Let's Talk Long Stories · 3:27pm Sep 11th, 2019
So, every so often, I take a look at what's featured and popular on this site just to see where the trends currently are. I don't really read a lot of FiM based fic these days, since, as I've stated, I'm more interested in Equestria Girls. But I like to know what's going on story-wise around here and I've noticed something that kind of irritates me.
The number of popular fics that have word counts in the six or even seven digit range. And I don't think some people realize how big those word counts are. I realize this is the internet and we're not limited by things like printing and binding costs like traditional books, but when I see these ridiculously long epics I have to wonder if they're really that well done. Because length doesn't always equal quality.
Let me give you a couple of real world examples of what I mean. The industry standard accepted length of a novel is approximately 70,000 to 100,000 words. Of course, some authors can (and have, as you'll see in a moment) go over that maximum word count, but it's rare to find one that goes beyond 250,000 words in my experience. Stephen King is famous for his long novels, but only three have cracked the 300,000 word limit. Under the Dome is approximately 333,000 words, It clocks in at 445,000 words and King's longest novel by far, the uncut version of The Stand, is a whopping 471,000 words and runs over 1000 pages in print. One of the most infamous of long novels, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, a massive tome that could easily be used to beat a burglar to death in one's own home, comes in at just over 543,000 words.1
But here's the thing about long works of fiction. They're intimidating, they tend to have a lot of characters and plot threads to keep track of and it's really easy for a reader to get lost. That's why some of the better authors tend to release a series of books, as opposed to one massive volume. The same tends to be true of fanfic writers. I know there's people out there who enjoy world building and complicated plots and so on, but, speaking as a reader, a word count above 250,000 words is as much of a red flag to me as a fic where each individual chapter in that fic has a three digit word count.
A fic with a long word count tells me one of two things:
1. This story should have been broken up into smaller stories, because I can usually find several different arcs that could easily be more manageable as individual entries in a series or,
2. The author has no idea how to end their story.
A story needs an ending. I know when things are going well and you really enjoy the work you're doing and the worldbuilding you've done and the characters that inhabit that world are seeming to come alive as you write you really don't want to say goodbye to them. But stories have to end. There has to be a clear finish line. Otherwise you risk reader fatigue, or worse, the sheer length of your story is going to be a bar for new readers. And a lot of readers don't want to take the risk on a huge epic with over a million words.
The Austraeoh series by Imploding Colon (often cited as the gold standard for long fics) does the epic story in the right way. Yes, each of the individual stories in the series are super long, but it's saved by the fact that the early stories in the series are (relative to later entries) much shorter.2 The early entries in this series are about the length of longer novels, making it easy for newcomers to jump in. Each volume in the series has its own self contained plot within the larger overarching plot of the series. There's new locations, new villains, new plots within each volume and a sense of closure for the individual story for each one. By splitting up the epic, by the time you get to the later stories, you're ready to take on the length, because now you know what you're getting into.
I would much rather see multiple shorter stories set in a series on an author's page than one story with over a million words. That's a little much for me to swallow in one go, even if you decide to break it up in your chapter titles into things like "Act I," "Act II," etc.
Series, to me, are the better way of doing long epic fics. They provide breathing room for your readers, and for you as a writer. I know it's addicting to get your work in the Featured box and you don't want to give that up if it happens. But padding out the length of your story for the sake of popularity isn't doing you or your readers any favors. If you've written a quality story and have a collection of loyal readers who are truly invested in the epic you're trying to tell, the Featured box will take care of itself and you may find you're picking up a lot more new fans along the way.
1 But these are by no means the longest novels ever written. There are even longer ones. I refer you to the following Wikipedia article
2 Currently, the shortest story in the Austraeoh series is the first with 212,000 words, while "Utaan," the story before the current in progress entry, is 918,000 words.
I'm pretty much in agreement. The one downside, though, is finding a story that sounds really cool, discovering it's the umpteenth sequel in a series that's been running since 2014, and when the author started writing, they had no idea what they were doing and the first story is hardly worth making it through, regardless of what they're capable of now. This happens more often than you'd maybe think. D:
While I like long fics I can name a few where there is no clear destination and it's just one thing happening after another with no real direction.
Yeah, I don't think my attention span could survive stories that long. I'd sooner burn out than finish it.
By the same token....a 2K word story isnt going to grab me or get me invested ....