Size Queen
Mar. 18th, 2005 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sua_layThere are lots of different story types in fic. Notice that here I use the word 'story' loosely.
Drabbles with exactly 100, 200 or 500 words. Ficlets. Snippets. Stories. Long stories. Novella length stories. Huge mega stories. Incredibly long mega series of stories that never end.
But does size matter?
Have beenfighting discussing about this with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tvillingar for quite some time now. Apparently my comments on story length have given the impression that I'm a total snob and hate short fics just because they're short.
At first, I went to the 'of course not! that's absurd' - thing where I'm all nice to all and want everyone to think I'm an overall good person.
Fuck that.
The truth is, I read fanfic to read stories. Yes, stories about characters I'm all yay about. I usually never read Established Relationship stories, so I like to read about the guys now, the guys getting together, the guys after they get together. In terms of literature, I would like to read a tale with a beginning, a middle and an ending with the characters developing while the plot thickens.
You write five hundred words that give me all that and you're a genious.
Short fics are usually just scenes, due to the fact that you can't write a real story if you write something that's barely one page long. Sometimes an author manages to catch something great into that scene, but unfortunately that is really rare.
Pick a fandom. Any fandom. There are usually dozens of 'fics' with 'character a stares at character b and thinks something' and nothing more. It can be Harry staring at Snape's hands or Jim staring at Blair's hair or Krycek staring at Mulder's gun. But whoever the guys are, they keep staring and fantasizing and that's it.
A story? Nope. A piece of fanfic. Yep. Am I all yay about reading that? No way in hell.
I'm just not interested in these brief moments of time. I want to know more! It's not my thing to write or read fic just to see the guys go all mushy at each other or see them have a quick shag against the wall. I want to know what happens next. And then see them have a long shag against the wall if possible.
Size Queen? You bet I am, in a way. I want to read a story, not some whatever. Just like I want to read a book instead of a half page long short story. Do I automatically assume a short story is bad just because it's not long? No! But I do assume it's not my thing and move on.
Get it?
I'm not saying all long fics are good. Come on. Remember I'm the one always bitching about the quality (or actually the lack of it) of fic?
Go and read lots of elf slash. There's at least one author there who writes incredibly long crap with everyone all mushy and lovey. Then go to Sentinel or Xfiles and read through some of the so called Big Name Fans fic and see how you like the loving relationships of the former enemies who now buy houses and raise dogs or witness the big guy bathe his sweetheart.
And yeah, notice I'm being nice and am not naming anyone. I leave that to the times when I bother to friends lock and really vent out. :D
Length doesn't mean quality, but I'm more likely to be intrigued by a long fic than a short one. And I don't have to be ashamed of it.
Reading long fic isn't a bad thing and neither is writing it. I guess one reason for some annoyance in people around me is the fact that I do have the tendency to babble about a certain long fic I'm writing myself. You try to write a plot -based fanfic for two and a half years and then be all hush about it.
glares
It's not the fic to crown all fandoms, it's probably not even something most of the people would want to read. But it's what I'm into right now, so I'm the one going all yay. Sorry if that bugs you. Feel free to stop listening any time now!
Okay, I'm not trying to be a pompous asshole here; just take a look at the crap I've posted on my site. It's not all novella sized. It shouldn't all be novella sized. If you have nothing to tell, don't force the scene! But there are lots of people telling a real story instead of capturing a moment of two of some characters' lives and I really like that.
I like reading long stories. Heh. Long good stories anyway. I'm not forcing everyone to like them. Go ahead and read the drabbles! Whenever I'm in the mood or there's nothing but shorties about the guys I love, I read (or write) them too.
Just stop telling me it's cool to only write short crap because longcrap fics are hard to write. Of course they're hard to write! And of course most of it is crap. And of course we're all entitled to our opinions.
My opinion is to laugh in the face of 4k 'stories' (yes, not fics but stories). What's yours?
*goes to read long Xfiles fic*
Drabbles with exactly 100, 200 or 500 words. Ficlets. Snippets. Stories. Long stories. Novella length stories. Huge mega stories. Incredibly long mega series of stories that never end.
But does size matter?
Have been
tvillingar for quite some time now. Apparently my comments on story length have given the impression that I'm a total snob and hate short fics just because they're short. At first, I went to the 'of course not! that's absurd' - thing where I'm all nice to all and want everyone to think I'm an overall good person.
Fuck that.
The truth is, I read fanfic to read stories. Yes, stories about characters I'm all yay about. I usually never read Established Relationship stories, so I like to read about the guys now, the guys getting together, the guys after they get together. In terms of literature, I would like to read a tale with a beginning, a middle and an ending with the characters developing while the plot thickens.
You write five hundred words that give me all that and you're a genious.
Short fics are usually just scenes, due to the fact that you can't write a real story if you write something that's barely one page long. Sometimes an author manages to catch something great into that scene, but unfortunately that is really rare.
Pick a fandom. Any fandom. There are usually dozens of 'fics' with 'character a stares at character b and thinks something' and nothing more. It can be Harry staring at Snape's hands or Jim staring at Blair's hair or Krycek staring at Mulder's gun. But whoever the guys are, they keep staring and fantasizing and that's it.
A story? Nope. A piece of fanfic. Yep. Am I all yay about reading that? No way in hell.
I'm just not interested in these brief moments of time. I want to know more! It's not my thing to write or read fic just to see the guys go all mushy at each other or see them have a quick shag against the wall. I want to know what happens next. And then see them have a long shag against the wall if possible.
Size Queen? You bet I am, in a way. I want to read a story, not some whatever. Just like I want to read a book instead of a half page long short story. Do I automatically assume a short story is bad just because it's not long? No! But I do assume it's not my thing and move on.
Get it?
I'm not saying all long fics are good. Come on. Remember I'm the one always bitching about the quality (or actually the lack of it) of fic?
Go and read lots of elf slash. There's at least one author there who writes incredibly long crap with everyone all mushy and lovey. Then go to Sentinel or Xfiles and read through some of the so called Big Name Fans fic and see how you like the loving relationships of the former enemies who now buy houses and raise dogs or witness the big guy bathe his sweetheart.
And yeah, notice I'm being nice and am not naming anyone. I leave that to the times when I bother to friends lock and really vent out. :D
Length doesn't mean quality, but I'm more likely to be intrigued by a long fic than a short one. And I don't have to be ashamed of it.
Reading long fic isn't a bad thing and neither is writing it. I guess one reason for some annoyance in people around me is the fact that I do have the tendency to babble about a certain long fic I'm writing myself. You try to write a plot -based fanfic for two and a half years and then be all hush about it.
glares
It's not the fic to crown all fandoms, it's probably not even something most of the people would want to read. But it's what I'm into right now, so I'm the one going all yay. Sorry if that bugs you. Feel free to stop listening any time now!
Okay, I'm not trying to be a pompous asshole here; just take a look at the crap I've posted on my site. It's not all novella sized. It shouldn't all be novella sized. If you have nothing to tell, don't force the scene! But there are lots of people telling a real story instead of capturing a moment of two of some characters' lives and I really like that.
I like reading long stories. Heh. Long good stories anyway. I'm not forcing everyone to like them. Go ahead and read the drabbles! Whenever I'm in the mood or there's nothing but shorties about the guys I love, I read (or write) them too.
Just stop telling me it's cool to only write short crap because long
My opinion is to laugh in the face of 4k 'stories' (yes, not fics but stories). What's yours?
*goes to read long Xfiles fic*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Let's not even start about the pairings, okay?
Date: 2005-03-18 12:22 pm (UTC)Usually, but not always. Yep, I say a short story can be as captivating as a long one which to me seems to be what we're arguing about. It also seems to be the thing that irritates me most: you say there are no good stories while I can find several. We just seem to 1) define the meaning of the word 'story' differently and 2) prefer different things.
On the other hand, I can't say that I absolutely prefer short stories to long ones but often the long sagas seem like too much a commitment (20 parts? Meep!) and I feel I don't have enough time to devote to reading just one story. I'm also somewhat picky about long stories: if I'm going to read something so time-consuming, it better be good from the beginning. With shorter stories, I can give a bit more of a leeway and read it through because it's short and then decide if it's crap.
Btw, what are we considering a short story? Anything around 1000 words? I don't tend to count words or K's so it's a bit difficult to figure out the length of a story (any story). Shall we say a short story is a couple of page-downs?
Oh gods, let's not! :D
Date: 2005-03-18 12:31 pm (UTC)Just ask Dlasta. We usually disagree on all the fics we read. Of course me being the crap magnet doesn't help these kinds of discussions. :D
I have no idea what I'd call a short story. I mean, I would probably call anything below 1000 words a mini story.
You'll have to rec me good short stories! Maybe I'll see the light or something. *huggle*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-18 01:20 pm (UTC)What short-ish stories I'd rec? I've no idea! La la la. Seriously, if you've read any of the ones I've recced in my LJ, you have a picture of what kind of a story I like. I know you've read at least two: the nest-fic and the gay penguins. The latter one is crackfic but it doesn't make it any less good.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-18 01:42 pm (UTC)The nest fic wasn't short! At least not like two pages down! Let me check... The file I saved on my HD says it's 70K long, and that's a story in my book.
And the gay penguins was hilarious! Utterly lovely! And of 'pairings' I don't usually read from.
About endings... I agree to a point, but I just can't deal with sad fics. Especially if I don't know it's going to be sad. I'm not all yay about the 'they lived happily ever after' endings either, especially if it's angst angst angst happy ending fic. Some logic would be nice....
Can I just say I love talking/arguing/whatever on this level? I have a point, you have a point, we're discussing. No one is urging people to kill us with their bare hands or calling anyone a bitch. Yay!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-18 02:08 pm (UTC)I'm trying an angst-free diet, myself, since I obviously can't deal with unhappy endings. If the outcome seems suspicious, I'm more likely than not to skip the story.
I've noticed the lack of bitchiness in this discussion, too ;) It's always a nice thing.