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I finally finished my first fanfic -- 76.000 words-odd. When I started, in June, I thought it would be around 20,000, and would take about two months. (ha!) :-D I'm very grateful to those who encouraged and advised me along the way -- I've learned a lot, or I hope I have.
One thing I've learnt is that it was wildly ambitious to start with a long story, because it soon gets too long for people to want to start it -- people (including me) will take a chance on something around the 3000 word mark, but will fight shy of the investment needed to read something 50,000 words or longer. (I also put myself behind the eight-ball in my subject matter -- at one time I thought of putting in the summary "No Pevensies! No romance!" (That was also around about the time I thought of writing "And then a dragon came down and ate them all up. The End.))
And I have learnt some things about writing in general -- specifically about not being lured off into every exciting tangent or sideplot. It turns out that just getting to the end of a simple plot is quite complex enough without dragging in red herrings. I also learnt a very little about the whole fanfiction world, which is huge, and densely-grown and fiercely contested, and very interesting as a social phenomenon in itself, and also turns out to raise all sorts of questions which I haven't even articulated yet.
But I'd like to learn more about how the story I've just finished worked. (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8225493/1/Resistance). So here's some questions I'd like to ask those who have read the story, if anyone has time to comment on any of them. (And not demanding or expecting.. just these are things I'm wondering...(Cut for spoilers.)
( Apologia and hopes for feedback )
One thing I've learnt is that it was wildly ambitious to start with a long story, because it soon gets too long for people to want to start it -- people (including me) will take a chance on something around the 3000 word mark, but will fight shy of the investment needed to read something 50,000 words or longer. (I also put myself behind the eight-ball in my subject matter -- at one time I thought of putting in the summary "No Pevensies! No romance!" (That was also around about the time I thought of writing "And then a dragon came down and ate them all up. The End.))
And I have learnt some things about writing in general -- specifically about not being lured off into every exciting tangent or sideplot. It turns out that just getting to the end of a simple plot is quite complex enough without dragging in red herrings. I also learnt a very little about the whole fanfiction world, which is huge, and densely-grown and fiercely contested, and very interesting as a social phenomenon in itself, and also turns out to raise all sorts of questions which I haven't even articulated yet.
But I'd like to learn more about how the story I've just finished worked. (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8225493/1/Resistance). So here's some questions I'd like to ask those who have read the story, if anyone has time to comment on any of them. (And not demanding or expecting.. just these are things I'm wondering...(Cut for spoilers.)
( Apologia and hopes for feedback )
