When do you know your done or abandoned?

I’ve got a fair number of stories under my belt, but it’s difficult to tell if I finished a story or just abandoned it.

For instance:

• Gender Change at the Office - 45 Chapters total. 19 Deep. Seems pretty abandoned. But it is one I like to go back and add to.
• The Bridal Boutique- 120 chapters, 33 deep. Doesn’t seem abandoned has multiple endings, but I haven’t touched it in a long time.

I try to make my stories public to allow others to add on, but what do you all think. What is your definition of giving up on a story? And what’s your definition of finishing it?

 

IMO, Public is a bad option as it might attract low-quality contributions. (I even think it shouldn't be available at all, not just for this reason.)

 

I only have one story, but it's 1000+ chapters at this point and not "finished" yet, even though there are 20+ endings. A story is "done" when you think it's done, and not before.

I would agree with gene.sis that turning a story public opens it up to low-quality contributions; even if I abandoned a story, I'd rather orphan it - that is, let someone else take it over who shows an interest - than to just open it up to everyone.

 

I have 2 I've pretty much given up on. But they are almost 16 years old, so I think I can be forgiven on that one.
One thing I do notice is that I have a nasty tendency to write shitty endings when I rush. Hence why I'm forcing myself to take my time on these...

 

I do tend to just type chapters with “Ending:” because I dont want to drag out stories. I don’t really see the point of a storyline is “They are now a sex slave and have no character agency...”

 

I would rather have all my old stories deleted, but since they have public chapters added, I'm not allowed to do it. The one option would be finetuning my old work but I just don't have much motivation to write anything these days.

 

Well, technically, it would be possible but definitely not nice as the author put some effort into it. (I once was at that end of the delete button and can tell it's quite disappointing.)
On the other hand, I don't see a reason to delete old stories. After all, other users might still enjoy it. And maybe, you want to offer it for other users to adopt and improve it. (e.g. adding a note within the introduction.)

 

You could always put those stories up for transfer to another author who's interested in continuing to oversee and care for the work...