fan_writers | Entries tagged with process: other

I've been pondering two questions regarding posting fic online. One involves chapter length. I know this can vary tremendously, but what do people actually prefer? I'm not a fan of very short chapters; I read fast and find there's not enough to settle into. In terms of number of words, is there a preferred range? I've been cutting them at around 4000 words, sometimes less, sometimes a bit more if I can't find a good spot to break it.

The other question is posting something that you haven't finished writing. That's something you never do in pro writing, of course, but it happens quite a bit with fanfics. Perhaps the author is hoping for input to help them decide where to go with it. I do surreptitiously go back and fix things I didn't notice first up, whether or not anyone has seized on them! But I like reading the comments and responding to them. And kudos, of course, are how fanfic writers get 'paid.'

So is there an acceptable length of time between posting chapters? Is it too annoying to have it go months between chapters, as I admit to sometimes doing? I do have notes and a vague plan for the ending, but not certain atm just what will happen between now and then. So I'm debating whether I should finish the thing first before releasing any more chapters into the wild.

guildrone

So, I’ve been on an especially ~~ruminative~~ self-reflective bent as of late—and as per my most recent check-in over on justcreate, one case of such involves questioning where exactly my creative drive comes from. More specifically, I’ve been sitting with a well-worn motto that I once thought I’d taken to heart…

Write what you want to read.

…But might have instead been taking for granted, in the sense that what I’d for a while considered as a writer to be a core appeal of much of my work is something I doubt I’d appreciate as a reader from the outside looking in—if I weren’t the one doing the aiming in the first place, in other words, I don’t think I’d be included in the target (audience) I’m trying to hit.

So, I figured I’d spin this uncomfortable case of arrested authorial development into my first shot at actually sparking discussion around here—and thus pose this variably obvious question to you in turn: What is the relationship between what you read(/watch/play/etc.) and what you write?

g_uava

How inspired are you to write new fic if someone else has picked out and organised the parts of canon most interesting to you? Think of it as if a fellow fan has 'processed' the raw ingredient of canon for the creation of creative works. Examples of 'processed' canon include meta/fan analyses, screencaps, timelines, supercuts and detailed guides locating the appearances of certain characters or important events.
( Read more... )

mific

I just saw this post by obsidianpegasus on tumblr, and wanted to share it here.

Say it with me:

I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine.
I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine.
I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine.

It’s okay if I don’t have time to write.
It’s okay if a chapter is delayed.
It’s okay if my words come out messy.
It’s okay if I need to take a break.
It’s okay if I don’t update every week, every month, or even every year.

My value as a writer is not measured by how fast I post.
My worth is not defined by kudos, bookmarks, or comments.

I am allowed to be slow.
I am allowed to rest.
I am allowed to write for joy, not for an algorithm.

I am a writer. Not a content-producing machine.

And if anyone thinks otherwise, they can wait.

the post on tumblr

author_by_night

I've been seeing a lot of people talking about the lack of comments. So, let's talk about it.

I have a few theories.

First: Are kudos being counted in this conversation? Because I think that makes a difference. It took me a long time to see kudos as comments, given that I'm a Fandom Old who remembers when you couldn't really hit fancy buttons. You had to hit reply, hope you were logged in, and type a comment. Over time, I've come to count them, but I still prefer comments. Especially on chapter fic. I've written chapter fic where I didn't receive many comments, and I wasn't sure if it was because people lost interest, or they'd used their one kudos and that was it. Like that one call from jail.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, some of my theories:

I'm going to be an old fart here and blame phones. Okay, I give them only a small fraction of the blame. But here's the thing - going back to my fandom old days, people generally went online when they had time. Baby was napping, they were home from work, they were on their lunch break and lucky enough to have an oblivious boss who thought Livejournal was a news website, it was Sunday afternoon. Now I talk to friends on Evilbook Messenger who are in between soccer practice runs. People go online on the toilet. I actually think that's stilted internet communication in general; there really isn't a captive, attentive audience the way there was 20 years ago, or even ten years ago, really. (I feel like it was about ten years ago that people started using the internet on their phones regularly, and not just in times of desperation.)

The other issue with phones? They're hard for some of us (me) to type on. I'll own it, I have meant to leave a comment before, but I read the fic (or whatever else) on my phone, meant to comment when I could type something longer than "I'm at the restaurant got us a table", and it never happened.

I think in the case of some fandoms, they became active in 2020. What happened in 2020 that meant a lot of people weren't leaving their houses very much? Yup. And it seems to me that a lot of people really didn't become active again until early 2022. I know that while I was back in the office by late 2020, I wasn't seeing people in large quantities until early 2022. So that's two years of people being able to read and comment a lot more, before their lives went back to being busy.

Going along with this, in general, the fandom may have been inhabited by people who had time in the social distancing years, and then everyone moved on. And even if 2020-2022 has little to nothing to do with it, it is true that fandoms don't seem to have a very long lifespan these days. So it may just be that the fandom's gone stagnant.

Some people are afraid they'll comment the "wrong" way. It's weird to comment on older fics. Your comments need to be long. They can't be too long. Emojis are cringe. Among other worries.

While I realize you're supposed to "write for yourself", we can't deny that people like comments. They like feeling part of a community. Also, it's just nice when your work is appreciated. So, what can we do? I have a few ideas.

If you are one of those people who won't respond to things while you're on your phone, try marking for later, or emailing the fic to yourself.

I try commenting on chapter fics, if I've already used up one kudos. Please let people know you're still reading. If you're not reading at all because you don't read WIPs, may I suggest letting the writer know if you've interacted with them before? I'll be very honest here, I once almost trashed a WIP because no one was commenting.

Don't be afraid of commenting the "wrong way". People LOVE reviews on their old work. People don't care how long or short your review is. Emojis are adorbs. If the writer doesn't like it, welp, that's their problem.

What does everyone else think?

esteefee

Posting here per

china_shop's suggestion, as we were discussing in this thread:

I feel like when I'm writing, there are two zones. The first is more plodding and difficult, where I'm using prompts of where I want to go in the story (such as an outline) and [I'm] sort of blind emotionally, if that makes sense, and it's very slow going. The writing really suffers as a result. The second is the true zone, where I've really percolated the story/universe in advance, and I'm so deep in the backstories, 'verse, and intent of the overarching plots that the writing kind of just rolls out of me, and individual threads I'm not even consciously aware of pop out and intertwine in a really kinetic way. That is the gold standard for me, but so much harder to achieve. I really wish I knew how to create that zone more readily, but it appears to be an almost accidental thing that occurs when I'm really into a story idea.

mific went on to say (paraphrasing, don't want to steal her words) that sometimes it's the story idea that gets her there, and sometimes it's the headspace she's in that makes the words really flow.

What gets you into the right headspace for a good zone? One where the words come easily and you feel you're doing the kind of writing where synergy really happens?

china_shop

Hi! I've just posted a ramble (with lots of lists) about Why and how to blow the dust off a WIP. I'm 95% discovery writer, so this is from that perspective. :-)

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28

Talking about writing

Entries tagged with process: other

Post haste or not so much?

Authors as Audiences

Inspiration from 'Processed' Canon

Poetry meta by obsidianpegasus, about writing

Comments

Getting Into The Zone

Meta: Why and how to blow the dust off a WIP

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February 2026

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