Re: CL Fanfiction

[cya6]

do you actually have a 10k oneshot? i have nothing against them, I just can't read them.

and I find it hard to get too absorbed in a fanfic. No one kill me, but I'll read a chapter or two, but I can't sit down and read one for an hour.

[Soul Jelly]

Yup. Didn't know how to split it up, felt right to post is as a 'long short story' if you will. And fair enough, I understand your reasons entirely! I'm surprised as many people have read it as they have XD

I can spend aaages reading if I find a couple of good fics. I'm a tad addicted.

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

I like long oneshots, though I usually skim (even when I read short ones, I skim). Sometimes splitting something up into chapters just kills the story and how it's supposed to flow. There are certain pieces which are fundamentally oneshots, because it's kind of weird but they almost have their own style and way you go about writing/reading.

[Guest]

What I hate, are stories that are one chapter and 7k words. I can't read those, because it's too hard to find out where I left.

There are scarier numbers out there.

@Soul: For one-shots I can read pretty much anything no matter how long it is. For multi-chaptered stories, something like +20k/chapter (yes it does happen. Not so much on CL, but other fan doms) is distracting.

I agree with Shadows that a short length for multi-chaptered stories isn't a good read too.

I don't have an ideal number and most of the time I will read anything that looks good to me.

[Stella Luce 333]

And to answer your question Shadows - however many words it needs.

I agre. My only excptn to that is when it's a drbble (when you have to have 100 words)...

[Snickie]

I really don't feel like searching it in here right now, what with it being 2am here. But has anybody besides me read Lord Maximus's crossover "Code: Total Drama Reality" on FF.Net? Chapter 81 (technically it's chapter 83, but Lord Maximus says it's 81, so it must be 81) was just published. And now I must gush over how amazing it was.

-gushgushgushgushgushgushgush-

No spoilers for you!

[aelitaxwilliam]

^ I haven't, but I feel like I have heard a rec of it before. And that author has dedication. Eighty-one chapters? Wow. I really must read it someday after I somehow manage to finish my current reading.

Okay, this may be a rapid change of topic, but in general, what is an ideal chapter length. Going off the assumption that some forms of writing (drabbles specifically) have different 'acceptable' word counts, does anyone here have a specific target range they look for.

For instance, I don't read multi-chapter fics unless they have over 1,000 words per chapter, and even then that's the lowest possible word count. I'm not saying it's bad to have less, I just find that if you're going to bother to write a multichap I would rather you take the time to really develop it, and that is much harder with smaller chapters and so on. There are definite examples, of course (one of my favorite NCIS author never writes chapters longer than 1,000).

Of course, othere people's opinions may differ.

I think it all has to do with the story. In general, I prefer longer chapters, but there are authors who really make it work. Those authors tend to be the angsty, present-tense ones, and are fantastically fantastic at writing short, powerful chapters. I don't know how many words it would be (I'm thinking around three or four thousand?), but I like chapters that are about eight or so pages in MS Word.

For one-shots, there's a point (for me) in which a one-shot transforms from a nice little one-shot to a monster of a story. It varies from story to story, I think, though, so there's no word limit that I can define.

[Snickie]

Back on topic: I tend to like the longer chapters simply because I feel like it shows that the author is willing to take the time to really put in a lot of thought and expand on thoughts presented and go into details and things like that. My ideal chapter length is around 5-6k words, though I have been known to go over 7k in some of my chapters. The only problem with long chapters is that it's a bit easier to gloss over typos and some inconsistencies (the latter which can be avoided by use of detailed outlines and such, things which I'm trying to get used to using), which Lord Maximus does (typos especially). But otherwise, his chapters are a joy for me to read. THEY ARE SO INTENSE OMG. -gush-
CL: Fragmented Legacies does a great job too at being interesting and long enough for my tastes, and I'm pretty sure the author utilizes spell check just a little bit more than Lord Maximus. xD

As for my chapters, I try to contain what would be in an episode into one chapter. For me, it keeps the fanfic in a quality and pacing similar to that of the TV series. Chapters in which I will present new ideas (such as the introduction of my OC in chapter 1) will be longer in order to describe more details. After all, we don't have visual representations in a fanfic's wordy format (unless I decide to link to it, but I don't know how kindly FF.Net would take to that).

This is not to say that short-chaptered stories are horrible and the authors of those are careless or anything. Take Cyanide6's "The Other's Story". I think it's one of the best stories I've been reading for awhile now and, as I stated somewhere else, what made me curious enough to investigate XL in the first place. Her(?) chapters are just long enough that I'm entertained for a good five or ten minutes, short enough that s/he can publish them quickly and frequently, and well-written and well-thought-out. I absolutely love it. It makes me speculate as to what would have happened had those two groups actually gotten together: Jeremie's with the skills and Milly's with the information. The series would have probably been a lot shorter starting with season 2. It's an interesting dynamic.

[cya6]

Thanks Snickie! If I waited to publish a chapter until I got 5k words, I'd never update. I've got quite a lot of stories I'm working on (I'm up to 13 in-progress stories ), and the only way I can work through them is by writing short, 2-3k chapters at a time.

(Also, for a slightly ego stoking reason, the more chapters you get, the better chance you'll get reviews, so I tend to stick around shortish chapters )

An author I know has been having troubles getting reviews on her story, so her chapter lengths have gone below 1k words, because she wants people to see her story more. It's got a bunch of reviews, but they're mostly from me.

So that's another reason people might use shorter chapters. Short chapters=more chapters=more time on front page of fanfic.

But I tend to like 3-5k chapters.

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

I also think it depends on what you want to accomplish. For instance, I have an up and coming fic that is basically what I think Garage Kids should have been like. I want to do it sort of like a series so I'll have 26 chapters (for the 26 scheduled episodes), each one being around 7,800 words which is, on average, the amount of time it would take for one TV episode. I'm only on chapter one right now, though. It may seem a bit long, but since that's what I'm trying to accomplish I want to go for it.

I don't read stories if they go under 1k per chapter. Mostly because of the review thing, though like I said, one of my all-time favorite authors write super short chapters. But that's just her style of writing and I feel she's proven herself enought to do that.

Unless it's a drabble of course. I love drabbles, espeically 100 word ones, if that wasn't obvious enough.

[Soul Jelly]

I got a real kick out of this so I thought I'd share it. It's so bizarre I just keep looking at it and laughing.

Behold! The most constructive comment I've ever gotten.

Spoiler:

Anyone else ever received a review that made them think "seriously, why did you even bother?"

[AeonFrodo]

Quality review right there. I'm sure that person was thinking that you'll understand him.

[Stella Luce 333]

lol…Did you ask a question at the end? Maybe that was your answer…

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

not bad.

It wasn't for a CLFF, but it was especially sad because it was the only review I got.

For a CLFF, I got this little joy once.

i hate it im never reading your stories again

It makes me smile, because I just can't be offended by a pointless review where the reviewer doesn't realize that "I" has to be capitalized and "I'm" has an apostrophe. (It really does make me smile though, and I don't know why).

[cya6]

heh, hate flames. looking back, I can see how they're almost comical, cause they're so ridiculous, but back then I freaked out. I got three on one story, but eh, it wasn't exactly a popular idea. Basically, I get them on anything resembling an anti-OxA story.

[Guest]

I got a real kick out of this so I thought I'd share it. It's so bizarre I just keep looking at it and laughing.

Behold! The most constructive comment I've ever gotten.

Spoiler:

Anyone else ever received a review that made them think "seriously, why did you even bother?"

That was me. Not kidding.

[Atlas]

Actually no, that is impossible Legend.

There is a distinct lack of "U" in the comment to be sure it is you.

Were it from Legend, it would read "No U"

So...

No.

[cya6]

what?

[Guest]

Actually no, that is impossible Legend.

There is a distinct lack of "U" in the comment to be sure it is you.

Were it from Legend, it would read "No U"

So...

No.

lol that may be true. But I am serious, it was me.

[Snickie]

I discovered Aeon's fanfiction on dA, "Pretty Hate Machine". I'm not quite finished reading it yet (my dad made me get off the computer and go to bed because it is nearly 2am here), but I really like what I've read so far. I'm going to try to find it on FF.Net right now so I can finish reading.

[Soul Jelly]

@Legend - I never ever know if I'm supposed to take you seriously or not. So if it was you, I'm not even going to ask about your reasoning behind it. Thanks for the laugh though.

[Guest]

@Legend - I never ever know if I'm supposed to take you seriously or not

Makes two of us.

Laughter is the only thing that'll keep you sane
In this world that's dying more and more everyday
Don't let evil get you down
In this madness spinning round and round.

But there was a reason behind it. Maybe I should give a serious review.

[Soul Jelly]

@Legend - I never ever know if I'm supposed to take you seriously or not

Makes two of us.

Laughter is the only thing that'll keep you sane
In this world that's dying more and more everyday
Don't let evil get you down
In this madness spinning round and round.

The fact that I imagined you (you looking like your avatar in my mind) saying this with an extremely creepy monotone voice really just doesn't help things. O_o

And, don't feel obliged. I don't have much to say about it myself, either.

[cya6]

Glad I'm not the only person who pictures Legend like that

Internet's so strange, sometime have very strange pictures of people. (doesn't help that my mind's eye refuses to take the memo that you're a girl, Soul )

Does anyone here get problems with flamers? I've had one story that got, I think four.

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

Besides the one I posted, no. I think that in general, the CL fandom is a pretty nice bunch. I mean, you see a lot of people post "no flames please" in their summary, which would stand to reason they've gotten a flame (though in my opinion, that attracts even more flamers, and I have my doubts about stories where you have to post that). However, like any fandom, there are just the mean people at there.

Does this mean everybody imagines me as Bears, cows, butterflies, and on one occastion, the cooke monster?

[Sponsored content]