Question The 'Mystery' of the Missing Authors

I [The great and powerful Minh], have just [potentially] solved the [not-very mysterious] mystery of the missing canon authors!!! It took quite some thinking, and a lot of careful deduction. Also $50,000 in Hacker payments (DO NOT take that last bit seriously: I would NEVER jeopardise my staying a member of this website. That last bit was a joke. I don't even HAVE $50,000 dollars to spare. As it happens, University is REALLY expensive!!!)

For You See!!! This entire storyline so far has been [for the most part] planned out by the writing team. As we know:
- There is a canon bible
- There are years worth of preplanning that has gone into every event so far
- The current events with Hekate and such have been preplanned for quite a while [AFAWK].
- There are still 'unwritten' events with the members of TK & other characters that apperently form a large PART of the storyline
The only thing I, Cato Sicarius...sorry...Crazy Minh have a slight bit of iffiness about the preceding information is the introduction of new characters and authors to the setting i.e. Absinthe, Danny, ect (who probably weren't in the planning a few years back).

Next, the missing authors. As we know:
- ALL of the 'missing' authors (With the exception of Babs, who might as well be dead as far as anyone knows) are still in regular or semi-regular contact with the staff of this very site
- MANY of them have writers block...or at least we've been told that...
- NONE post anything on the forum, or get involved (which is suspicious to say the least)

And what about the 'grand conspristory' I have 'uncovered'? Well FOR YOU SEE!!!:
- There is going to be some sort of major plot event that the authors have been working on all this time. Maybe a MASSIVE set of co-written stories that they have been in hiding while working on. Whatever the case, we'd have heard from them by now IF they weren't all working on something big. I know that no one just ups and leaves without wanting to say goodbye. Not even on the frakkin internet. Not when you've been co-writting with a dozen people on a shared universe for the better part of 14 bloody years. That's nearly half my current lifespan!!! Whatever the case, people don't just stay silent for this long and this much for no reason. Hell, the fact that every conversation regarding this gets shut down just sceams CONSPIRACY OF A SECRET STORY!!!

Sooo...why have you been holding out on us!!! GIVE US SOME STORIES!!!

Ahh ... <giggle>

Umm ... <lol>

Ahem ... sorry ... please, give me a second here ... I’m sorry, I don’t usually do this ...

<rotflmao>

... he actually thinks we plan all this!

Well, I woke up this morning wondering how I could torment Crazy Minh, does that count?



Oh wait, no I didn't... Or... DID I??

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Ahh ... <giggle>

Umm ... <lol>

Ahem ... sorry ... please, give me a second here ... I’m sorry, I don’t usually do this ...

<rotflmao>

... he actually thinks we plan all this!

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Ahh ... <giggle>

Umm ... <lol>

Ahem ... sorry ... please, give me a second here ... I’m sorry, I don’t usually do this ...

<rotflmao>

... he actually thinks we plan all this!

Be fair. We absolutely plan all this.

Do we STICK to the plan?

This is where we prove Minh wrong, by revealing that I'm secretly in the cabal, writing a story where Whateley is destroyed by a thermonuclear attack by Luxembourg, The only survivor was Puppet, and all of Gen 2 is a dream she has while in an irreversible coma.

Rose Bunny wrote: This is where we prove Minh wrong, by revealing that I'm secretly in the cabal, writing a story where Whateley is destroyed by a thermonuclear attack by Luxembourg, The only survivor was Puppet, and all of Gen 2 is a dream she has while in an irreversible coma.

Hay now this is Whateley we are talking about, not St. Eligius Hospital.

Kristin Darken wrote: We also have zero contact with the author of the Feral stories... who was active duty Navy at the time and deployed, never to return to us. But unlike Babs, Lil didn't have years of online presence as an author. Babs dropped off the map after being a highly read, extremely popular author in TG Fiction circles and no one knows where she went.

But as we've pointed out a number of times, a lot of the authors do communicate some with the authors and some don't. Mostly they DID say goodbye when they left. One of the big factors (and why we're so harsh on aggressive attitudes and feedback) is that the simple fact is... writing for the Whateley Universe audience is sometimes not very fun. Like many fan bases, it can attract very nit-picky readers who are very demanding, both in quality and quantity of material. Some love to theorize / predict what will happen and when something doesn't go the exact way they insist it should, they've quick to tear down the author who had to audacity to write the story their own way.

We get that we can improve and feedback is necessary for that. But the authors aren't compensated through any means other than your feedback. So when only a half dozen people bother to give feedback and they don't bother to take abrasive edges off of it? It quickly drains all the fun out of working on new stories. Some of those authors have come back... lurked a bit, talked behind the scenes about working on their next idea. But in a lot of cases, they're gun shy... both about putting themselves out to be burned again and by the fact that the universe has moved on and there's a lot of ground to cover, even for an author who was involved for years but has been gone for a while. And the behind the scenes author dynamic is different. Which should be expected... after all, its not the same people, the types of stories aren't the same, and the pacing is different. That doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone.

So they left due to bad reviews, harsh criticism and abrasive attitude. OK. But who the fuck would criticise the authors of this website. Hell, I've seen stories written far worse than even the shittiest story on this site that I've read (which happens to be Revelations- apologies Kristin) elsewhere on the net. Double Hell!!! You try seeing some of the reviews I get privately from people on Fanfiction!!! It's safe to say that no author is free of harsh criticism, and certainly very few online authors are compensated with anything but reviews. HOWEVER!!! I'd like to personally say that compared to every other fiction site on the net I've been on (SCP foundation, Fanfiction, others), this site has a very stable and very likeable community who I've come to respect and admire. That not only goes to the authors, but to all the people who post here. Seriously, this community is one that works well. If I were to say something to the authors who have been for so long absent, I'd say that I envy you. You can write FAR BETTER than I could ever. I'm in my 20's, and I've been writing since I was 16. However, I could never write as well as say Maggie Finson, or Diane Castle, or Starwolf, or all of you guys. Even if the community has moved on a bit, there's still time to catch up. Even then, if you can't keep up: what the hell of it??? This community, as far as a newbie like me can ascertain, is a incredibly accepting and amazingly forgiving group of people. The point of this thread was partially as a humourous statement. It was also so I could find out why they left, and write a message telling them that for one I would like to see them back and writing. Hell, if they do return, I will make it my mission to personally give feedback on every fucking story they write, and be both truthful and kind in my words. I'm sure that everyone else here feels the same way. Even if you stumble, you can pick yourself back up. We'll all be there to help you get back to your feet.

So, I've said my piece. Who else feels the same??? Let's try and get those authors back.

I've endured harsh criticism. While I know I can't please everyone, it seems some fans (mostly not here) decide that "I don't like this story" is an invitation to get personal and nasty. Case in point - Bikini Beach: Heroes. That got enough people riled up on Big Closet that I got a bunch of PMs that were less than complimentary. But on FM and another place, it was downright hateful. Viciously hateful. I was called a lot of things. The reaction actually put me off writing for a while, it was that bad. Then my next piece was a Bikini Beach fluff piece to avoid any controversy and nasty criticism, and my true fans noticed.

Compared to what I endured for BB: Heroes and a few other stories, being told "I didn't care for this story" or "I have enough angst in my life that I don't need to read more Kayda-angst" is mild and a lot easier to take.

But yeah, us authors can be sensitive, especially when the criticism gets personal and hateful.

JG wrote:

Rose Bunny wrote: This is where we prove Minh wrong, by revealing that I'm secretly in the cabal, writing a story where Whateley is destroyed by a thermonuclear attack by Luxembourg, The only survivor was Puppet, and all of Gen 2 is a dream she has while in an irreversible coma.

Welp. back to the drawing board.

They figured it out.

What's a little radioactivity to a woman who's already green? Once her reinvigorated regen kicks in, that Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg Axis is history!

Yeah, that was kinda uncalled for. If you don't like a particular story, or the style of a particular author... just don't finish the story, or avoid stories by that author. I try to only provide criticism that is productive. Because I KNOW I can't do any better.

If a reviewer cannot name the faults they find or describe the aspects of a story that are sub-par, then it's quite possible they don't actually exist.

One should also be wary of blanket "X is the worst!" (or any other superlative) descriptions as there's always a chance that they may be seen as a challenge for others to surpass.

And another element that you may be overlooking as regards the dropout authors, both the original lineup and the newer ones as well, is that they simply may have run out of stories to tell.

It is safe to say that for some, well, life happened. It has been fourteen years since the series was first plotted, after all, and it is inevitable that some simply aren't able to continue, or lost interest, or are too busy with more pressing matters.

It is also possible that death happened. While Bob Arnold never wrote for Whateley AFAIK, he did write his own series, his work in keeping the WA (and Big Closet) site running was critical, and he was a close friend to several of the CC and the regular members at the time. It is possible that others whose RL identity weren't well known, such as Liliandra or ScramblerJ, passed without anyone in the group knowing about it. I don't think this is the case, but how would we know if no one knew to contact us?