no, really. REALLY.

[schmerica]

ATTENTION FANDOM: STORY LENGTH AND STORY QUALITY ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. There is no direct correlation, either way.

Some stories need a lot of words to tell. Some stories don't. Some people prefer nice long stories they can sink their teeth into for hours and hours. Some people prefer things shorter and self-contained.

I, personally, with everything else being equal, would rather read five 5000 word stories than one 25000 story, and three 3000 word stories than one 9000 one. Does that mean I think short fic is better? No, it just means it's not my personal preferences. Does it mean I think you're wrong for liking longer stuff? No, it just means our taste is different.

WHY OH WHY IS THIS SUCH A DIFFICULT CONCEPT? I SHALL NOW STOMP AROUND IN AN ANNOYED FASHION.

Comments

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

*shares my ice cream with you*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Yay, ice cream!

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

I think it's technically gelato. Choclate hazelnut!

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

can i stomp around too? *looks cute*

ps i do not think i have ever written anything 3000 words long. does this mean i've never written a story?

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

All things NOT being equal, I would rather read 100 words from YOU than 3000 from MOST PEOPLE. Because you are you!

*shares stompy boots*

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

*wins at EVERYTHING*

[hobbledehoy.livejournal.com]

yes. a+.

[c-regalis.livejournal.com]

Ooookay. What did I miss?

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Heh. Just whenever I go off my flist I find like tons of entries bitching about how terrible short fic is and how they miss the old days of long stories and how nobody cares about quality anymore, etc, etc, etc.

[c-regalis.livejournal.com]

Oh. I see. Now that you mention it, I might have read something like this too. I think it was a double rant about badfic and shortfic. (Someone should suggest a shortbadfic. Just saying.)

Here, have young Callum:

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmmmmmm. TATTOO.

[justbreathe80.livejournal.com]

Stomp away!

I wholeheartedly agree. Everyone is a different writer, and tells the story in a different way. Just like with pairings, there isn't just one way to do all this. If the short fic is good, I might be left with wanting more, but that doesn't mean it wasn't great. Same for the other way around. What is it that makes people want to regulate how the fandom goes and what's written? I still say, read what you like, friend people whose stuff does it for you if you want, and leave the stuff that squicks you, pisses you off, or that you think is crap alone. There.

Didn't I say I was going to do homework? Yeah...rar. BUT LJ IS SO MUCH MORE FUN! *whines pathetically*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*grins* I have to admit, I do my own whining and wishing everybody would do things the way I like. But that doesn't make it any less annoying when other people do!

[justbreathe80.livejournal.com]

It's true. I think, in this particular instance and in fandom "disagreements" in general, people just need to resist the urge to be self-righteous. Whining and wishing are different than passing judgement on whole segments of the fandom because they just swing a different way (or Ray, for that matter) than you. I am all for people saying how they feel, but we can all feel differently, can't we?

It's fun, it's fandom, it's happy! Yay! Woohoo!

I think I'm losing it. *g* I'm going to watch America's Next Top Model now.

[akite.livejournal.com]

I like a long, meaty story myself. Unfortunately, I can't write them well. I do better with shorter stories. I've read gems that are 500 words or less. A story's length has nothing to do with quality. I don't know what they're bitching about. At least people are writing, unlike some fandoms.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I think it's a cross-fandom phenomenon; it's one of the classic rankings. Plot is better than PWPs! Slash is better than het! Gen is better than sex! Length is better than short! The way I like things is better than how you like things!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Okay...I was with you up until the gen part. I mean, I love gen, but 90% of the people I know in fandom say they won't even read gen. I mean, they're hard pressed to read the stories of mine that only have kissing...and they like *me* :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_divya_/]

::pokes you:: Do you know about gen_fen? Not a ton of activity and it's multifandom, but genners(?) can't be choosers, right? *G*

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And no...I didn't know about it.

*joins*

*g*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_divya_/]

Sweeeeet. *g*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Oh, certainly gen-bashing is even more alive and well than the opposite! I think I put it like that just because the gen-identified people tend to be rather ... self-righteous about it.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

LOL! You think? *g*

(actually...I suspect it's true because they're in the minority in our corner of fandom. Back in the day, the "few" slashers in a sea of het writers were pretty self-righteous too. :)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Hee. Now the slash-only people tend to be less self-righteous and more just "ewwwww, not slash."

[hobbledehoy.livejournal.com]

well, we all know that it's not size that matters...

[j-s-cavalcante.livejournal.com]

You're right. The real problem isn't that people have preferences, though, or even that they feel they must state them forcefully. It's that there have always been some fans who feel they have to pressure other writers into writing what said fans personally want and pressure them into not writing what they don't want, and then they want to make rules for everyone based on their personal preferences. Some fans even seem to want to eradicate certain pairings or styles, or whatever. I understand the urge, it's human nature, but the truth is, it does not create happiness. We have free will; it is useless without the ability to make any choice we want to. Even if it's "so wrong." So what, you know?

I think the more variety there is, the better. I think people should write what they want to write, and read what they want to read, and ignore what they don't want to see. That way does lie happiness. It really works! :) (Sorry, I know I'm preaching to the choir, here.)

[grey853.livejournal.com]

You're right, size shouldn't matter if the writer thrives for quality. What'd you call it, self-contained? Sure, that works. However, I've found that most writers need a little length to make it a story that has any kind of impact or quality. What the required length is for some isn't the same for others. Personal preference plays a huge part in selecting what we both read and write. Some people are size queens, others aren't. Nothing wrong with that.

As for badfic, long or short, it's just bad.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

It's interesting; I've found that most writers have a certain length they're most comfortable with. I personally have seen a lot more stories that were much too long than ones that were too short, in my reading. Actually, in Smallville, I couldn't really read much of anything over 100k or so file size, because most stories couldn't hold my interest for that long; there just wasn't that much to say, no matter what the quality of the writing. Actually, I think long stories encourage low quality stories in a way shorter stuff doesn't; a really high proportion of mediocre stories seem to be neverending.

I'm not sure what badfic has to do with the discussion at hand, however.

[grey853.livejournal.com]

The badfic response was added because of one of the comments in the thread.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_divya_/]

Yesyesyes. Quality varies, length varies, and they do it completely independently of one another. ::applauds::

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*snuggles you*

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

YES YES YES YES

*hearts you*

(where's the wank? I want wank)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

No specific wank, I'm afraid -- seriously, it's just something that I've seen over and over in fandom, and people reminded me of it today.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

I SHALL NOW STOMP AROUND IN AN ANNOYED FASHION.

But for how long?

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Hee. You get a gold star!

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Completely in agreement with you. But...has someone been mean to you today about your choices? ::pets the pearl::

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Not at all, darling; this isn't me responding to any one person specifically, nor is it anything personal -- it's just one of my random fandom pet peeves that needs expressing once in a while.

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

There are also Days for Short Fic and Days for Long Fic. Invariably, they do not coincide with the days short/long fic is actually posted. And there are some concepts that need to be terse, or characters that need to be terse. The only thing that might be going for, say, a 1 MB story is wow, geez, author had patience to follow through, and I personally admire that. But that doesn't mean they did it WELL.

Since when IS this difficult to understand? Tell meeee!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I would tell you if I knew!

[mondschein1.livejournal.com]

I think what I mean to say, why are you finding it necessary to stomp angrily?

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Arrgh. That never fails to annoy me. Length is not a measure of quality, nor "realness" whatever that means. My preferences march with yours on this, but that doesn't mean I don't see it as a preference issue, and I get cranky when people try to make it something else.

[lorem_ipsum]

OMG I totally agree!

Also, an important part of writing well is knowing whether your story idea should be written as a 5000-word story or a 25000-word story.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

We have a winnah!