In praise of shorter fan fics
Mar. 22nd, 2022 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11I’ve been reading in a Reddit community about fan fiction a bit lately, and it’s got me thinking about how I think people are a little too invested in the idea of writing what’s called “longfic”, a story longer than fifty thousand words. I know a lot of people claim to love them, the idea of having a lot of good story to consume is really appealing, and getting to go wide and deep in exploration of a good idea. A lot of fanfic writers aspire to creating something like that.
But I see a lot of people posting questions there about getting stuck, getting overwhelmed, getting discouraged, getting bored, and not finishing their work. That’s a pretty lousy feeling, and I feel like nine times out of ten, their problem would have been solved by planning a smaller and therefore more doable project.
Because if that’s what you’re shooting for, you have a better shot of finishing and doing a good job with your fic. And who’s to say you can’t build from there? You can always expand later if the creative impulse strikes you, but you still get that feeling of having achieved a milestone in the meantime. I think if we break things down into manageable chunks, the process is less onerous and the product generally higher quality.
I know I’ve seen many, many long fics that I felt were bloated with filler that could have been cut out and the story’s pacing would have been improved. I bet a lot of the time we feel pressured to update, so we slap in something rather than not have any chapters for a long time. But that just makes the fic worse and has made more work for you!
So if you’re in this place, and your long fic is feeling like a burden rather than a fun creative exercise, that’s my suggestion. Start small! Then build later if you’re still feeling good about it. Your projects will come out better, your readers will be happy to see more come later, and you’ll be less likely to burn out and not finish.
But I see a lot of people posting questions there about getting stuck, getting overwhelmed, getting discouraged, getting bored, and not finishing their work. That’s a pretty lousy feeling, and I feel like nine times out of ten, their problem would have been solved by planning a smaller and therefore more doable project.
Because if that’s what you’re shooting for, you have a better shot of finishing and doing a good job with your fic. And who’s to say you can’t build from there? You can always expand later if the creative impulse strikes you, but you still get that feeling of having achieved a milestone in the meantime. I think if we break things down into manageable chunks, the process is less onerous and the product generally higher quality.
I know I’ve seen many, many long fics that I felt were bloated with filler that could have been cut out and the story’s pacing would have been improved. I bet a lot of the time we feel pressured to update, so we slap in something rather than not have any chapters for a long time. But that just makes the fic worse and has made more work for you!
So if you’re in this place, and your long fic is feeling like a burden rather than a fun creative exercise, that’s my suggestion. Start small! Then build later if you’re still feeling good about it. Your projects will come out better, your readers will be happy to see more come later, and you’ll be less likely to burn out and not finish.
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