#and i think i'd rather leave the reader wanting more than have them get partway through an epic and get sick of me | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nostalgia-tblr · 2 years ago

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What's the definition of "oneshot" here? I've always that to mean any single-chaptered work? Which is what I voted for, it'd be that or "short."

I'll read things that are longer but usually only if it's a situation like I like the author and I've read all their shorter stuff so it's longfic or nothing. While they're being posted it can be hard to follow a multi-chapter because I might forget what's happening in it between updates (which may also never arrive anyway) and once they're finished I can see the 250k wordcount and that's a lot of words. In some cases it's gonna be too many words. (We may all have a novel inside us, but do we all have a novel in us that's the length of several novels, needs no outside editor, and also we can write this novel on our first attempt at writing anything ever?)

I probably write shorter fics because I read shorter fics. More plots and scenarios in the same amount of time, give me all the content NOWWWWW.

(OBVIOUSLY a drabble is exactly 100 words long and many of those are great but I don't generally seek them out cos... well, too short.)

#one of the AO3 tags i follow is currently dominated by multi-chapter Mundane AUs which is not ideal for me tbh #do Mundane AUs seem to lead to longer fic generally? 300k words about the ds9 crew as baristas and that sort of thing?#i must admit as a oneshot writer sometimes i feel like everyone would rather i posted longer works with 25 chapters each #but i just don't have that many words in me at least not all for the same story #and i think i'd rather leave the reader wanting more than have them get partway through an epic and get sick of me #(my current multichapter is... well writing it's a slog at times tbh. what do i have left to say about medieval queens?)#(don't worry i am under no illusions that i'm saying much of anything about the canon characters via this particular AU)#but i have left more than one online fic community because i felt so intimdated by the assumption of multichapter works as default #which is odd because surely wordcount of all things is irrelevant in terms of writing quality?#but for YEARS now i've struggled with feeling like i'm not doing the “acceptable” kind of fic that people spend days reading #when/if i finish The AU there is no way it'll be more than 40k words and that'll still be BY FAR my longest every fic in over 20 years #so like... i am not what you'd call a marathon runner #noobs asking how to pace their 450k debut work. well first of all are you SURE it needs to be 450k words? that's... that's a lot of words.#that's SEVERAL novels. you're committing to A LOT there.#relatedly i almost never read anything tagged “slow burn”#i don't have the patience. this is longer than LotR already and they still haven't even kissed? get tae fuck! i want my fiilth! give me it!#fanfiction #fandom #polls

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