fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2433 ]

[ SECRET POST #2433 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2433 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 073 secrets from Secret Submission Post #348.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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Okay!

So i'm writing a bigbang. It is character a/character b. It's currently over 10,000 words, and they haven't met yet. At all.

So - would you, as a reader, be bored and annoyed by this? Or would you, as a reader, look forward after all this story to them actually meeting and bonding and sexing?

The latter option, minus the sexing (because I'm weird like that).

Heee. Thanks.

I am a big ridiculous fan of pining and angsting and in that regard I enjoy the anticipation so much the happy ending is usually anti-climatically relieving?

I can't think of an example of something I've read similar to what you're describing but in theory if the story is engaging enough or I'm invested enough in at least one of the characters I can see myself enjoying the torturous wait for them to meet.

Oh wait, no. I lied. I can think of a cliche I love that resembles what you're describing. The TiMEResque AU's where people are born with some kind of countdown/tattoo to finding their soulmate, etc. I love those! So I'm going with the second option. :)

Edited 2013-09-01 00:13 (UTC)

Heee.

Well, they don't even know *about* each other, much less care, until they actually meet....

*I* think the story is engaging but, you know...i kind of have to?
*crosses fingers*

It would depend what that 10,000 words consists of. It seems like a long while to wait until they actually even meet for the first time. My first assumption on reading this is that it's probably a lot of exposition that could be woven into the story when or after they meet. But as I say, that's just an assumption, and it's hard to give a definitive opinion without knowing what you've done in those 10,000 words.

It's not exposition, it's...here is this person's life for a bit and how it suddenly and violently changes. Said change being the only way character a would meet character b.

Is it backstory? Because backstory could conceivably be that long and still be interesting, so long as things are happening.

That said, unless you're planning for your big bang to be like 50K, the story could be pretty unbalanced. A long build up followed by instant!romance is what some of those stories usually end up looking like, and it's jarring (and annoying.)

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

tabaqui - 2013-09-01 01:36 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

(Anonymous) - 2013-09-01 01:40 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

tabaqui - 2013-09-01 01:41 (UTC) - Expand

Wouldn't be an issue for me either way, honestly.

Cool. :)

depends on what you did with those 10k words and what the readers are after, I guess

some just want to read smut, others are in for the narrative

Yeah. Considering it's a big bang, i'd *hope* the readers are in it for the narrative....

Probably annoyed if the central point of the story was romance. If the romance is incidental and there's a bigger plot to fill those 10k words then I don't mind.

But I'm extremely picky about romance, so :B

I don't know if this is romance, per se. I mean - yes, they end up together, but it's certainly not a priority in the character's lives....?

Is it a priority in the plot, though? That would make the difference for me, but it really does depend on what happened in those 10k words.

But if you're feelin' it, you're feelin' it, so keep on writing.

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

tabaqui - 2013-09-01 03:56 (UTC) - Expand

I'd be bored. I can read 200,000 words of epic interaction and not care if the sex never happens, but if they haven't met 10,000 words in, I'd be mostly wondering if you'd mislabeled your story.

Yeah, and that's a concern. I just don't know that cutting the first bit short would be *better*.

*hands*

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

(Anonymous) - 2013-09-01 01:41 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

tabaqui - 2013-09-01 01:48 (UTC) - Expand

If I was reading it for the porn, frankly, I would just skip ahead to the fucking. And if I was reading it because I was interested in the story, I would be happy there were more words.

So no, there is no possible way it would bore or annoy me.

Heeeeee!

If it was a fic I'd requested about a specific pairing? I'd probably be annoyed, unless there was some interaction between them [I'm not sure if you include online stuff as 'met' or not] because I wanted to read a fic about the pairing, not "The entire story of A's life that happens to include B in there somewhere. Maybe." which is exactly what it would feel like to me.

tl;dr: Yes, because giving the entire back story of one character makes the story about that character, not about the pairing...and that's...well. That's also kind of clumsy writing.

Definitely not a request fic, its for a big bang. Backstory of the other character would be included, too.

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

(Anonymous) - 2013-09-01 07:39 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

tabaqui - 2013-09-01 15:00 (UTC) - Expand

As long as something interesting is actually happening in that 10K words, don't see the problem.

However, if it's 10K words of the characters sitting around emo-ing over how alone and lonely they are *fainting couch*, not so much.

But I've read your some of your stuff and I don't think that's likely to be a problem. :)

Heee! No, no fainting couches and no emo. And a lot of action, actually, that gives the reader a window into how this character came to be what they are, and why, and how being forcefully removed from what was one of the few places they could function really screwed them over.

I like a slow build in stories, but it also depends on what happens in the story until they actually meet. If it actively feels like the author is stalling and there isn't actually a lot of plot to fill all that space, I grow bored and would probably think twice about continuing to read it.

It's actual plot, showing the hows and whys of a character and giving a solid background so that you *get* why they are as they are later.

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

(Anonymous) - 2013-09-01 15:19 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Question for the hive mind.....

tabaqui - 2013-09-01 15:34 (UTC) - Expand

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