One of Mare's posts in the favorite chapters thread made me think of a new question. She mentioned she didn't want to reveal the ending to Scars because some people are reading it right now and she didn't want to spoil it. So here's the question:
At what point do you feel it's okay to give "spoilers" to your stories or talk about specific things that have happened in them in your answers to these questions, without worrying that you're ruining things for potential readers?I know for me, it has to do with the amount of time that's passed and how much word of mouth the story has gotten. I am very guarded with the big secrets in my stories and do not give spoilers, but after a certain point, if a certain part has been talked about so much that it's become common knowledge even to people who haven't read the actual story, then I feel like it's not a spoiler anymore.
Song for the Undead is about zombies. That's obvious now, given the title, but when Rose and I started it, we posted it as "4.15.12" because we did not want people to know it was going to be a zombie story. We wanted to build the suspense slowly and let them experience it more like the characters did. Then once we changed the title and banner, it became okay to talk about it being a zombie story.
Nick loses his leg in Broken. That was a BIG MOMENT in that story, and I wanted it to come as a shock, so I never talked about it to people who hadn't already read it, but over the years, it's become what I'm best known for. See avy. LOL
Nick dies at the end of Curtain Call. Again, when I was writing it, I would never have told anyone that was going to happen (except Rose... I think Rose knew), and even afterwards, I didn't want it ruined for potential readers, but it has been talked about it enough that I don't feel like it's a big secret at this point.
On the other hand, I'm still careful about not giving away the twists or the ending of Secrets of the Heart because that is more recent, and not a lot of people have read it. I was a little worried about Cinzia filling out the survey about it for the reading challenge, but she did a good job being vague.