[ SECRET POST #3954 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3954 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 33 secrets from Secret Submission Post #566.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/dcN1xH2.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Long-form fic? In character? That more readers than two bored teenagers in New Zealand and Nova Scotia respectively will bother to read? That is hard. Good for you, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

A good, plotty fic is a treasure, but not all stories need to be mukri chapter, IMO. It's like how sometimes you only need a tasty snack as opposed to a five course meal.

[(Anonymous)]

Exactly this. What's long by OP's standards anyway? 10k? 20k?

[(Anonymous)]

Unfortunately, I've noticed fewer and fewer plotty fics across all the fandoms I've dipped my toes in. People are more likely to get a bigger response if they frequently post a lot of short fics, so they seem less and less inclined to write longfic.

[(Anonymous)]

I kind of know what you mean but I find really long fics (like >100k words) tend to be lower quality. There's a sweet spot of around 20k words that I consider ideal. Most in my fandom is either too long or too short.

[nightscale]

I don't have a word-count ideal, but I only tend to read complete works these days.

As for lack of plotty fic personally I think it's because it's harder to write(and I envy people who can because I find it hard), I treasure every one I come across in my fandoms but I don't expect to find many and I'm fine with that.

[(Anonymous)]

I totally get it OP. Sometimes you just want to read instead of write. But I agree that good, plotty fic in the newer fandoms is hard to come by.

[agirlnamedtruth]

I won’t lie, I only skim read the secret (which hilariously proves what I’m going to say) so this might be OT but it’s been so long since I had time to read longfic (or a book, tbh), that I don’t have the attention span for it anymore. I draw the line at about 5k for reading. As for writing, I tended to only write longer fics for big bangs because of the sense of challenge and community, and since fandom is mostly dead these days, there’s no real motivation to write longer fics. Though to be honest, I’m not sure how much my view counts as I never was big into longfics but I thought my thoughts might be one possible explanation for why there is less longfic about and less demand for it.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I'd say that the more people there are who can't be bothered to read or give feedback on longer fics, the less we authors feel like posting them.

So thanks to people like you, I am now using the time I used to use writing fanfic on something actually worthwhile. Don't worry, though, there's still plenty of short shit out there to read on your phone during your 15 minute breaks at McDonald's.

[agirlnamedtruth]

The hilarious thing is i typed out a really long reply to this and then my phone died and I lost it all. Clearly I should stop reading fic on it~

I won’t bother retyping the sarcastic reply to why I should quit my paying job to read your fic and stroke your ego, despite my need to eat and pay my rent. I’m sure given your comment, you can imagine some suitably heavy handed attempt at wit. Though please do take a moment to realise if your only concern in the world is that people have more important things to do than read your fics, be grateful. I would love to fourteen again. Don’t grow up, it’s a trap.

What I will retype though is that yes, I work for a living and yes, I do get fifteen minute breaks where if I want to read fics, I have to do it on my phone. So for me to do that instead of eating, your fic better be damn good and I better be able to read it in 15 minutes because if I do that, I go seven+ hours without eating. And please, as if I have time to go to McDonalds in that time, I would kill for time to eat a full meal. If the choice was hot food vs your fic, you don’t stand a chance, even if you think you’re the next EL James.

The other thing I’ll type out again is; if it’s MY PERSONAL FAULT that nobody reads your fics, why don’t you unanon and stand by them? We’ll see if we actually share any fandoms, any ships or any common interests that would give me a reason to be reading your fics and perhaps I can give you some more specific feedback about why I opted to eat my lunch instead.I actually spent a good part of my day off today going though an RSS feed of ~120,000 fics that I’ve been trying to find the time to read for the last 11 months, to find some good fic because the comment I made upthread made me want to read some good longer fics and you seem pretty convinced that your fics are Sliced Bread II and that my not reading them is a big deal to you. Let’s see see what I’m missing out on so that I can eat my damn lunch in peace. I dare you.

The silver lining to all this is, next time I have a McDonald’s, I will think of you, sitting there fuming that someone that you don’t know on the internet isn’t reading your fics. It’s just a shame that because of health regulations in my country, the fries aren’t as quite as salty.

[(Anonymous)]

DA but all of the above. Long and plotty =/= quality and if the fic doesn't pique my interest (or at least make me think 'okay this is the fic I will read during my free time') then I won't read it. Sometimes I find a writer who does good short one-shots and who also writes long fic; I will read the long fic because I already know that I enjoy what that writer does. But no one's got all the time in the world and we have jobs, so what.

[agirlnamedtruth]

Yep, all perfectly reasonable reasons not to read a fic. At the end of the day, fandom is a hobby and while I love it, I’m not about to put it above my real life commitments and I’m not expecting anyone else to either because that’s ridiculous.

From the sounds of it, I think anon above wrote something long and expected more than they got back. I’m guessing they thought they would get hundreds of thousands of hits and gushing reviews and then for whatever reason, nobody read their fic and they’ve taken it very personally. Sometimes it’s easier to go “wah, it’s all your fault nobody read my fic” than admit there might be a reason why. I know after 50 Shades of Grey, there was a rush of teenagers that thought all they had to do was write 100k and a publisher would see it and fall in love with it, giving them a movie deal and making them a millionaire. And then it doesn’t happen and they start throwing out wild accusations about why you’re homophobic if you don’t read and promote their slash fic or if it’s het, you’re a misogynist and if it’s femslash, you’re both! But they don’t believe that maybe it’s just not that good 🤷🏻‍♀️

But the thing is, and I don’t know if it’s just me and I’m the weird one, but I write because I enjoy writing. I don’t care how many hits I get. Once it’s out in the world, anyone that likes it is a bonus not something I feel entitled to. I understand needing validation, especially when you’ve worked really hard on something but it’s just never been something that I felt personally about when it comes to fandom. I get my sense of achievement from writing it. I couldn’t imagine throwing my hands up and giving up something I liked doing just because it wasn’t an instant gratification machine.

[(Anonymous)]

And as a person who writes long fic, I don't care if two people and a shoestring leave feedback. Any feedback is good. Kudos are great too.

But at the end of the day I know I'll probably reach out to five people who want the sort of plotty fics that I write. And I'm glad to have reached out to those five people. You know?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not a writer myself, but I read a lot. I choose my fics according to the time I have available, so I read everything from the 100 words drabble to the 1 million words series of multichapter stories.

Long fic doesn't necessarily mean plot and quality.

[(Anonymous)]

I do write as well as read, and I agree with every word of this post.

[(Anonymous)]

Neither does length preclude plot and quality.

[(Anonymous)]

I was going to ask you where the secret stash of plotty Supernatural fics was, but then I realized that you might not be talking about what I'm talking about (gen case fics).

Of course, I'd be happy with even short case fics, as long as they were actually about the case and not just an excuse for Dean to realize his "true feelings" for either Sam or Castiel.

[agirlnamedtruth]

I don’t know if it’s still going but there used to be a Big Bang for case fic (not exclusively gen though). I think it was called case_story or something like that. There might be some good long case fics in their masterlists if you’re still after some :)