The whole "post a day" chapters in FanFic lately has been, in my opinion, awesome. I do want to make a clarification (which I didn't know myself until recently) between Drabble fic and what we've been doing in the FanFIc arena of late. Drabble fic has its own definition, and that's not what we're doing. See the wiki here. So I think I'm going with the term Dribble Fic, which means absolutely nothing (as far as I know - someone correct me if I'm wrong).
Anyway - why do I think it's awesome? Because as writers, it is a challenge. How much can you write per day? Can you really post a little something up every day of the week for months on end? Is that even possible? Well, no - probably not, but can you get close? And for me personally, how quickly can you COMPLETE a story? For readers, it's exciting and fun.
There are downfalls, though - a lot of them!
1. There no time for a beta. You need a beta, no matter how clean your writing is. This is the part that made both Could Be Worse, Right? and Offside a challenge - not so much because of all the typos that made it past my own eyes, but to keep my OCD self from going through and re-reading each chapter 15 times after I posted it and fixing every little typo. Why is that a problem? Because while I'm spinning my wheels (and using up my free time) doing that, I'm not writing more.
2. It's not going to be your best work. That's just all there is to it. Especially if you do it all off the cuff. This is true of all chapter by chapter writing, though - not just dribbles. Some of my best ideas come three chapters later, and usually I can find a way to work them into the story without too much effort, but it would have been better if I eluded to the idea earlier on. In a dribble, it's not three chapters, its twenty. Or thirty.
3. It's stressful. It's a lot of pressure on the writer when you know "x" number of readers and literally hitting "refresh" over and over again, twitter-stalking you, and sending multiple PMs a day asking if you are going to update soon or should they go ahead and go to bed.
If you are a writer, I'd suggest trying it once (even if you don't post it). It's challenging and fun. I'm not sure I'll do it again soon, though. I was debating with Tempt My Tongue, but i think I've decided on more traditional chapter lengths and a weekly posting schedule.
How about readers? What do you think of this new "trend"? Exciting and fun, despite the lower level of quality, or do you prefer to wait a while and get something more thought-out?
Let me know what you think!
