ᘛᰍ𝅄 ׁ okay so im saying this not to lecture some of you but to put stuff into perspective because I genuinely think a lot of us don't realise these things :
when a writer makes a fanfic series with multiple chapters, they are quite literally writing a book. I suppose the word “series” gives a different connotation to it but, yes, a writer is committing themselves to writing a book.
these “series” take a lot of time not only to write, but to plan. there's a lot of thought that goes into timeline, chapter planning, scene planning, character journeys/backstories, three act structures and so on. some writers even go deeper and add a bunch of symbolism and foreshadowing.
it's not much different to writing an original story. most book authors take months, if not years to finish a book. I think there's a mindset that fanfic is “easier” to write, but I'm going to hold your hand when I say this: it's not.
recently I've been seeing a rise of "update demands" when it comes to writers on here and their series. I've experienced it myself, so this post is to put into perspective that a lot of us writers can't publish more than one chapter every month or so.
our series aren't film series with big production teams, nor do a lot of writers write everything in advance so that they can publish weekly. add that to the fact that a lot of writers, myself included, have other series going on and— unfortunately, your favourite series may only see one chapter, maybe two if you're lucky, a month.
and I know that a lot of you are just excited but also understand that phrasing is so important. if a writer feels like they're being rushed/hounded they'll lose motivation. so perhaps instead of saying things like “when's chapter two!!”, “PLEASE update chapter 2”, “WHERE IS CHAPTER TWO??” or the dreaded: “are you ever going to update ( series name )?”, change your phrasing to :
“I'm so excited about ( series name! ). I'll eagerly be waiting for the next chapter.” even throw in something you liked about the fic.
I promise you, writers wanna finish their series and let you all see it as much as you lovely readers want to see it, but you reaalllyyyy need a different approach and mindset.