Long fics are LOOOONG. (And need editing)
Jun. 11th, 2025 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragoness_eSo far, every single fanfic longer than about 400K words has been in desperate need of editing. No, I am not including series whose cumulative word count is greater than that, because the smaller individual stories are usually fine. I am referring to single fics that weigh in at 500K or more.
If you are writing purely for self-indulgence, and don't care if no one else reads your fics or likes them, fine, this doesn't affect you. However, if you are writing for an audience that you hope will enjoy your fic, please look over your massive epic carefully. In my experience as a reader, the middles of such fics are often rambling, with the plot wandering in repetitive circles, or the main character having redundant character-development arcs, or otherwise slow and boring.
Less is more. Prune some of those plot branches; tighten up your character-development arcs. You don't need to show every minute of the main characters recovery from trauma, or falling in love, or having important epiphanies. You don't need to have the main ship characters having the same argument over and over--let them settle it the first or second time! Hit the highlights and key epiphanies of character-development arcs--don't grind them into the dirt with repetition. Move the plot along. Let stuff happen; keep the reader interested. Have an end point in mind, and stick the landing.
I have yet to see a single long story that couldn't have been told in 350K or so words, at most. If there are multiple major, long plot arcs, you might actually have multiple stories in a trench-coat, and should recast it as a series of stories. Otherwise, your story probably needs some editing and pruning; it's gotten leggy and tangled.
Just don't bore your reader, because that's more likely to lose them once they've started reading than missing content warnings or the wrong ship.
If you are writing purely for self-indulgence, and don't care if no one else reads your fics or likes them, fine, this doesn't affect you. However, if you are writing for an audience that you hope will enjoy your fic, please look over your massive epic carefully. In my experience as a reader, the middles of such fics are often rambling, with the plot wandering in repetitive circles, or the main character having redundant character-development arcs, or otherwise slow and boring.
Less is more. Prune some of those plot branches; tighten up your character-development arcs. You don't need to show every minute of the main characters recovery from trauma, or falling in love, or having important epiphanies. You don't need to have the main ship characters having the same argument over and over--let them settle it the first or second time! Hit the highlights and key epiphanies of character-development arcs--don't grind them into the dirt with repetition. Move the plot along. Let stuff happen; keep the reader interested. Have an end point in mind, and stick the landing.
I have yet to see a single long story that couldn't have been told in 350K or so words, at most. If there are multiple major, long plot arcs, you might actually have multiple stories in a trench-coat, and should recast it as a series of stories. Otherwise, your story probably needs some editing and pruning; it's gotten leggy and tangled.
Just don't bore your reader, because that's more likely to lose them once they've started reading than missing content warnings or the wrong ship.
