donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2012-10-01 10:41 pm
donutsweeper) wrote2012-10-01 10:41 pm
(no subject)
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.
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.
Here via friendsoffriends
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
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