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