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[donutsweeper]

How do people write long fics?

Seriously, it is a skill I have never mastered and barely been able to comprehend. I love reading long fics (within reason), but writing them? I can't do it.

Recently the newest part of an AU series I like was posted. It was 110k words long, bringing the series (of 10 stories so far) up to 600k or so. 600,000 words. And, according to the author, the next part might be double the length of the last one.

Yes, the recent part could have been edited a lot and yes, it used some techniques that result in longer stories (multiple POVs that sometimes retell the same scene from different perspectives) but still... even if it had been cut to half that length, how the heck do people write stories that long?

I really, really wish that was something I could do.

Comments

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Not among my skill set either! If I write something that's over 2000 words that's quite long, and that one (short) big bang fic almost killed me. I think it was 15,000? Ha ha ha ha.

I would love to be able to develop a story that long, too. But there's room for both types of writing, fortunately.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I consider 1k long. When I'm making lists I break things down to drabbles, ficlets (101-999 words) and full length (1k and longer).

I'm glad there is room for both types of writing too, but sometimes... *sigh*

(today's whine is brought to you by the frustrating half empty word doc, several cookies and the letter Y)

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

::pets::

Mmmmcookies. Those stubborn word docs are no fun though. :(

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*passes cookies*

[haldane.livejournal.com]

The longest thing I've ever written was about 14,000 words. I seem to have "natural lengths", where there's a group about the 1,000 mark, and then another bunch at 4,000, with little or nothing in between.

I'm currently betaing a 45,000 word one for my daughter, and I envy her immensely (pun entirely intended.)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

14k is still really long! I think I managed over 10k four times, meanwhile I wrote over 200 drabbles.

Wow, betaing 45k. That's pretty amazing of you!

[qafkinnetic.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel. The only time I've managed to write longer fics is with a partner. My longest fics without a partner get up to about 7-10,000 words, but that's it.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I never tried co-writing, but I can see how it would result in a longer word count. I still consider 7k long though. I haven't gotten that high too often.

[qafkinnetic.livejournal.com]

I did it for the tw_collab_fest. Our story got up to over 43,000 words and we had to rush to finish by the deadline. If we'd had more time, we probably would've gotten even more words in. But yeah, usually I'm excited if I manage to write anything over 3k.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oh wow, 43k, that's amazing!

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

I haven't written anything that long, but I have written several stories well over 50,000 and one c. 125,000 and I write them the same way as I write anything. I just er, write - which I'm sure is not at all helpful. But that's how I do it.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Logically I know it's just a matter of getting the words down and *writing* it's just... damn difficult for me. 125k is really impressive!

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

I do believe some people (maybe most) have different methods/ways of writing depending on the proposed length of the story. But there, for me, lies part of the problem: I rarely know before-hand (unless I'm doing a drabble, limited word count) what length a story is going to be.

Some stories just evolve and grow and become considerably longer than I maybe thought they might be.

Thank you - and it was written in one month for NaNo (and I still managed to fit in some other stories too - I really must have been totally mad that November *g*).

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I never know length either, although usually I don't have a lot planned out, plotwise, which probably is one of the main reasons my stuff tends to be short.

I remember your insane Nano month! I was blown away by your tenacity and what you managed to accomplish!

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

I don't have much (if any at times) planned out/plotted. Although recently I have played more scenes/stories out in my head than I've ever done before and somewhat surprisingly the scenes end up longer on 'paper' than in my head - which is irksome when you are trying to hit a set number.

Insane sums it up well *g* I had an aim and I got there. I'm still not quite sure how I did it, to be honest.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I'm going to assume copious amounts of chocolate :)

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, amazingly enough not; which was very silly.

Here via friendsoffriends

[becky-monster.livejournal.com]

The longest I've written is 20,000+ (It was a Torchwood Big Bang fic) I'm currently writing one that promises to be longer than that.

As to how I do it... I waffle? Or rather, let the characters waffle? I think it's because the storylines (which can be both summed up as 'a year in the life of X' - with X being two different ladies who are pretty much written out of their respective canons... I has a type!) need room to fill out the various scenes and vingettes that make up their stories. And conversations. I do love the talking;)

That and it's a challenge - to see that I can do it. Left to my own devices, no. For a challenge - done it once, hoping to do it again;)

All I can say is - give it a go, you may surprise yourself!

Re: Here via friendsoffriends

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Thank god for Torchwood bigbang, the only time I've managed to break 20k. :)

Waffling (or showing the waffle) is actually really good advice. Letting the reader *see* the story and the backstory to the decisions made in the story and whatnot instead of showing the end result.... hmmmm

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I am struggling with this right now so badly. I can't plot. I can't plot and so I write short stories and now I need, for this concept I'm really keen on to work, to make it longer, and I can't figure out how to plot it out so that there's a reason for people to keep reading. It's driving me crazy. I could go on for chapters and chapters with ideas I have, but it's the plot that is killing me. I need the 'so what?' factor.

I admire people greatly who can sit down a write something big and plotty. It's a skill. I'm more of a short, slice of life writer, I guess.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

That is my problem EXACTLY. Gah, why is it so hard? *passes chocolate*

I always thought of myself as a snapshot writer, but slice of life works perfectly to describe what I do as well. At least those kind of stories are still fun to read, right?

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on what you're interested in. I write stories for human interactions and tossing characters into situations and seeing what happens. So I don't care about the plot, because the characters are what's driving the story. But in a long fic, you need a plot too and I think it's probably a practice thing. We just don't do it much. It doesn't help me that most of what I write is set in procedural fandoms, where a mystery is needed. How the hell do you write a mystery? I mean, at least in Dresden or Merlin or Doctor Who, you can blame it on magic or aliens, but in something like Sherlock or Castle or whatever, you need actual clues and culprits.


I always thought of myself as a snapshot writer, but slice of life works perfectly to describe what I do as well. At least those kind of stories are still fun to read, right?

They definitely are, and are usually more my cup of tea than longer, angst ridden fics. I'd rather read something short and poignant, than 63 chapters of people moaning about their lives. To each his own, I guess.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I tend to get bored and start scrolling with those long, please oh please have something happen, fics too. But, oddly, off LJ I tend not to read short (under 1k) and I almost never crosspost anything under 500 words.

Ugh, PLOT. Writing long would be so much easier if I was a porny author, then you could have page after page in the bedroom... which is not me. Magic, aliens, magic aliens... those are much easier to write. :)

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I think most of my fics come in around 2-3k, but I'm a wordy sort of writer. I've never been good at keeping it brief. That's why I respect your ability to drabble so much.

I don't really read a lot of fic in general, now that I think about it. I read my flist's offerings because that's usually part of the reason they're on my flist, but I don't go in search of fic very often. I don't know why. I think maybe because I don't want to be influenced by others' interpretations of the characters. I read more fic in fandoms I don't write for than ones I do.

I often wish I was a smutty writer too. Then you could at least pad the story out with some sex. But smut isn't for me. I prefer epic friendships.

Oh well, I suppose we all have our gifts. And I always enjoy what you put out in the world. :D

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Awww thanks :D

I actually read a lot in fandoms I don't write in much too, or I read in it before I start writing. But you're right, it does lead to a fanon influence. The number of times I'll be reacquainting myself with canon and realize- hey so+so actually never does X (even though it's something that appears in so many stories it's almost accepted as canon) is kind of scary, especially with closed canon fandoms or fandoms with long periods of time between new content coming out.

[songstressicons.livejournal.com]

I found something randomly the other day called the Fanlore (http://fanlore.org/wiki/Main_Page) wiki, that has pages for various fandoms and characters and lists fanon on the pages, which I found very helpful, not only for distinguishing fanon from canon but figuring out all the inside jokes in the fandom too. Like Anderson and dinosaurs or John and jam in Sherlock. ^_^

Edit: Whoops! Forgot I was in my icon account.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

:) I recognized you anyway!

Oh that does look like it would be a good resource! Those sort of things (the jam and whatnot) can really get confusing.

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

I could answer this with a question myself.

How do people consistently write good drabbles (or 221b ficlets for that matter)?

Horses for courses I suppose. I know I struggle terribly every time I put my mind to crafting a drabble (I think I've managed maybe 14 since 2007). My characters always want to get chatty!

Admittedly my long fics aren't anywhere in the region of 100k and of the 10 that are over 13k, 5 of them were written over 10 years ago so I'm not exactly the wordiest writer around. It seems I'm happiest at around the 1-5k mark going by the number I've written that fall into that range. All those fics add up if you write in the same series though... my word count for my HL/TW verse is 145,498 which kind of surprises me (though it shouldn't in one way, as my longest ever fic of 50k+ was in that series).

I like bite sized chunks of fic that I can read while having breakfast and that don't make me late for work if I feel I have to finish them! Sometimes I wish I was better at writing them myself, but each to their own.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Horses for courses indeed. :)

Wow 145k for the HL/TW verse? That's amazing!!!