could just decide to call it the end of a chapter, I guess, but it would be an arbitrary stopping point, because it's all I've got. It would be hanging in midair, with "To be continued" at the bottom. By "unfinished", I didn't mean that I haven't made it worth reading, yet, to me at least. I like what I've got. Input could always lead to changes, though.

I'm not really concerned about the rules, in this case. I could get away with it, I'm pretty sure. I'm more concerned with how the readership would take it, and whether they'd feel cheated or as if their time has been wasted.