Comments | rheasilvia: Posting a Fanfic Novel: The "How To"-Poll

rheasilvia

Posting a Fanfic Novel: The "How To"-Poll

Nov 12, 2009 20:21

Dear fanfic fans, I have a question. In your opinion, what is the best way of posting a very long piece of fanfiction (think novel, 150,000 words or more)? Please take a sec to let me know!

( This way to the poll. )

meta, writing

Comments 264

jo_lasalle November 12 2009, 19:23:49 UTC

You're doing our poll for us. ;-) Thank you kindly. I shall be watching this space. Mind if I link?

rheasilvia November 12 2009, 19:25:23 UTC

Not at all, quite the contrary! :-) Link away. And yes, I thought you might like to know this too. *g*

solo November 12 2009, 19:28:36 UTC

Re your first question, I like complete stories but if they're good stories and being posted regularly and I know they are finished, I won't wait until they're all done, I'll read the chapters as they come.

Oh, and re length of individual parts, I ticked pretty much every box except the 1,000 words one (1,000 is just... pointless. I wouldn't read that, I'd wait till the end and depending on the format it's posted in, not even read it then unless a complete document was made available). Once you go over 3,000, it's reasonably worthwhile. :-)

rheasilvia November 12 2009, 21:12:37 UTC

I'm not entirely consistent with how long I wait, or if I wait at all - it depends on a large number of factors, including length of the installments, author, type of story and so on. It's complicated. ;-)

1,000 is just... pointless.

Very short installments aren't my cup of tea either - not when the story is so long. I don't know if anyone actually likes this, although I've seen authors post that way often even to their own websites, when it'd be just as easy to post longer parts. I'd guess that readers in general tend not to like this, but I have a hard time judging other people's reading preferences because my own are so marked. Some readers prefer short stories over long ones because they don't have time to finish a long story in one sitting, but that - of course - is a very different kettle of fish.

solo November 12 2009, 22:10:09 UTC

Very short instalments are never my cup of tea. It's rarely worth clicking a link for 1,000 words. (Though I'll instantly admit that there are notable exceptions.) And why somebody would post a, say, 7,000 word story in seven 1,000 word instalments is just beyond me. Or a 2,000 word story in two parts. Like, wtf?

Not that I have strong opinions or anything. ;-)

killabeez November 12 2009, 19:56:33 UTC

I don't really support the "posting a part every day/every few days" method. There was a legitimate reason to do that when we read fic on email lists -- posting all the parts at once would flood people's boxes. But with things being read on the web, the only reason I can see for someone to post that way is to get the gratification of having readers beg for the next part.

My preferred method is to have everything posted on the same day, in parts of about 5k-10k words, with the parts linked to each other so you can bookmark the first part (or master post) and click "next" at the end of each part. A master post helps for posting to comms without taking over people's friends pages.

My biggest pet peeve is tons of tiny little parts. OMG. Will not read.

JMO, YMMV, of course.

japanimecrazed November 12 2009, 20:04:04 UTC

I second this.

rheasilvia November 12 2009, 23:31:38 UTC

Noted! :-)

jo_lasalle November 12 2009, 20:50:28 UTC

But with things being read on the web, the only reason I can see for someone to post that way is to get the gratification of having readers beg for the next part.

I hope you don't mind me thread-hopping; I'm watching this poll with a lot of interest because I hope at some point next year, a very, VERY long story I've been writing with solo____ will be finished. And in our various discussions, one of the reasons that I see in favour of posting chapter-wise (and just speaking for me here): I admit the idea of throwing out a story I've been working on for two years, maybe more (and not in the sense of adding to it randomly as fancy strikes for that long; seriously obsessing over it), all in one go some Sunday evening literally makes me whimper. I get scared of the sheer anti-climax that could be -- and not based on how much feedback we'd get or not get, also just the fun of posting and feeling a little bit accomplished. The ratio of 'yay posting!' vs. editing hell just seems very scary when I imagine posting some three hundred thousand words ( ... )

Thread 23

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rheasilvia November 12 2009, 21:53:54 UTC

Thank you! :-)) I've been in a bit of a writing rut, but am beginning to be excited about the story again myself - which is a wonderful feeling.

Though I'm not sure you'll be interested in the story...? It's about Japanese pop stars, for reasons that I haven't quite been able to figure out myself. (Yeah, I don't know how that happened either. Those sparkly dancing boys sneak up on you...)

becroberts November 12 2009, 20:58:24 UTC

How I prefer to read depends on what the fic is, if that makes any sense? If I'm reading something where I actually feel I'll be keeping the story for reading again later, I'd rather have the whole thing available to read at once, rather than wait for individual parts to be posted. If I'm reading in parts, approx. 5,000 words is a nice round number - it's the chapter length I aim for myself, both with fanfic and with novels. But with anything longer than about 40,000 words, I'd much prefer a text document with the whole thing so I can stick it on my PDA and read it at my leisure. I'm an impatient soul - it doesn't matter how long I take to read it once I've got it, but I want it all!

The longest fanfic I've ever posted was, I think, 54,000 words, though I've written longer stories, and that, I broke up into 12 parts. What can I say? I like to end chapters on a cliffhanger. Posted the whole lot in one go to my fic journal and to ficwars, and while some people did jokingly complain that I was ruining their sleep/study/concentration etc. I don ( ... )

rheasilvia November 12 2009, 21:56:58 UTC

That makes every sense to me - I am not consistent with my reading habits, either. Depending on the kind of story, the author, and the length of the parts, I am liable to either wait for the whole thing to be posted, or read the parts as they come out, or something in between. And I am very liable to combine all parts and throw them on my ebook, myself. :-)

Thank you! :-)

becroberts November 13 2009, 19:47:59 UTC

Following sleep, more comments...

If you're posting a long fic on LJ you'll have to break it up to get round the max. character limits anyway, so you might as well break the story up at logical points, in my opinion.

I'm also one of these people who prefers to leave feedback on the story as a whole at the end, not on individual chapters, so even if parts are posted on a schedule, I'll wait until I've read the entire thing before commenting. I'm just more comfortable that way because I'm less likely to say something stupid that might go and get contradicted by something I read later.

rheasilvia November 14 2009, 16:23:36 UTC

If you're posting a long fic on LJ you'll have to break it up to get round the max. character limits anyway, so you might as well break the story up at logical points, in my opinion.

LJ does throw a spanner in the works when posting long fanfic... which is why I've adopted the method of posting the actual fic to my website and then just linking to it from LJ. It makes for nicer formatting, too.

Of course, in the absence of LJ character limits, there's no *technical* reason not to post the entire story at once.

I'll wait until I've read the entire thing before commenting. I'm just more comfortable that way because I'm less likely to say something stupid that might go and get contradicted by something I read later.I heard a number of people say that they find it easier to comment on smaller chunks of a very long story, since commenting on the whole seems intimidating and they don't know where to start. So it's very interesting to me that you're the opposite - and why ( ... )