fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #710 ]

⌈ Secret Post #710 ⌋

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

101.

__________________________________________________

102.

__________________________________________________

103.

__________________________________________________

104.

__________________________________________________

105.

__________________________________________________

106.

__________________________________________________

107.

__________________________________________________

108.

__________________________________________________

109.

__________________________________________________

110.

__________________________________________________

111.

__________________________________________________

112.

__________________________________________________

113.

[Pushing Daisies]

__________________________________________________

114.

__________________________________________________

115. [repeat]

__________________________________________________

116.

__________________________________________________

117.

__________________________________________________

118.

__________________________________________________

119.

__________________________________________________

120.

__________________________________________________

121.

__________________________________________________

122.

__________________________________________________

123.

__________________________________________________

124.

__________________________________________________

125.

__________________________________________________

126.

__________________________________________________

127.

__________________________________________________

128.

__________________________________________________

129.

__________________________________________________

130.

__________________________________________________

131.

__________________________________________________

132.

__________________________________________________

133.

__________________________________________________

134.

__________________________________________________

135.

__________________________________________________

136.

__________________________________________________

137.

__________________________________________________

138.

__________________________________________________

139.

__________________________________________________

140.

__________________________________________________

141.

__________________________________________________

142.

__________________________________________________

143.

__________________________________________________

144.

__________________________________________________

145.

__________________________________________________

146.

__________________________________________________

147.

__________________________________________________

148.

__________________________________________________

149.

__________________________________________________

150.

__________________________________________________

151.

__________________________________________________

152.

__________________________________________________

153.

__________________________________________________

154.

__________________________________________________

155.

__________________________________________________

156.

__________________________________________________

157.

__________________________________________________

158.

__________________________________________________

159.

__________________________________________________

160.

__________________________________________________

161.

__________________________________________________

162.

__________________________________________________

163.

__________________________________________________

164.

__________________________________________________

165.

__________________________________________________

166.

__________________________________________________

167.

__________________________________________________

168.

__________________________________________________

169.

__________________________________________________

170.

__________________________________________________

171.

__________________________________________________

172.

__________________________________________________

173.

[World of Warcraft]

__________________________________________________

174.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 14 pages, 330 secrets from Secret Submission Post #102.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 2 3 4 - not!secrets ], [ 1 2 3 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Somebody should've told Ernest Hemingway he was untalented and couldn't write anything longer and should stop being lazy. My god, why couldn't he have expounded on that? It totally needs a much bigger story in order to get its points and emotions across.

Seriously, why the hell do drabbles "need" to be part of some longer story now? If I have a stories to write that involves longer scenes, or several scenes, or more than I can fit in a few hundred words, I will, can, and have written "full prose pieces" for them. If a story is done after a hundred words, or two hundred, or three hundred, and there is nothing more to say (without making it a completely different story -- not the one I'm setting out to tell -- though it could be expanded into something much longer just like any story could), why should I keep going with it just because it's not "a real story~" since it's only a page long?

Somebody should've told Ernest Hemingway he was untalented...
You know my pain when I was in high school, you knew.

Although Farewell to Arms was alright, only thing I liked from the guy.

I haven't actually read much by him, but I think he's really a love-or-hate writer, from what I've heard. XD; Really, it's just. I'm flabbergasted by the opinion that drabbles are written "only" by lazy and untalented people who can't write anything longer, when that's the most famous example of it not being the case. Just because someone enjoys the drabble form doesn't mean they can't write anything longer -- just that they know what story they want to tell, and if it's a long one they'll write it that way, but if it's short and finished, they'll stop at the end.

I don't entirely agree with the OP nor the person before me, but I think there is something to say about that Hemingway example, and that is, Hemingway didn't make a career out of writing shorts. He was certainly capable of it, but he extended his scope and showed range in his ability; the fact that he could write something wonderful and short showed that he was a brilliant writer, but it was definitely not the only reason.

And that could go the same way for a lot of people. Obviously people's strengths lie in different areas, and it is entirely possible that a particular writer is more adept at writing short pieces than longer ones. But in fandom, where most of the writers are still quite frankly amateurs still looking for their strengths, over-dependence on one-scene stories can sometimes be a sign of laziness, and an unwillingness to put effort into exploring other ways of writing. Fanfiction is supposed to for fun, a hobby, so it makes sense that something that takes relatively less time would be more suitable to the writers' need and therefore preferable. This doesn't apply to everyone, but I'm willing to bet it's true in a good number of cases. Even someone who is good at drabbles should try their hand at longer pieces at some point, and vice versa, if they're serious about becoming better writers. You can't really use the excuse that you're not good at something and therefore won't write it unless you really know that for sure.

Incidentally, I think someone who can make a name out of writing actual, proper drabbles (100 words exactly) is quite talented and should definitely keep doing it, because the thing about writing a true drabble is that it's not so much an exercise in writing as a challenge. Writing a drabble is damn hard, to say nothing of a good drabble; to be honest, the stories I see labeled as drabbles in fandom these days are more often than not failed drabbles, and that does nothing but lower people's opinions of shorter fiction.

See, that, I totally agree with. Really, my whole point about the Hemingway example was the idea that the ONLY people who write drabbles are those who are too lazy and are incapable of writing anything longer. That's not the case -- I know people who do both, and most people I know who write drabbles do longer stuff on occasion.

The thing with fanfiction of any kind, though, is that I mostly take it as "for fun." You really do have some awesome points here, but I think it also discounts the fact that... a lot of people who write drabbles are just uninterested in writing longer stuff, and if they're just doing it for fun and not necessarily improving their writing skills, they actually don't have any good reason to try anything longer if they don't feel like it. It might be cool for them to do so, because they might find that they like it, but there's not any sort of reason they should do this.

I will say that crap stories are crap and make me sad inside. :c But I also see this as the "FANFICTION IS CRAP" debate, partly -- a fair few people who hate fanfiction don't take into account that quite a few fanfic writers probably aren't interested in becoming professional writers. Therefore, the "you're just wasting your time if you don't write your own original stuff, you'll never get anywhere writing fanfiction!" argument is a really, really weird one to me. The idea that people who're only into writing short little fics, drabbles or not, because they like them and find them more fun than doing longer stuff, are somehow lazy and untalented because they don't bother to do something they have no reason to do and don't feel like doing, and feel the story that they want to tell is finished when it's still very short, is a ridiculous one to me.

That's really the problem I have with the OP and the people saying that all drabbles/short fics are for lazy people, though. You make awesome points, and pretty much have managed to describe why I started trying shorter stuff in the first place -- I love doing longer stories, but I saw the short ones and have been getting over my inclination to tl;dr ever since, because I have fun with this style too. c:

The problem with 149 is that they're blaming this form of writing for the attitude of a certain group of people who just happen to enjoy monopolizing said form. Yes, drabbles are short and therefore those who do not wish to spend excessive amounts of time writing are naturally attracted to them. That's not the fault of the drabbles, it's just the way it is. It's not even that these people are lazy writers, but - as you say - they might just be unserious writers, looking to have a bit of fun with fandom friends. It certainly doesn't mean that everyone who writes shorts is a lazy sod, and that there's no such thing as a great short piece of fiction.

Somebody should've told Ernest Hemingway he was untalented and couldn't write anything longer and should stop being lazy.

I would have. :)

HE'D SHOOT YOUUUUUU

No, really, my only point is that saying the only people who write drabbles are the ones who are too lazy and unable to write longer fics is kind of weird, seeing as how most people I know in fandom write both pretty regularly.

[ SECRET POST #710 ]

Re: 149

Re: 149

Re: 149

Re: 149

Re: 149 AND THOUGH I DEFEND DRABBLES YOU SEE I FAIL AT THEM

Re: 149 AND THOUGH I DEFEND DRABBLES YOU SEE I FAIL AT THEM

Re: 149

/lol different rp journal