QUESTION!
So life has gotten really busy and I haven’t had as much time for creative writing as I have in months past. I have been working on, for almost a year, an Undertale fanfiction exploring the idea that Sans, Gaster, and a third research partner partially unlock the ability to SAVE... and then Gaster dies, leaving Sans to test out this form of time travel on his own.
I’ve had enormous fun with this thing. It’s elaborate, complicated, with multiple interweaving timelines, complex characterization, foreshadowing galore, and more. I’ve especially had MAJOR FUN developing my own concept of Gaster’s personality. I’ve been editing it thoroughly to make the writing as solid as I can. At the moment, I’m probably about 25% the way through the story, not quite at the end of Part 1 (of three Parts).
Because of the complexity of the story, I have withheld posting a single word online. It needs to be checked (and constantly tweaked) for characterization progression and motivations, timeline dates, timeline arcs, and more. So it can’t be written perfectly on a post-as-go basis. I also didn’t want to post it because I knew that my emotional reaction to reader reviews could alter my progress of writing, motivation of writing, and quality of writing. If people liked it, I’d want to write it faster... thus diminishing quality and increasing chance of plot/timeline error. If people didn’t like it, it’d make me feel bad about the extraordinary amount of effort I’ve put into this thing, making it less likely for me to finish the story. And if people started suggesting things, then I’d contemplate altering the story... despite the fact that this fanfiction has been structured with THE OUTLINE TO END ALL OUTLINES (believe me... the outline is INTENSE... it’s an entire table with color coding and lines and notes and... yeah it’s very, very, very carefully organized).
BUT.
Regardless of the usefully strict process I’ve adhered myself to...
I’m honestly worrying that I’ll never finish my fic in a half-timely manner because of Life Being Busy And All That Fun Jazz. Again, I haven’t had much time for creative writing. And posting an Undertale fanfiction five years after the game is played isn’t so cool for fandom interaction and community and readership and stuff. So...
What do you guys think... should I post this fic on my FFN as I have it now... with the clear label “WIP/Draft”?
