Fanfiction Lounge

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?
10-20 pages is the sweet spot. Any shorter and I don't feel there's enough going on to advance the plot (I've read some four-sentence chapters, or at least they would have been if it wasn't all one big run-on sentence.) On the other hand, I've seen 50+ page chapters, and I end up skimming them and BS-ing a review, if I review at all. Sometimes, I'll get up to 20 chapters, leave it and read something else (like old Buick sales brochures) or actually stop procrastinating and do homework for once in my sad, pathetic excuse for a life, then come back to it later.

My fic totaled 683 pages when I finished it up, 55 chapters plus a prologue - about 12 pages a chapter. I've been editing it, though, and the thing's already blown up to 714 pages XD

On a final note, I am absolutely terrified of Pokemon MASTER now. But alas, I must return to studying, so I bid y'all adieu.

 

[Giratina ♀]

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?

I honestly don't care about the length, as long as it's a good story. If you tried to stuff a sprawling epic into five chapters, though, that's a completely different story - no pun intended. (Heck, if I had a problem with chapters four or so pages long, I would hate my own fic! Writing long chapters is something I must be mentally incapable of doing, or something. O -O)

As for the second question, I don't really think chapters should surpass ten or eleven pages in length. Chapters were designed, after all, to give the reader periodic breaks to do whatever and then some, and come back and be able to identify where they left off. If the fic in question is thirty or so pages a chapter, then you're kind of missing the whole point of 'chapters' in the first place. (Plus if nothing is really happening I get bored...)

And I am now never going to read Pokemon MASTER. Ever. xD

 

[JX Valentine]

Last note, I might want to read Pokemon MASTER, but just for laughs. XD

To be honest, unless you're one of the groupies who buy everything you hear about a fic and assume it's great because other people think it's great or unless you're one of the people who think it's okay to throw out characterization because canon isn't cool, that's really the only way to read the fic. That and convincing yourself the entire cast isn't the bunch of canon characters you remember. Because, really, it's otherwise incredibly painful.

As for the second question, I don't really think chapters should surpass ten or eleven pages in length. Chapters were designed, after all, to give the reader periodic breaks to do whatever and then some, and come back and be able to identify where they left off. If the fic in question is thirty or so pages a chapter, then you're kind of missing the whole point of 'chapters' in the first place.

That's a pretty big jump there. What about chapters that are only twelve to twenty-five pages in length? Yeah, thirty pages tends to be insane, but the point of the question is to what people think the tolerance level before that break is needed (because, yes, the point of the chapter is to break the action for the reader) should be.

 

[Giratina ♀]

I haven't been writing (or reading, for that matter) long enough to be able to visualize how much text goes into a page, but unless I'm really sucked into the story and can resist the urge to gawk at the size of the scroll-bar, the page limit would probably be around fifteen pages. :\

 

[The Ebon Blade]

That's a pretty big jump there. What about chapters that are only twelve to twenty-five pages in length? Yeah, thirty pages tends to be insane, but the point of the question is to what people think the tolerance level before that break is needed (because, yes, the point of the chapter is to break the action for the reader) should be.

Then again, there are some really good books out there with epically long chapters. Take Heart of Darkness. They have chapters that are like 80 pages long. Now, there are only four chapters in the book if you include The Secret Sharer, but still.

However, my chapters are only seven pages long.

 

[Artemis]

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?

hmm, to be honest I don't think I can read a UBER long fic unless it is really interesting. I have been reading two fics so far that are semi long and I can pretty much tolerate it...I don't judge by size I guess, just as long as it all appeals to me for the most part.

 

[Swift!]

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?

I cannot read anything with chapters less than 3 pages long or chapters over 10 pages.
I like chapters that are lengthly enough for me to be drawn in, but not so long that I get bored while reading them.
A good length for me is 5 or 6 pages.

 

[ANARCHit3cht]

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?

I like 'em 3+ but well as long as it isn't an insanely high number like 900(or 30) then I 'll read them.

 

[Bay]

To be honest, unless you're one of the groupies who buy everything you hear about a fic and assume it's great because other people think it's great or unless you're one of the people who think it's okay to throw out characterization because canon isn't cool, that's really the only way to read the fic. That and convincing yourself the entire cast isn't the bunch of canon characters you remember. Because, really, it's otherwise incredibly painful.

But trainwrecks can be fun sometimes. XD; *gets shot* Okay, reading it just for laughs is rude. -_-

I can think of it this way, though. I can read it to learn a thing or two on how to not write a darkfic. For instance, Farla's "Lucki." Although it was a bit uneasy reading it, I managed to pull through by convincing myself how is the main character a Sue and how I can prevent that.

I'm going to remind myself to have Thesis' guide with me when reading the story. ^^;

 

[JX Valentine]

But trainwrecks can be fun sometimes. XD; *gets shot* Okay, reading it just for laughs is rude. -_-

Only if they know that you're just reading it for laughs. ;D

Okay, seriously, yeah, but mostly, it's unnecessary masochism. (Which totally explains why I'm running an MST thread here, but.)

To be perfectly honest, characterization and science aside, Acey knew how to set up a tone, so in a sense, it's possible to take something away from his fic that isn't just how not to do something. But yeah, it's also a great example of what not to do in fanfiction in general, what with the WTF-worthy logic and all. (I'm just waiting for an explanation behind how Ash gained superpowers.)

Personally, I'm just reading it because I've decided I might as well read one of the most famous Pokémon fanfics some time, you know?

...Lucki, at least, was meant to be a satire. ;_;

 

[Bay]

I know Lucki's a satire and I thought Farla did that story very, very well. It's just that Lucki got on my nerves sometimes. XD; I guess that's what Gary and Mary Sues are supposed to do to you. XD

 

[bobandbill]

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?

No, not really, I suppose. But I also tend to take way longer reading the longer fics than new ones. -_- Also depends how much time I have as well, I suppose.

As for a maximum page limit... well, none, as long as I still have time and the story remains interesting enough. Depends on the story for me, really. Some differ from others.

 

[. R e ð e m p † i o n]

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?

No. It depends if the story I am reading is interesting, then I'm willing to read even the ten-paged fic.

As for the limit, none. It all depends under the right circumstances. The more interesting it gets, the more hooked I'll get.

 

[The Ebon Blade]

Do you write sequels to your fan fictions?

I might, my current fic, probably not. However, what I'm thinking about for my next fic might have a sequel... and possibly even a trilogy. (If I can keep my attention that long)

 

[Grovyle42(Griff8416)]

Hmm, no wonder people here aren't reading my fic... if they think 10 pages is a lot :p...

Do you write sequels to your fan fictions?

I've never finished a story yet, but given my dislike for endings, I probably will.

 

[Venia Silente]

Wow, again, I have slept and the world's clock (now powered by Obama) has run amok!

OK, let's see...

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?

Be honest... mmm.... tha question strikes close to home. If I find a chapter that is 4 pages long (which I would assume would amount to 3K words, tops), I'd rather read it at once (calmly, if I have the time), that wait until later and do the same. But if I am given the choice between a 4 pages chapter and a 10 pages chapter, I usually stick with the 10 pages chapter, but by pieces, treating it as a story by itself and reading about 3 or 4 pages a time.

Amount of Pages is nos something that would detract me from following a story, so the second part of the question I would pretty much answer that it would be near 25 pages anyways (because it would make me spend too much time "sectioning" and rolling back my reading). What makes me go to shorter readings is usually when for a large number of chapters there seems to be no iconic plot advancement. Not that the plot does not advance at all, but that it does very smoothly, without something that calls out for attention and clearly marks a before and an after. Something like a major, epic battle, a major character's death, a really unforeseen plot twist, or a kind of event that redefines the premise of the story itself (as happens in most RPGs where one starts as a minor thief or just trying to locate a missing person back in time, and then BAM! one just happend to land in the future with information about the horrible creature that has been feeding from the lifeforce of the planet for 65.002 millions of years).

Of course, I am not exempt of such limits n my stories myself. There is a chapter in Scalar that I'd rather never read (or write) again, because it was so slow and inconsequential, that I had to give it a character cameo to make it a bit more interesting. But that chapter had to be written because I needed a particular hook for the main character's development which couldn't be achieved in another way without going too OOC, given the nature of the story I am writing. But I know that most people will just skip to the next chapter once they reach the fifth paraagraph (and miss the cameo).

That's why I now section my chapters myself, too, and in the most clear and obvious way possible, so as to provide clear "reading hooks".

Do you write sequels to your fan fictions?

Oh Yes I Do!

I am doing it now, in fact, sort of. I'm publishing a spin-off story before publishing the parent series. Mostly because the I wanted to spinoff that portion of the story to better test my actual abilities, that, and the original story is quite long.

Going back to the discussion...


I wouldn't say 10 pages is too long, Grovyle42, although I understand why some people would think that. And I wouldn't say people doesn't read your fics, as I wouldn't say people doesn't read mines. Your chaptered one, for example (Never in the Wrong Time or Wrong Place) has OVER 9,000 READS!!!!!, and an average of about 6800 words‑per‑chapter, the longest (and latest) being over 8000 words... Your oneshot (Victory or Death, which I enjoyed reading) has about 100 reads, and is at least 7,000 words long. So don't be sad ;) --- Even my fanfic, which seems to go unnoticed, has about 300 reads somehow, and it's average 5000 words‑per‑chapter... the exact same trend with the other multichaptereds I'm writing back at FF.net... it's just noone darn comments about them, except the ocasional "I liek it, write moar"... but that's my rant, mine, mine---! my PRECIOUS!!!!!

But, uh, anyways... what I mean is people reads them. They don't seem to abandons a fic because the chapters are X pages long or so. Maybe 20 pages would be actually thought of as excessive, but that is more from limitations of the media (reading in a computer screen is not very nice in the long term, even when one can stop at any point and come back later) --- even the longest fics become more accesible and enjoyable readings if in printed form.

I would say, given the fics I've read here and at Serebii.net, that 10 pages (about 6K words in my OOo) is the usual or preferred length for a chapter in a dramatic or suspense fic, and maybe 4 to 6 pages for comedy fics.

OK, so I now contribute too with a question:

What's your stance on the subject of "made-up" moves for fan fictions? Not the perfectly plausible "commands" that just didn't make it to the game–learnset (eg.: why can't a Spearow Tackle, if it would be just the same as a Pidgey's, throwing one's body at the foe?), but the more specific, original, and/or complex movements, like let's say, PASBL–style "Signature moves".

And, giving a small twist to the add your own question trend of the Lounge:

Do you write side stories to your fan fictions? -- Not direct prequels/sequels

 

[The Ebon Blade]

What's your stance on the subject of "made-up" moves for fan fictions? Not the perfectly plausible "commands" that just didn't make it to the game–learnset (eg.: why can't a Spearow Tackle, if it would be just the same as a Pidgey's, throwing one's body at the foe?), but the more specific, original, and/or complex movements, like let's say, PASBL–style "Signature moves".

Ummm... I'm not to keen on making up moves because then people just make up insane super moves like Lucario using "Aura Ray" or something like that. However, I do use the moves that are already around and alter them depending on the situation. For example, When Kaleen's Luxray was fighting a Whiscash on the water field. Luxray was, of course, at a huge disadvantage. So, I had Luxray use Magnetrise (which, as of PLatinum, makes sense because all electric types with be able to learn Magentrise) to levitate just above the water. I also plan on doing to something pretty cool with Gardevoir's Teleport and I already did something with Absol's Extreme Speed. So, I take the physics I see from the anime (which is the canon I'm currently using) and assimilate it into the strategy in my fic.

Do you write side stories to your fan fictions? -- Not direct prequels/sequels

I definitely could. I was actually considering it for my next fic, but I'm not sure how I would do it.

 

[JX Valentine]

Do you write sequels to your fan fictions?

I plan them, but I very rarely actually do it. The only serial fic I've actually done sequels to was Warp Series, but that's when I was a bit more ambitious. Meanwhile, the only short stories that have gotten sequels are:

1. An mpreg crackfic written because the person I gave the first one to thought it was hilarious and needed another one.
2. Bloom, which will be out as soon as I can Bill to be in character. (*fistshake*)

What's your stance on the subject of "made-up" moves for fan fictions? Not the perfectly plausible "commands" that just didn't make it to the game–learnset (eg.: why can't a Spearow Tackle, if it would be just the same as a Pidgey's, throwing one's body at the foe?), but the more specific, original, and/or complex movements, like let's say, PASBL–style "Signature moves".

Depends on what the move is. I direct your attention to Pokemon MASTER by quoting an actual move used in the first chapter:

Attack : Thunder Shatter
Type : Normal / Electric

Pikachu rolls into a ball and glows with a black light before entering
the victim's body. The victim then vibrates and explodes, leaving the
Pikachu in its place. Effective against rock.

WTF, guys.

However, as long as they're not godly and fit in the theme of the canon, I'm okay with them. What I mean by "fit in the theme" is basically this. Pokémon has a very simple universe. Although some moves would be lethal if real-world physics applied to some of them, in general, moves tend to be very simple and not so much meant to kill off the opponent as they are to incapacitate them. For example, Thunderbolt channels electricity in the user's body into a burst of lightning aimed at the opponent. The main goal is to damage the opponent enough to make it faint, possibly to paralyze it on the side. It's true that enough voltage would be able to stop a heart and roast a few innards, but that's not what Pokémon do, you know? And even if we do consider a wild Pokémon's main goal of self defense through possibly killing the opponent, Pokémon just don't have elaborate light shows and over 9000 steps to execute a single move. After all, the more time a move takes, the more time the opponent has to get in and smack the user around.

So, basically, the point is, keep it simple. Channeling energy, using physical force, and emitting pheromones, yes. Final Fantasy-esque maneuvers in which Pokémon call down gods or can't be stopped thanks to this all-powerful move that's meant to be the power of some kind of deity? No.

Do you write side stories to your fan fictions? -- Not direct prequels/sequels

Not really. Midsummer Knights has something along those lines in the form of intermissions, but those are still counted as parts of the story (even if they're not meant to be taken seriously).

 

[ANARCHit3cht]

Do you write side stories to your fan fictions? -- Not direct prequels/sequels?

Not yet. However, if I am writing chapters and I scrap the idea, I might keep it to make it sort of like a Parallel universe part. Hm.. or I might even write the story, but give it from the secondary character's point of view.

 

[Dragonfree]

(Dragonfree's fic, for example, is past the forty mark, and if I recall correctly, the forty-fifth one is fifteen pages long. There's some short chapters there, however.)

Chapter 45 is actually slightly less than that (something like thirteen pages, I believe), and by my recent standards, it's really quite average. Right now I'm on the seventeenth page of chapter 46, for instance, and it's only about halfway through (granted, that would make it the longest chapter I've ever written). Chapter 37 was twenty-seven pages, chapter 40 was twenty-four, chapter 32 was twenty-six, chapter 34 was twenty... To give an idea of the total length of the fic, I recently wrote the 500th page of the Word document containing it.

My chapters vary a lot in length, though. The shortest chapter of that fic (excluding the prologue) is just under four pages, and more recently, the shorter ones have usually been something like six, seven or eight pages. When I write a chapter, I basically start off with some idea of what this chapter should fundamentally be about, with some logical start and end points, and then that ends up at some arbitrary number of pages. Sometimes I'll realize in the middle of writing a chapter that looks like it's going to become terribly long that what I just wrote would work fine as a chapter ending, and then I might change the plan and just end it there. Other times, I can't do that because I'm really obsessive-compulsive about my multiple-of-five chapters being precisely what I want them to be (now I'm stuffing way too much into chapter 46 just because I can't stand the thought of chapter 50 not being what it's currently supposed to be).

Be honest. If you find a fic with chapters only four pages long, do you prefer to sit down and read that as opposed to a fic with chapters ten or more pages long? Also, what's the maximum number of pages you can tolerate before you want to move on to something shorter?
If it's short, I'm likelier to start reading it, but if a chapter manages to suck me in, I don't mind if it's long, and if I'm already drawn in by the story, the length of later installments doesn't bother me.

The problem with me and reading fanfiction is that when I'm at the computer, I am always multitasking - I really can't just sit down and concentrate on reading the chapter, or writing my fic, or whatever for any significant length of time. When I'm writing a review while reading, I'll be stopping every now and then anyway to copy and paste something to comment on it, and often that will lead to my doing something else for a little while and then going back to the fic, but that doesn't really depend much on the length of the entire fic; it's more likely to be problematic if I'm just reading, because then I'll be increasingly tempted to move on to doing something else and lose my place in the chapter.

Do you write sequels to your fan fictions?
I'll write a sequel if there truly is another, reasonably independent story to tell that happens to some of the main characters after the end of the previous story, but if there isn't fundamentally potential for another such story, I'm not going to start looking for excuses to make one up - that would make for the Disney kind of sequel that's just pulled out to cash on the original's success.

The story of Stormblade and Shadowdart after the events of Scyther's Story was something that was already there - I knew roughly even before writing Scyther's Story what events would follow Razor's departure from the swarm and that those events were potentially more interesting than Scyther's Story itself. Neither The Quest for the Legends nor Morphic, on the other hand, really have any potential for sequels, and therefore they're not getting any.

What's your stance on the subject of "made-up" moves for fan fictions? Not the perfectly plausible "commands" that just didn't make it to the game–learnset (eg.: why can't a Spearow Tackle, if it would be just the same as a Pidgey's, throwing one's body at the foe?), but the more specific, original, and/or complex movements, like let's say, PASBL–style "Signature moves".
I can't say I like them unless they really are more like the commands you mentioned - i.e. they make absolutely perfect sense as a maneuver the Pokémon could do and involve no use of special powers the Pokémon aren't already supposed to have - but unfortunately that doesn't mean I haven't used them. The Quest for the Legends both has a special contest kind of thing where you're supposed to make up your own moves, a couple of which were like this (which I then slunk away from in embarrassment and don't believe I've really ever had them use since). Then there are Gyarados and Spirit the Ninetales, who both have special powers for reasons involving legendaries (yes, I know!), and those primarily manifest themselves in Gyarados' über-attack Dragon Beam and Spirit's two flavors of spirit form, where she turns herself either insubstantial or moves herself entirely to the spiritual plane.

Do you write side stories to your fan fictions? -- Not direct prequels/sequels
Yes, both the Scyther spin-offs of The Quest for the Legends and the various one-shot extras expanding on events that happen 'off-screen'.