My longest story was basically 9/10th completed when I started posting it. Some of the feedback did influence the ending, but it was over 6 months later when I finally posted the ending that hopefully it wasn't too noticeable.
Most of the biggest changes to ML came from suggestions from my wonderful Betas. They brought up things I never considered. And actually told me to ADD stuff to make the characters more rounded. So, I'm a big fan of Betas!
<<Be Kind to Readers, Volunteer To Be a Beta TODAY!>>
When writing GEM, I thought it was going to be a short 10 parts (37 parts & an epilogue and 14th longest story on the archives later), I've learned my lesson. I try not to send to Beta until I've completed at least half of the story, if not more. NH (the sequel) I tried to write quickly to get it on the boards around the time that GEM finished posting, but I feel it suffered in quality because of that. ML had time to sit and age, NH didn't. So it was difference (IMO) between fine wine and grape juice.
My current story (stories) will be complete before I start posting on the boards. I feel better knowing approximately how long a story will be before asking someone to Beta for me, so they know what they're signing up for.
