Posting WIPs Online: Why, and Why Not

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Fictionpress, Wattpad, AO3, Fanfiction.net, Livejournal, the list of sites where you can post your writing goes on and on. Most of us love the instant gratification of getting (positive) feedback on your work.

There's fanworks, and then there's original works, but for the purposes of this post, I'll be talking about posting original works online.

Here's the best case scenario:

You end up making friends with fellow writers and your readers, improve your writing through the feedback others give you, develop a thick skin early, and perhaps even have a strong fanbase by the time you publish your next project.

It's good incentive, but whether or not that actually happens dangles on one thing: getting noticed.

I'm not saying that getting noticed depends 100% on luck, because it doesn't, but especially for those transitioning over from a ficdom, it might be a little harder.

The worst case scenario?

You post your work online and then... nothing. No comments, and not even a single like. There were a couple of views, but no one seemed to take the note you left at the end seriously. Y'know, the one where you told readers to feel free to leave comments and feedback. You wonder why no one is responding to your writing, and come to the conclusion that your writing must suck, and subsequently give up on it. 

That would be a real shame because the thing is, your writing might not suck.

Maybe your opening sucked, so no one read on, but that doesn't meant that your entire story sucked. With fanworks, readers are already invested in the characters and relationships. Readers go into your original story not really invested in anything. It's your job to give them something to read on for, and maybe your writing isn't quite at that point yet and it'd be a real shame if that crushing disappointment and insecurity might stop you from pushing on.

There's things that you can do to try get your story out there, but luck is undeniably a factor. With so many free stories floating around online, what are the chances that yours will be seen, and seen by someone who loves it so much that they share it with their friends who do the same. On top of hard work and time, it takes no small amount of luck to get noticed.

I think that if you know that you've got a thick skin, and write for yourself, then by all means post your work online. But if you know that you're the sort of person that might lose confidence in yourself if you get no responses, then consider waiting until it's done and dusted!

Do you publish your WIPs online as you write?