Resisting the long-fic temptation
Resisting the long-fic temptation
Does anyone else have to resist the urge to turn every idea they have for a story/setting into a long-fic? Do you succeed & if you do, how?
When I started writing fanfic last year, I very foolishly allowed my teeny little idea to balloon into a series of 2 stories that's now 50-odd chapters & will probably be another dozen before I'm finished with it. I didn't mean to, the damn thing just got away from me!
In the meantime, I've started drafting an outline for a 3rd story in the series that I really want to write (must finish story #2 first!), I've written another multi-chapter story (having 1 on the go simply isn't good enough). Oh & I've written 1 single solitary one-shot (that I am half-tempted to add a sequel to just for the hell of it).
It's like not wanting to see your favourite TV show end even though you know it peaked 3 seasons back & it's all downhill from here. Halp! 🫠
When I get the urge to write longer fic, I try to break it out into smaller fics that I can complete over time. This has worked best for me not just in terms of completion, but also in terms of enjoyment. Once I start a fic, I am eager to see it through. The longer that takes, the more stressful it becomes until updating actively feels like a chore.
I think my brain is just wired to respond well to the feeling of completion, so when where I struggle to get past chapter 5 on my longer fic, I will write out 10-15 shorter fics in rapid succession without issue and with unusual focus. XD
🤦♂️ After all my "I am doomed to only write long-fics", inspiration struck last night for a new one-shot & I managed to draft half of it today. 😂 Looking forward to finishing it & maybe getting it out into the world over the next few weeks.
Excellent!
Somewhere in my 20s I became semi-aware of my addiction to create long stories vs my attention span to create them. In some ways I'm luckier than other neurodivergent people because while my brain hops to different characters and plots, the main themes are the same so what I managed to develop in one story can be borrowed for a faster foundation in another. Even luckier, my brain eventually cycles back to the older passions. So as long as I title, label and organize my notes well enough I can return to chip away at decades old WIPs.
4ish years ago I had a bit of a breakthrough (though I didn't realise I was doing it at the time). In editing one of my oldest projects down into something I could possibly see an ending come out, those cut scenes with tweaks became oneshots. All of these oneshots are also connected together with the same main themes, world and setting thus I made an anthology! This anthology has 15 stories completed thus far.
Other Notes:
- Keep reminding myself the best stories are the ones you wished kept going.
- It's ok to daydream beyond a finished project. It's ok for daydreams to stay daydreams.
- We get a lot of practice starting projects but very little practice with finishing projects. Because of the nature of story design, we honestly cannot get that practice in any other way.
- The more you practice trying to tell stories, the better you get at judging which ideas are more fun as daydreams and which ones are going to be the fun challenge of being fully realised.
It's ok to daydream beyond a finished project. It's ok for daydreams to stay daydreams.
I love this perspective! ❤️ Really great advice (almost wrote that as "greally" & I'm like "that's not a word but it should be" 😂).
At the moment, I'm kind of balancing my cycling attention to my special interests (like you, I can drop them & then return) to my intense desire to get projects finished (especially this one because it would be a good writing experience to finish it conclusively) to my fear that this relatively new interest in writing is something I might never come back to if I drop it. I'm really enjoying it so I feel it would be a pity to let it wither without a fight to keep it going.
Maybe I just need to embrace the daydream aspect a bit more & trust that the urge won't abandon me once I've finished with this story regardless of how much other stuff tries to pull me away from it.
Yeah, forcing projects to stay small has been the only way I've consistently finished things. That said, those I know who do huge projects and don't have issues with staying on subject also struggle with finishing. Its a huge time investment. Professional writers spend easily between 3-5 years to finish their 50k novel. And that's their job. Its unfair for newcomers, hobbyists and other passionate story tellers to get mad at themselves for not having an output faster than that!
Good to hear you brain allows you too to cycle back to your original interests! But yeah, its ok for many ideas to stay in the brain. As you continue your practise you'll start seeing what your artstyle/writing voice is. It's not just the themes/subject matters you love to tell, its also what is easy for your brain to write about. And sometimes that's not always in common with things we like lol.
Fandom or original, I always had a hell of a time writing anything short. I would outline a short story and it would still turn into a monster in my hands.
As of late, I practice with prompts. I have written a lot of short pieces, from drabbles to longer 10k oneshots--all with the intent of practicing shorter pieces. It can be a lot of fun, practicing with a single scene or moment.
(Ignore the one story I'm almost done with which is over 200k and the other series which is seven parts in and over 400k.)
In the end, it's not a big deal. I did this because I wanted to practice writing shorter works. Some people only do longform, some only short, and if you're happy with it? Don't let it bother you! I love media with a lot of facets. Sure, some of them went downhill at some point, but that's not the case with all. And the point is to have fun. So don't make comparisons with that unless you really think your story stopped being fun and you've been forcing yourself to write anyway. That's really the only way a fanfic can peak (if the object is to write for yourself, of course).
Funnily enough, I'm kind of "forcing" myself to write in order to finish my current long-fic but not in a sense that I've lost interest in it. I was really lucky for the 6 months or so after I first started it last year that my life was really stress-free. That's flipped in the past few months & lo & behold, it turns out I'm a delicate little flower who struggles to write when I've got other boring adulting stuff on my mind. But writing it has been such a good escape from that crap that it's worth forcing in my opinion & pushes me to carve out a few hours for it every week.
I found a cute little trick a couple of weeks ago where I embedded a short story into my long-fic for a couple of chapters (basically a role playing game with the POV from the characters inside the game). Not sure if my readers care for it or not but it was great from a writing perspective & I knocked out 3 whole chapters in a week! I'm starting to wonder if that just means I should take on more short-fics or one-shots when I find myself stressed as they're more self-contained & easier to initiate & wrap up to my satisfaction. 🤷♂️ But then again, I really want to get this long-fic done too. Agh, not enough time in the day!
I often force myself to write too. I enjoy making stories enough that creating a habit to push through even when I don’t want to is important to me. I also wanted to be a professional author, so I taught myself tricks of the trade like it was going to be a job.
Doesn’t work for everyone, but it helps me complete stories. And the feeling of completion is worth it.
I love perspective shifts like that! Of course, I also love tabletop. Seeing the perspective of a character another character has created? chef’s kiss
I have a bad track record with finishing chaptered stories. (Yet here I am writing my first long fic in a while 😅)
I do have more oneshots just because I'm aware of my bad habits. I think the trick is that I ignore word count and just use dividers. I have "oneshots" that are more than 10,000 words that I refuse to split up, even though the reading sweet spot for me is 2-7k words. By ignoring word count, I can contain my stories into their little buckets, instead of investing in a larger bucket which I will them have to make more content to fill.
I've also been doing a lot of character studies. More introspective works that don't need to be plot heavy. It also helps that ao3 has a series function. So when I do end up thinking of an update I just pretend it's the second part of a series and write accordingly.
I love doing character studies. Even my shipping stories tend to be more about studying one or both of the characters or diving into how friends act/react to the relationship. I love me my friendships.
Have to agree with ignoring word count. Though in my case, it's more that I can never judge how long anything might be. The only times I have ever been good with that is when I'm doing writing practice and the point is only to write X amount of words. Otherwise? Word count matters not.
Hmmm... I don't know if I'd consider my stuff to be character studies but they're definitely not plot heavy, & I'm trying to keep my current long-fic vaguely realistic, which means nothing much extraordinary happens (as is the case for most people's real lives). I do love a good character study as a reader & as a writer, I love getting into characters' heads & trying to find their voice whether they're canon or OCs. So, yeah a good long character study will probably keep me enthralled more than a plot-heavy story of the same length.
I'll be the first to admit I'm not good at writing low word count pieces. I like crafting sentences & paragraphs so that they're pleasing to my inner ear. For me, that tends to be run-on sentences & a lot of imagery. That may not be everyone's cup of tea but I like it.