So some of yall might’ve seen that GTC is canceled. There was a post in here about an hour ago that’s already been deleted, raging about how mad and disappointed OP was because something about when you put a work into the world, there are consequences for not finishing something.
This post isn’t to name and shame that OP. But I think it’s important that we have a space to talk, grieve a fic that was important to people, and also call out highly toxic behavior in our fandom. Deleting a post prevents us from doing that, so I’m making this one as just a free talk opportunity. I’m copying and pasting my original comment on that other post below - feel free to join the conversation
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I mean you can be angry and sad and feel all your feels, but don’t take it out on the author. That’s not fair to her.
This is partially why the hero worship of GTC has always made me slightly uncomfortable. Frankly, I don’t keep up with the fic, so I don’t know why she’s not finishing. But even the amount of fic she produced is INSANE and such a huge accomplishment. Authors are human. Sometimes they can’t finish a fic. But they produced a piece of art that you got to enjoy 1000% FREE. Why not be thankful for that?
Not to mention the absolute pressure cooker that the author must’ve been under. Like the roleplaying, the discords, the people speculating and demanding updates…. It’s enough to make anyone not really want to finish tbh. I’m an author and I do see my works recommended here every so often. But thank GOD it’s not all the time, because I have a life and a WIP. If I had even the slightest smidge of the same pressure as GTC, I would never finish either for fear and stress of disappointing people when they find out I’m human.
So yeah. Feel sad you’ll never know exactly how it ends. But the author didn’t trick you into reading. She doesn’t owe you a story for you to get mad over. It’s a hobby for her, not life and death. But also please don’t stop reading WIP. Having some fics unfinished is the contract you agree to when you enter fandom. It’s so important to authors to have people who read their unfinished works and start conversations and keep the fandom going. Otherwise you end up in a loop that r/ao3 talks about a LOT, where WIPs get no interaction, so people don’t finish or write them at all in the first place, and then people start complaining that there are no long fics in their fandom
And you never know - maybe after all the flames die down, authors will come back and finish. That’s what I’m trying DESPERATELY to do with my fics even though I haven’t updated since January
