[BlookKING]

How much time goes into most stories here? How long until the finished product, and do you feel a sense of ownership over your original characters?

[NeumeIndil]

In my case it depends on the story. Sometimes an idea hits and the story is up in the matter of a couple of days; usually drabbles and shorter pieces. Other projects can take quite a bit longer; I have one I've been working on since April (and still writing) that I'm too chicken to post.

I also don't think I've posted a single thing that I'd call "finished" just because I always feel like I could improve them via editing, though that's also the best way to ruin a written piece, so I try to refrain unless I find typos or inconsistencies. Time must also be added for someone to beta read most posted stories as well, so really a lot of factors can change how long it takes to get a finished project posted. You'll find many Works In Progress (WIP) in the archives that people have been posting a chapter or two at a time for several months or even years.

As for ownership of OCs, and again only speaking for myself, yes. My characters quite literally come to me as people, like a character in any other fiction or poetry I write. The general rule of courtesy is that if someone else's OC intrigues one enough to want to write him or her, one asks the originating author for permission to do so.

[Sulriel]

(this seems like it should be two different topics. )

OCs. *YES* - and I'll say that as someone who's worked closely with other writers, both in loaning and borrowing OCs. - abslutely not without permission. And I don't believe it to be a casual thing. In one case, a character of mine fit so well and was so needed in another story, I eventually completely turned her over to the other author. In another case, I had an unnamed Ranger with an unusually strong presence, written a year before I met the other author's character, but we both were delighted to see how seamlessly he fit, how obvious it was who it was. , but I still send his scenes to her to 'OK' before I post them.

[Sulriel]

In the case of Time, I think that's probably simply too individual to quantify. I'm a slow writer and initially produce a draft that needs rewrite even before it goes to beta. Once the beta gets it, it gets another going over before it's posted. Most of what I have posted online is pretty old - such as the Sulriel story that I'm posting here. It took about a year to write, and it's been 'done' about a year, but I'm still making changes now as I go, some subtle, some significant.

I think that's a lot of the beauty of posting online in these kinds of forums, you can always go back and make corrections and adjustments. The downside to that is that if someone reads an old version, they may not come back and read the new, but at least you always have the chance to pick up new readers as you go.

As far as shorter works, I like to be able to produce 4000-5000 word short story in a couple of weeks, beta, polish and call it done withint a month, but it's taken me a long time to get to that point. I know lots of people who can do that in a week, others that may take four or six months to finish. it's all very individual, and there aren't any deadlines in fanfiction

[NancyBrooke]

Try combing through past forum posts, BlookKING, there's been a lot of discussion previously on subjects such as you've been asking about.

For myself, I have written some drabbles, even some longer pieces in matters of hours or days, and I have one piece that won't be over 5 chapters but has taken me (3? 4?) years and is still not finished.

All my posted work is "finished." I don't post it until it is at a point where I consider it 'done'.

[NancyBrooke]

Hey, BK, are all these questions for research? Might I suggest that you read through old forum postings? then, if you have questions that remain unanswered, put up a survey so we can get to them all at once instead of piecemeal.

[Rhapsody]

Nancy, I was thinking the same.

Time: as much as my private live allows me to. Which hasn't been that much the past months, but I had days I could easily write two chapters of a story. I can work on a drabble the whole afternoon or get it done in 10 min... it all depends on time and inspirations.

OC: I spend a lot of time developing an OC (or storylines for that matter), so if someone 'borrows' it without asking permission...

[SpaceWeavil]

Time-wise; I can, if I'm in a suitable mood, write a short piece in half an hour to an hour, not including going over it to proof read.

My stories 'Little Stars', 'What Better Companion', and 'Athrabeth' were written in about this time, and all run to about 10 or 11 pages on MS Word I think.

NC 17 stories involving any descriptive sex at all takes me longer to write, because I find that very difficult and so take more time to think. So a short NC 17 story takes me anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days.

For longer stories, I've been working on some for months now. It really just depends with those on whether I can get the mood for them, and also what's happening in real life as well. For instance a year ago I was only in first year at uni and so had less work to do, also I wasn't working.

[inglor]

My range is 30-45 minutes for an inspired drabble to 5 years for three that have been knawing at my ankles in various states of finished

Short one shots or 2-3 chaps usually take two weeks

Inglor

[SilverMoonLady]

Anywhere from 2 hours to 2 years... Depends a lot on the intended length, stubborness of the characters and the number of chocolate carrots being offered for swift completion