#(from the ‘survival’ novelization)

[duocordaut]

can u Behave. moments before theyre choking each other to death too mind you

[amtrak12]

After a conversation with a friend about this weird trend of fic readers who only want epic length fics (and also what seems to be a massive misunderstanding between parties on terms and their definitions), I went searching for the fandom sources I cut my teeth on. I don't have much bookmarked from those days anymore, but googling got me to this fiction length/terminology breakdown from a Livejournal blog. (Which also has good fandom definitions for other terms like A/N and fanon too, so if you're super new to fandom, go check that out.)

The definitions come from the publishing world (hence the page counts), but fandom and fanfic has always borrowed heavily from official publishing terminology. Flash fiction (aka, anything less than 1k words) is called a 'ficlet' within fandom. We call everything else a fic until it reaches the novella mark -- which may start at 20k words but as synecdochic breaks down on their Dreamwidth blog, there's a lot of overlap between short stories and novella word counts. Because, when you're not constrained by physical page counts, the real dividing line between short stories and novellas are the number of plots and themes you're using. (Seriously, go read their meta on this topic. It's fantastic!) Either way, once you're hitting tens of thousands of words, you're in longfic territory. And then if your fic is even longer than that -- 100k+ like shown in the screenshot above -- it's called an epic fic.

And these terms, longfic and epic, are important because they're used to differentiate these stories from the average fic. Because, at least in the 2000s up until the 2020s, the most common fic lengths you ran into were between 1k-20k words. "Fic" made the reader assume only a few thousand words at most. It's only when you changed the term to drabble or ficlet or longfic that they would realize 'oh this is going to be shorter or longer than normal'.

I don't really understand why that baseline assumption has changed amongst the newer demographics (and maybe amongst some long-running fandom members too?). I've seen a lot of theories and 'tiktokification' complaints, but I honestly don't know what's true. And I don't want to start a fight or even try to change anyone's minds if they are dead set against reading short story length fics. You can do what you want!

Just maybe shift your attitude about it a little bit? Remember that it's a personal preference the same way tropes are, and that one story length isn't better than another. Just like tropes, each story length serves its purpose. Some stories are best told in 1-2k words. Some are best told as 100 word drabbles -- or even a single sentence! And then, yes, some stories do need to be 100k+ in order to be told properly.

But that's not every story. And it shouldn't be expected of fic writers to pad a 1500 word plot into some sprawling epic just because they left it on a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is probably the point of that fic! Short stories are an entirely separate art form to novels and as such are able to cover different topics than novels can or cover the same topics differently. And that's what makes them special!!

And look at that word count breakdown by genre! That's mainstream publishing standards! Now, go back up there to the definition of a novel and notice that the average published novel is 80k words long.

Let me repeat that:

The average length of a published novel is 80,000 words long.

Could a novel go longer? Sure! And if you're dipping into adult sci-fi or fantasy, absolutely it will be longer! But does your fic need to be longer than the average novel in order to be good? In order for you to feel satisfied when you finish reading it? Why does the length of the fic matter more to you than the content?

idk just some rambling food for thought, but I guess too long, don't read:

~✨~ Every story length is valid ~✨~

It just depends on the plot you have and the structure you want to use to tell it.

[gmaybe666]

final update! they're gonna go pick mike up to hang out

[katlyntheartist]

Reposting these from my main because I'm still so proud with how well they turned out ^^

Bendy/Dreams Come to Life designs

Illusion of Living/ The Lost Ones designs

[corallapis]

paul eluard, i cannot be known / jean cocteau, art of style / sandra cisneros, dulzura / ann brashares, my name is memory / james allen hall, the enemy / bound (1996) / micah nemerever, these violent delights / richard siken, the way the light reflects / jean genet, querelle / iain s. thomas, the circle, triangle, square / franz kafka, letters to felice / gabriela mistral, tr. randall couch, electra in the mist

[lookslikethatsallthetimewehave]

Elderly Poptropicans. That's it, I like them.

[bluebellwrenart]

All of my Black Ops ladies in formal outfits 💛💙❤️🖤

From left to right—

Joanne (Mason's wife, David's mother), Lillian (paired with Weaver), Claire (paired with Adler), Nadia (OC!Bell, paired with Woods)

[azaracyy]

a lesson on good karma digimon survive week 2024 day 4: supporting characters

[lightkrets312]

to the people who write summaries and wikis with thorough breakdowns of all the lore and media for a series that breaks it up into 20 different formats: you are doing fantastic work, may it remain intact and accessible well into the future, I owe you my life

to the people that decide splitting your series into 20 different media formats with critical lore in most/all of them is a good idea:

ARCHIVE YOUR SHIT IMMEDIATELY, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING.

[pharawee]

"Khun Yai, what makes you like plumeria? They're quite an unpopular flower, aren't they? Because the Thai name means misery, which sounds quite inauspicious."

"So try smelling them. Their gentle scent makes me feel liberated, and they're also enchanting. I think they smell like you, Jom."

—I FEEL YOU LINGER IN THE AIR 💮 Episode 8

[dundeelemonade]

svsss fic recs. please give them to me. i feel like i have dipped into the bookmarks of every author whose taste vibed with mine, and now i keep running into the same fics, and i Yearn for More.

link to my svsss bookmarks for reference. please friends i beg of you, i need a distraction from the Realities

[calethescammer]

Thinking about the soos currently.

Thinking about how seemingly selfish it was of lsh and cjs to leave krs alone; how selfish it was of cjs when he said that he wanted krs to live; and yet, that was the best they could do for him��to protect him and let him live the life they wouldn't be able to.

Thinking about how, even in the face of a destroyed world, they believed that surviving, living was the best, and how all of them wished for the other to live.

Thinking about how utterly betrayed Krs must have felt, not by his hyungs, but by his own inability to do anything, and to just stare at the lifeless corpses of lsh and cjs.

Thinking about how it must have been for krs—the betrayal of his own abilities, and the burden of the new life he never asked for.

Thinking about how krs knew he would've done the same, if he were in their position, and how that was the fact that hurt the most. That their selfishness, that their betrayal was only wanting Cale to live, and the fact that their selfishness was nothing but their love for him.

[alexjcrowley]

The Hobbit or Bilbo Baggins's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Not At All Fun Steppe Vacation

[ohbutwheresyourheart]

as might be gleaned by the recent tommy crumb posting, I recently started re-reading the mirror and the light and I had completely forgotten how panicked riche is during his first king's council meeting. absolute perfect representation of the "accidentally became important at work" meme. boy does NOT want to be there.

[the--last-great-american-dynasty]

duology idea that i wish i had the skills to write:

murder mystery with a main girl who’s trying to solve the mystery pippa fitz-amobi style. she ends up joining forces with a boy and they work together brilliantly and they’re also given all the typical romance tropes to set up their supposed romance… except everything is just slightly off. not enough to be super noticeable but enough to feel itchy.

the first book ends with the reveal to the reader that the boy is the killer.

the second book continues to follow our pip character and the boy/killer but things are getting more obviously off to everyone, including our main girl and she begins to get suspicious. she ends up secretly joining forces with our main suspect of the first book, a girl who seems to be hiding something. turns out, she is hiding something, she knows our boy more than either of them let on, and it’s finally revealed to our main girl that the boy is the killer.

the book then becomes a difficult balance of hiding the fact that she knows the boy is the killer and continuing to keep the pretense of working with him and working with the other girl to take the boy down. and now all the romance tropes are between the two girls.

[lookslikethatsallthetimewehave]

Which island do you think has the best characters?

There are a lot of them...

BTW, the island version of the MotM characters are not interesting like how they are in the novels.

It's hard to choose. They did a good job.

Well, I'm going with Monster Carnival Island.