#that fic is like half of my word count

[purplecatghostposts]

I put all of my fics for one specific fandom into one series for a few different reasons but ONE of them is to keep track of how much I’ve posted for that specific fandom. And in other news,

Shout out to me writing 200k words of Miraculous Ladybug fics in roughly eight months. What can I say, Félix specifically has a chokehold on me.

[amtrak12]

After a conversation with a friend about this weird trend of fic readers who only want epic length fics (and also what seems to be a massive misunderstanding between parties on terms and their definitions), I went searching for the fandom sources I cut my teeth on. I don't have much bookmarked from those days anymore, but googling got me to this fiction length/terminology breakdown from a Livejournal blog. (Which also has good fandom definitions for other terms like A/N and fanon too, so if you're super new to fandom, go check that out.)

The definitions come from the publishing world (hence the page counts), but fandom and fanfic has always borrowed heavily from official publishing terminology. Flash fiction (aka, anything less than 1k words) is called a 'ficlet' within fandom. We call everything else a fic until it reaches the novella mark -- which may start at 20k words but as synecdochic breaks down on their Dreamwidth blog, there's a lot of overlap between short stories and novella word counts. Because, when you're not constrained by physical page counts, the real dividing line between short stories and novellas are the number of plots and themes you're using. (Seriously, go read their meta on this topic. It's fantastic!) Either way, once you're hitting tens of thousands of words, you're in longfic territory. And then if your fic is even longer than that -- 100k+ like shown in the screenshot above -- it's called an epic fic.

And these terms, longfic and epic, are important because they're used to differentiate these stories from the average fic. Because, at least in the 2000s up until the 2020s, the most common fic lengths you ran into were between 1k-20k words. "Fic" made the reader assume only a few thousand words at most. It's only when you changed the term to drabble or ficlet or longfic that they would realize 'oh this is going to be shorter or longer than normal'.

I don't really understand why that baseline assumption has changed amongst the newer demographics (and maybe amongst some long-running fandom members too?). I've seen a lot of theories and 'tiktokification' complaints, but I honestly don't know what's true. And I don't want to start a fight or even try to change anyone's minds if they are dead set against reading short story length fics. You can do what you want!

Just maybe shift your attitude about it a little bit? Remember that it's a personal preference the same way tropes are, and that one story length isn't better than another. Just like tropes, each story length serves its purpose. Some stories are best told in 1-2k words. Some are best told as 100 word drabbles -- or even a single sentence! And then, yes, some stories do need to be 100k+ in order to be told properly.

But that's not every story. And it shouldn't be expected of fic writers to pad a 1500 word plot into some sprawling epic just because they left it on a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is probably the point of that fic! Short stories are an entirely separate art form to novels and as such are able to cover different topics than novels can or cover the same topics differently. And that's what makes them special!!

And look at that word count breakdown by genre! That's mainstream publishing standards! Now, go back up there to the definition of a novel and notice that the average published novel is 80k words long.

Let me repeat that:

The average length of a published novel is 80,000 words long.

Could a novel go longer? Sure! And if you're dipping into adult sci-fi or fantasy, absolutely it will be longer! But does your fic need to be longer than the average novel in order to be good? In order for you to feel satisfied when you finish reading it? Why does the length of the fic matter more to you than the content?

idk just some rambling food for thought, but I guess too long, don't read:

~✨~ Every story length is valid ~✨~

It just depends on the plot you have and the structure you want to use to tell it.

[msnihilist]

Screenshots somebody’s DNI and has one herself saying no antis or busybodies. Cool. It’s the internet. Anything goes. That means I can rb your fanfics and save them for editing the way you save art that isn’t incestuous.

I mean, if you want to download my fics and comb through all of that incest and underage smut, that's your prerogative, man. Hope you get a boner out of it, then maybe you'll calm down 💕

[lighthouseshepard]

why does writing lately feel like a fugue state where trying to get words out is like dismantling the grand canyon one rock at a time

[trans-clown-catgirl]

hey cookie run fans i wrote White Lily/Dark Enchantress yuri go look at it it's good i prommy

(i also prommy it's fully SFW don't worry abt that part lol)

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

my greatest fear whenever i get a fixation on a new piece of media is that after roughly 1.5 years, without fail, i will lose interest in it and feel like a soulless shell of myself until i find something new to obsess over.

the good thing about me being obsessed about s class he/roine is that i went so overboard with it that i started writing fic and now i always have. checks notes. at least 2 giant WIPs at any given time. so whenever i've sucked all the taste out of canon, i just turn to one of my AUs instead while i let canon/my other WIPs fallow

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

TRANCH TRADE TRANCH TRADE TRANCH TRADE. throwing this at ur helmet so it bounces off in a goofy way

YAYYYYY TRANCH TRADE I LOVE IT HERE IN THE MUD AND GOOP AND BLOOD AND VISCERA!!!!!!!!

ohhhhh winnebago descriptions....... i loooove the winnebago i love the "living in their car and shitty motels bc they have nowhere else to go and are also on a huge fucked up road trip" energy..... ohhhh vyncent pov save me vyncent pov. see now you have to write a dakota pov to complete the set. 3 of them do not separate !!!!!

DESPERATELY SCROUNGING AROUND IN THE MUD for bits of my william fic i can share with you that arent MASSIVE fucking spoilers. hes going thru it a little . also this is insanely unedited bc i have just been writing it in little bursts at midnight+ :

alsooooo a little tiny bit of trickster dialogue from the mark nightmare fic (WHICH. BTW. is officially the longest thing I have written for fun in the last like 3 or 4 years holy shit. i officially crossed the 3k word threshhold yesterday everyone cheer and clap) :

[soupandsorcery]

2024 Writing Round Up!

Thank you to @inquisimer for the tag! I always mean to do this at the end of the year and it somehow slips my mind every time, so it's nice to have a reason to actually sit down and look at my stats. Tagging @quillfulwriter, @rookinthecrownest, @deputyrook, @process-pending, and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it! No pressure, of course 💖

words posted: 49,666

additional words written: 32,048

grand total of words: 81,714

fandoms: harry potter, ted lasso, the tarot sequence, bg3, dragon age

highest kudos: and i know you're scared (but you loved me for a second there) with 329. my foray into werewolf!roy/jamie when i was in my ted lasso period.

highest hit oneshot: same fic with 2,861 hits. werewolf porn, go figure, lol.

new things I tried: I dabbled in some new fandoms this year, and wrote one of my top 5 longest one shots ever at over 10k words.

fic I spent the most time on: probably sunshine warm, moonlight soft. I almost didn't finish that one in time for the fest it was for, and I nearly scrapped it like once a week until it was done. But I'm super proud of it and it was very well received.

fic I spent the least time on: most of the little ficlets I've done on here are pretty quickly written. I usually bang out like a 500 word piece, clean it up a little, and then hit post and send it into the void.

favorite thing I wrote: It's probably a tie between the pressure and the pleasure you put your body through (fem!roy/fem!jamie smutty hurt/comfort) and riches, in a pair (fem!rook de riva/lucanis taking a romantic walk after the dinner that locks in the romance). Two very different fics, but they both sort of wrote themselves in the way that the words just kept coming to me like they needed to be written.

favorite thing(s) I read:

Thickets by wolfpants - older Harry/Draco. Just soft and tender and so very expressive. It was one of the first fics I read this year, and I've come back to it more than once because it's so lovely.

the light and the obstacle that casts it by misprinting - Brand/Rune/Addam. So much hurt/comfort, heavy on both, honestly. Fairly dark, so mind the tags, but the soft trio feelings are so good.

Scrape by spqr - Roy/!femJamie. This fic changed my life legitimately. I am always here for imagining characters and ships if their genders were different, and this fic started my fem!Jamie craze that lasted most of the summer.

a kind of dwell and welcome by leupagus - Ted/Trent. This is like THE TedTrent fic, and I read it all the way through probably 5 times this year. It's just incredibly well written, and the way it sparked so many companion fics is such a beautiful love letter to the show and the fandom community.

writing goals for 2025: My main goal is to write things that bring me joy and to care less about numbers. I am quick to get discouraged when something I worked hard on doesn't do the numbers I expected, but that shouldn't take away from the love I had for the fic. I also want to get better at writing descriptions and making my words flow better and feel less stiff.

new works: 7 fics on ao3, 19 tumblr fics/ficlets

[thompsborn]

me looking at the still unfinished hb2 first chapter and the deadline that i gave myself (two more days):

[rotisseries]

once I edit this it's over for you bitches

[resident-rats]

Not to jinx anything but I might be able to finish the chapter tomorrow 👀

[gurlgallade]

I am so sorry to anyone who followed us for funny crackfic. Still absolutely lost in the sauce of the most wild angst fic I have ever imagined.

[presiding]

new dishonored fic chapters published this weekend

yuri, yaoi, neither, or both, take your pick -

monster in the hull - f/f mature billie/emily 44k/90k

there's a void monster hunting through the dreadful wale

if you're not into billie/emily you'll still have fun <3

dishonored 2 rewrite, from billie lurk's perspective

daud's haunting the narrative

mark of the beast - m/m explicit daud/martin 58k/80k

daud's haunted tyvian farmstead. he's being followed by ghosts, and something that might be worse.

if the ship isn't your thing chapters 1-4 is a complete & neutral story. or read on...

[thetarttfuldickhead]

I know hes not actually that short but Phil looks so diddy in so many of these cast photos. Like the one where hes stood next to Jason in costume, he looks absolutely pocket sized I adore him

Hiya, nonny!

Fun fact: googling celebrity heights is not as straightforward as one might imagine, because numbers vary slightly from site to site and the conversion between centimeter and feet/inches  is sometimes a bit wonky.

Anyway, the talk of whether Phil is short or not has been a rather stark reminder and demonstration of how our backgrounds and expectations play into our perceptions. At around 175 centimeters (or 5 feet 9 inches) Phil Dunster is pretty much of average height for a UK male (or for a US male for that matter). However, he is a good 5 centimeters (or about 2 inches) shorter than the average man in my country, so I very much perceive him as short. People from other countries might well perceive him as tall. All in the eye of the beholder, ey?

But yeah, next to Jason – tall by UK and American and probably many other standards – he often looks particularly short. The contrast, yeah?

I also adore Phil, though not so much becaues of his height (be it considered tall or short or average) but mostly because he is darling and a little bit of a troll.

[blorboresidue]

pondering if there's a way to keep track of the non-word-count-increasing aspects of writing. cause some days I'm really productive in terms of plotting but do absolutely nothing to increase my word count. and I don't wanna count me writing disjointed notes towards my word count. but the disjointed notes are an important part of the process!!

[malachitezmeyka]

I think the ghost of Tolstoy had possessed me for the past three hours because there is no other explanation for THIS