The Art of Longfic, or Lack Thereof
Nov. 16th, 2012 06:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljwritesSo you may be aware that the majority of fanfic is fairly short. In my comment to unjapanologist's journal I estimated that maybe 1% (and probably less) of Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfics on FanFiction.Net are finished stories of novel length.
This is a simple observation, not a knock on fanfic. The fascinating thing about fanfic, and what I love about it, is how much oomph you can get out of a few words. Because the text effectively attaches to a longer work, a 500-word ATLA fanfic is in reality much longer than 500 words. You have three seasons of the show, established characters, themes and situations that lend themselves to the characterization, meaning, and resonance of that short little 500-word story.
In the end, most fanfic stories are short because they don't have to be long to be effective. This is a great democratization of the art of fiction, because people can write stories with substance without investing too much time and energy.
However, it's just as true that different stories require different lengths. A one-shot might be enough to explore one aspect of a character or the world, or a single event, but bigger stories with more development that change the world and characters in significant ways may need to be at least novella-length or even novel-length to do the job.
Here's where even talented writers often have a hard time. I have seen so many writers of excellent short stories struggle with longer fics, mostly because writing a novel or even a novella is ridiculously difficult and requires a great number of different skills. There's characterization, plot, the writing skill to get the character and plot developments across, structure, coherence, pacing, and more.
A lot of fanfic authors have great skill at characterization, writing, and also plot when sustained for a short while, but have trouble with structuring a novel-length story and sustaining its rhythm and tension to the end. And really, that's only to be expected because these are rare skills and those who have learned them are ready to go pro anyway.
As discussed above, I'm not sure this is really a problem. Fanfic provides creative ways to tell a workable story without being a novelist, and part of its appeal is that amateurs can not only play it but kill it. On the other hand I do mourn the dearth of good long stories, especially since writing one is such valuable training for those who want to be commercially published or have a story waiting to get out that is too big for a short story or even a series of short stories.
I've struggled with long stories myself, and I still do. In addition to the usual one-shots I've tried my hand three times at writing novella- or novel-length fics, the first for Harry Potter. That one was a partial success, since I did have an ending, though as so often happens I really meant to have a longer story but finished the first part and called it the end, because I didn't have the energy or skill to continue.
The second attempt, The Fall for Final Fantasy VIII, is your run-of-the-mill unfinished chaptered fic. I keep meaning to finish it, and one day I might, but whenever I start working on the last couple of chapters I hit a wall because it rings so false and I didn't lay some of the necessary groundwork in the prior chapters.
The third attempt, Shadow of the Dragon King, was the charm for me. Updates on FF.N are still ongoing, but I finished the main body of it this summer. Now I'm hashing out the edits, the rewrites, and the "what-the-hell-was-I-thinking"s. Writing it was astoundingly hard, but also a tremendous learning experience. And now that I've done it once I have confidence I can do it again, another great thing writing a longfic can do for a writer. Not that I expect subsequent times to be easier, but at least I know it's possible.
Those are my observations and experiences with long fanfic. What's yours?
unjapanologist's journal I estimated that maybe 1% (and probably less) of Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfics on FanFiction.Net are finished stories of novel length.This is a simple observation, not a knock on fanfic. The fascinating thing about fanfic, and what I love about it, is how much oomph you can get out of a few words. Because the text effectively attaches to a longer work, a 500-word ATLA fanfic is in reality much longer than 500 words. You have three seasons of the show, established characters, themes and situations that lend themselves to the characterization, meaning, and resonance of that short little 500-word story.
In the end, most fanfic stories are short because they don't have to be long to be effective. This is a great democratization of the art of fiction, because people can write stories with substance without investing too much time and energy.
However, it's just as true that different stories require different lengths. A one-shot might be enough to explore one aspect of a character or the world, or a single event, but bigger stories with more development that change the world and characters in significant ways may need to be at least novella-length or even novel-length to do the job.
Here's where even talented writers often have a hard time. I have seen so many writers of excellent short stories struggle with longer fics, mostly because writing a novel or even a novella is ridiculously difficult and requires a great number of different skills. There's characterization, plot, the writing skill to get the character and plot developments across, structure, coherence, pacing, and more.
A lot of fanfic authors have great skill at characterization, writing, and also plot when sustained for a short while, but have trouble with structuring a novel-length story and sustaining its rhythm and tension to the end. And really, that's only to be expected because these are rare skills and those who have learned them are ready to go pro anyway.
As discussed above, I'm not sure this is really a problem. Fanfic provides creative ways to tell a workable story without being a novelist, and part of its appeal is that amateurs can not only play it but kill it. On the other hand I do mourn the dearth of good long stories, especially since writing one is such valuable training for those who want to be commercially published or have a story waiting to get out that is too big for a short story or even a series of short stories.
I've struggled with long stories myself, and I still do. In addition to the usual one-shots I've tried my hand three times at writing novella- or novel-length fics, the first for Harry Potter. That one was a partial success, since I did have an ending, though as so often happens I really meant to have a longer story but finished the first part and called it the end, because I didn't have the energy or skill to continue.
The second attempt, The Fall for Final Fantasy VIII, is your run-of-the-mill unfinished chaptered fic. I keep meaning to finish it, and one day I might, but whenever I start working on the last couple of chapters I hit a wall because it rings so false and I didn't lay some of the necessary groundwork in the prior chapters.
The third attempt, Shadow of the Dragon King, was the charm for me. Updates on FF.N are still ongoing, but I finished the main body of it this summer. Now I'm hashing out the edits, the rewrites, and the "what-the-hell-was-I-thinking"s. Writing it was astoundingly hard, but also a tremendous learning experience. And now that I've done it once I have confidence I can do it again, another great thing writing a longfic can do for a writer. Not that I expect subsequent times to be easier, but at least I know it's possible.
Those are my observations and experiences with long fanfic. What's yours?
