DISCUSSION: The Problem With the Format of Fanfiction

[AetherX]

What follows is the result of me taking fanfiction way too seriously. If you aren't as much of a "fanfic is srs bsns" kind of person as I am, then you can get the hell out scroll down to the TL;DR to see the actual discussion points that I want to talk about.

Recently I read a fic all the way through, from start to finish. I realize that doesn't sound like a terribly interesting feat, but it is a markedly rare occurrence given how few fics there are that actually reach their conclusion. Like I usually do when I finish any kind of media, when I finished this fic I stopped and thought about it, analyzed it, all that jazz. In doing so, I realized something interesting. I enjoyed the story and I thought that it had a lot of cool concepts, but if someone had stopped me at the end of Chapter 5 and told me I would have to wait a month before continuing, I'm not sure I would have. That is, a month later I would probably have forgotten all about the story. It just wasn't good or memorable enough to have me yearning for it over that long of a period. That's the case with a lot of the stories I read, actually. But the story wasn't bad. By the time I finished it, I had developed a definite appreciation for it.

Why is this a problem? Well, if I had been reading this story as it was being updated, and actually did have to wait a month after Chapter 5, then I never would have finished it. And yet, that's exactly what happens for a majority of fanfiction. That's not to say every story has a forgettable beginning. There are certainly stories I'm following where I eagerly wait weeks or months for an update. Those fics are exceptional, generally better than this story I read all the way through. And yet, I'm still glad I read that story, despite the fact that I never would have if I was reading it the "usual" fanfic way. It's sad to think that I might have missed out on that.

This, combined with a variety of discussions I've been having with friends, has inspired me to write up some of my thoughts on the issues with the way most of us publish our fanfiction.

It all comes back to a feature of fanfiction that has often been discussed. We're writing prose, which generally means that we're going for a novel-esque story structure, though often on a very grandiose scale. But we upload chapter by chapter, piece by piece, like episodes for a TV show. Sometimes this format has a direct impact on out stories, forcing a slowing of pace that would be unforgivable in a novel, but oftentimes it gets in the way. Whereas in a novel it might be fine to reference an event that happened 10 chapters ago, in fanfiction you might have an upload schedule (or lack thereof) that means this event was last written about a year or more ago! Is it even fair to expect your readers to remember that?

As a storyteller, I feel like it should be. The story is meant to be read all at once, after all. Even if that's not the way it's presented. But if you look at it from the perspective of a reader, then it seems unfair. You can't go back and re-read every chapter of your favorite fic every time it updates. As authors we obviously don't actually expect that, but it's easy to forget that our readers may not be as familiar with our story as we are. They might not remember that character that was briefly mentioned five chapters (eight months) ago. As someone who updates very slowly with only two or three chapters per year, I can't help but be afraid that my readers run into this problem all the time.

Now, there are definitely benefits to this format. Receiving reviews partway through a story allows you to make corrections and improve as you go. It's usually pretty obvious how much authors get better over time when they receive regular feedback. It's to the point where there's an observable correlation between improvement and number of reviews as a fic goes along. I for one am quite thankful for the feedback I've gotten as my story has trudged on. It's convinced me to make some major plot changes that I doubt I ever would have considered if I was writing it all at once.

But this format can also lead to an unhelpful mindset when thinking about and responding to these reviews. We all know how our stories are going to end (well, most of us do ), so it becomes easy to brush off criticism from people who "just don't understand where I'm going with this." Character's chief flaw not playing into the story at all? Don't worry, it will soon in a big way! Development painfully slow? It's on purpose, and will all make sense in the end!

Everyone thinks the Climax happened a few chapters ago, but in reality I've just been publishing the Quest for the last six years.​

While these justifications may be true, you have to be careful not to fall into the trap of using "it will all pay off eventually" as a rationale for ignoring criticism. That can lead to missing out on some seriously helpful feedback. You're deliberately avoiding the single biggest advantage of the format. You might not want to change things in the story based off of feedback, but you have to consider that doing so might result in a better story overall.

Keep in mind that your readers don't know how the story is going to end, but this doesn't make all of your mistakes forgivable. Even if everything will make sense in the end, if people are complaining about a plot point or character, then they are actively not enjoying the story. That's not good. After all, it doesn't really matter how your story is supposed to be consumed, what matters is how your readers actually consume it.

(Note: I feel like I should point out that I'm not insisting that everyone retool their story based entirely on what readers want, nor compromise their artistic vision in some other way. We're ultimately writing for our own enjoyment after all. I just think that it's something to keep in mind if it's important to you that your readers enjoy your fic as you upload it.)

It might feel like you have no control over this. You could upload your entire story at once after you finish it, but receiving reviews is fun, helpful, and inspiring. Missing out on that would be detrimental to your story. You might not even complete the thing without the motivation created by having active readers. You have to do it this way because there are no other options. It comes with the turf, right?

Right?

It doesn't have to. There are potential ways of working around this. The simplest is to do what actual TV shows do and just upload once a week (or maybe even more often). This will make it so that your readers are engaged more or less constantly. You're basically taking the "read the whole thing in a few days" method of reading a book and stretching it out over a longer period. It's not perfect, but it's an option. It's a damn exhausting option though, especially if you're a slow writer like me. I would need to spend 100% of my free time and then some entirely on writing if I wanted to keep up a weekly upload schedule.

Depending upon your story, a bi-weekly or monthly upload schedule might work just as well. That's a big "might," though. It all depends on your readers, ultimately. A lot of this theorizing is assuming that readers read your updates the day they come out, which is rarely true. Either way, different stories work differently, which leads me to my next point.

You could adapt the story to better fit the medium. I've been working on a new fic that can be split pretty neatly into different, complete arcs that I'm going to call "episodes." I'll write each episode all at once without posting. Each episode will consist of a few chapter-length "parts" that I will post over the course of a few days once they're all done. This will let people enjoy a whole cohesive sub-plot, with a conflict and a resolution, and even a solid character arc. All at once. Every episode. Even if you were to only read a single episode and never came back to it, you'd have at least had a satisfying, complete story.

These are just my thoughts on the matter, though. Maybe no one else really sees this as an issue. Maybe you guys have other ideas.

TL;DR

Fanfiction is long and upload schedules are hard to stick to, so stories end up being broken and awkward until they're completed.

• If I'd broken this post into five chunks and posted them one by one over the course of the next three months, would you have been more or less likely to actually read it all of the way through?
• Do you have or have you ever had a consistent upload schedule? How'd it work out?
• Have you ever had any issues arising from the format of periodic uploads?
• Have you ever thought about or tried an episodic or arc-based upload structure like the one I'm considering?

 

[Misfit Angel]

But this format can also lead to an unhelpful mindset when thinking about and responding to these reviews. We all know how our stories are going to end (well, most of us do ), so it becomes easy to brush off criticism from people who "just don't understand where I'm going with this." Character's chief flaw not playing into the story at all? Don't worry, it will soon in a big way! Development painfully slow? It's on purpose, and will all make sense in the end!

It's painful how guilty I am of stuff like this. My stories generally stretch into the territory of 60+ chapters before they're finally resolved and when I start subtly (or not so subtly) referencing chapter 65 all the way back in chapter 2, people tend to think I'm a bad, lazy or forgetful writer.

You could adapt the story to better fit the medium. I've been working on a new fic that can be split pretty neatly into different, complete arcs that I'm going to call "episodes." I'll write each episode all at once without posting. Each episode will consist of a few chapter-length "parts" that I will post over the course of a few days once they're all done. This will let people enjoy a whole cohesive sub-plot, with a conflict and a resolution, and even a solid character arc. All at once. Every episode. Even if you were to only read a single episode and never came back to it, you'd have at least had a satisfying, complete story.

This is something I've been considering, since I'm already dividing my story into these arcs. I just worry that it'll take too long and my story will die off suddenly because I got stumped on some part that took me a month to figure out, a month that I spent contemplating how to tell people "sorry, it's over".

I'm of this thought: If you can keep up a fairly snappy pace, it seems like one of the best options.

• Do you have or have you ever had a consistent upload schedule? How'd it work out?

Ages ago, I tried to stick to a chapter a week. I could manage it, but I put out dog shit. Now I aim for every two week, but I've missed that mark so often that it probably doesn't look like I have a schedule I like to (try to) stick to. It's something I envy out of writers such as LightningTopaz who can put out content on a weekly basis and have it be good. I don't think I'm capable of that.

• Have you ever had any issues arising from the format of periodic uploads?

Too many to count. Plotlines that go nowhere, major characters that have no relevance to the plot, development that takes too long, to name a few. All that would be solved if I could just write faster and put chapters out more regularly. If I did stick to one chapter a week, Land of the Roses might be done by now, or at least winding down. Instead, the main thread is only really just beginning.

• Have you ever thought about or tried an episodic or arc-based upload structure like the one I'm considering?

Thought about it. Don't know if it's something I can do at this point unless I shorten my arcs down to 3-4 chapters a piece. I might try it with the next one, see how it works out.

 

[Beth Pavell]

A lot of the problems that arise from fanfiction are really more to do with that its an amateur pursuit - something that almost nobody can devote the majority of their time to. I know I'd have a much more consistent publishing schedule, and be much more willing to make radical revisions, if I had the ability to write for six hours per day. I used to aim for a chapter per month, but as University work got steadily more difficult, that dropped off.

I think with the serial publishing format it is easy to lose sight of the typical novel pacing. The Lord of the Rings stands at about 480,000 words - The Long Walk is looking like it'll be of a length at around 130,000 for Part 1 - and The Long Walk is most certainly not an epic. That being said, serial publishing also forgives the kind of fat that you'd have to cut in a published novel. If the reader is consuming the narrative in chunks of a few thousand words at a time, it doesn't usually matter if it's not as streamlined as a chapter in a published novel.

Have you ever had any issues arising from the format of periodic uploads?

I think good and thorough plotting can do a lot to mitigate these problems. I might not publish in arcs, but I do write in arcs, which means before the start of each one I already have an idea of where the story is going to go and what's going to happen to get it there. The advantage of serial publishing is that you can make changes to the plan before you've gone to the trouble of writing several thousand words. The disadvantage of arc writing, therefore, is that sometimes you lock yourself into something that isn't really working, but has too much time invested in it to scrap and rewrite. Like a tournament arc.

This reminds me of something I've said a couple of times to Emma Prescott regarding pacing. I read and read (That sounds better out loud) Land of the Roses and Storm Island serially, only ever reading Storm Island consecutively a few times for the Awards. The feel of the pace does change. I do think there's only so much you can do about that. A functional but unexciting chapter makes for a good bridge in consecutive format, but read serially is a moment where you have to gamble since the reader will have to wait a month for the next instalment.

Every medium as its disadvantages as well as its advantages. I find that my tolerance for tiresome writing is MUCH higher when it comes to fanfiction. If a novel annoys me I'll just drop it (The Falcon Throne barely lasted a chapter, even with an eight hour flight on its side, and I honestly don't know why I read most of Bitten). With fanfiction it's a much smaller investment of time (And obviously money) to give a story a chapter or two's worth of time. It's unlikely I would have kept up with {some rise by sin} or Unpredictable had I found them as novels (Digital or print).

 

[lucarioknight56]

Do you have or have you ever had a consistent upload schedule? How'd it work out?

Up until Forgotten Isles, no. I just posted whenever I had a chapter ready, then, due to me not having a good idea of where the story should go, I ended up taking a hiatus for at least half a year. And that really lowered the quality of my work, which is especially bad since in my early days, I was only doing 1000 words for each of my chapters, often publishing one or two a week...now I'm doing 6000 a week consistently!

I'm just glad that Forgotten Isles is turning out well, and its because I'm consistently writing for it every single week. I'm not sure that I can keep this pace when school starts for me, but I'll certainly try albeit posting less often (4 chapters once every two weeks).

Have you ever had any issues arising from the format of periodic uploads?

Not really, except sometimes it can take up a lot of free time. But, that free time would usually get spent on playing video games (which I have limited time for anyway), reading books (more like reread), or taking care of chores (which I do when they come up). So while yes it does take up lots of time, I feel like it is a good use for it.

Have you ever thought about or tried an episodic or arc-based upload structure like the one I'm considering?

Hmm...no, but I am using an Act-based structure, where I plan my chapters out in chunks before writing them. It works well, especially to keep me writing, but this idea could have its merits. I may want to try another plan for the final story in my PMD universe, since I am going to make it shorter than my previous two due to time constraints. We'll see how that goes though!

 

[diamondpearl876]

I will say right off the bat that fast updates put me off because I know I have a ton of chapters to catch up on. I'm a slow reader, and I follow so many fics that adding more to the pile leaves me feeling a bit overwhelmed. If I learned how to manage my time better when it comes to reading (since I usually prioritize writing every chance I get), I'd probably feel differently. In the end, however, I always I find that reading all the way through in one go, without months in between updates, leaves me feeling a lot more attached to the fic. Being able to remember and notice details back from the beginning of the fic helps with that. So there's pros and cons to it for me.

I unfortunately can't stick to a writing schedule anymore, and part of that is my fault because I balance three chaptered fics, while the other part is just, you know, life. It's a busy thing. Even if I focused on one project, though, I usually end up forgetting my plans for a chapter if I don't touch it for a week or so. I'm constantly re-planning and editing, which I think is more of a perfectionist type issue... but if I try to power through for the sake of a timely updating schedule, I burn out. Again, pros and cons. *shrugs*

 

[Drakon]

I just upload chapters whenever I damn well want to.

The problem with sticking to a deadline for uploading chapters is that it greatly tempts me into pushing out a chapter before it's ready. And this leads to things like rushed pacing, grammatical errors and other problems.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Resurrecting this after a discussion with some people today.

Recently I have encountered a problem that has come from certain stories taking a while to update/characters not appearing for huge stretches of stories at a time. It has happened in two stories now, and I am beginning to wonder if I need to do something about it. If I was watching a TV show or a film franchise and a character returned I had forgotten about, normally I'd blame myself for forgetting. However, I am starting to feel like, around here, the onus is being put on the author to remind people about certain aspects of the stories. Equally, I've found people have a tendency to misinterpret a role in a way that can't be easily rectified in the text without completely breaking the fourth wall.

Obviously, saying 'Oh look, it's the old man from Scene 37' every time doesn't work, not if you care about the sanctity of your story. So what can one do instead then? What is the solution to getting around huge casts and dense texts that not everyone can recall correctly off the top of their heads? I am speaking generally here, so any advice that could apply to any story would be appreciated.

 

[Misfit Angel]

It's not a feature we have on this forum and it isn't something you can find in most places dedicated to hosting writing works, but I feel like that would be a great place for hover text as a reminder:

Spoiler

Unfortunately I think your best option is giving a short refresher before (or after, if their appearance is meant to be a surprise) the chapter. Doesn't have to be a long summary of the character, just something simple like shown above.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Unfortunately I think your best option is giving a short refresher before (or after, if their appearance is meant to be a surprise) the chapter. Doesn't have to be a long summary of the character, just something simple like shown above.

The thing is though, I don't know who someone will or won't remember. That's why it almost seems pointless in a way; how many characters am I meant to do this with, and am I supposed to guess which character I've written isn't memorable to someone?

 

[Misfit Angel]

I'd stick to characters who appear infrequently but are mega important, or events that happened a long time ago and are relevant to understanding the chapter.

 

[Iggy]

Most of these issues can be resolved by following a proper story structure (yes, this is more than just "plotting") such as this system I use. I also plan not to dump loads of text into posts but simply upload a PDF document that contains everything I have released thus far, preventing my story to be scattered across mutliple pages interceded with comment and discussions, a terrible distraction.

The thing is though, I don't know who someone will or won't remember. That's why it almost seems pointless in a way; how many characters am I meant to do this with, and am I supposed to guess which character I've written isn't memorable to someone?

How much of this is the author's problem? You can not cater to everyone. If some readers have issue keeping track of your story and others don't, well, maybe they're better off reading another story. I had great issue keeping track of all the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, but as I kept reading the books I got a reasonable understanding of the major characters and what they did and want to do. Would I like to see George R.R. Martin simplifying his tale so I can better understand it? Certainly not. Would I like it if an author thinks of me as a simpleton incapable of grasping complex structures? Certainly not.

A lot of the problems that arise from fanfiction are really more to do with that its an amateur pursuit - something that almost nobody can devote the majority of their time to. I know I'd have a much more consistent publishing schedule, and be much more willing to make radical revisions, if I had the ability to write for six hours per day. I used to aim for a chapter per month, but as University work got steadily more difficult, that dropped off.

Bingo. Writing is an exercise that requires discipline, concentration and routine. The contemporary fantasist has the tendency to act on a single idea and start writing and wander off into the bushes right after chapter 5 because he/she lost focus of what the story is about. That is why structure is crucial, the book I link above is, for me, a massive aid.

 

[diamondpearl876]

There's problems with the format of fanfiction - ie., sure, who the hell is going to remember a minor character who showed up in one sentence in chapter 1 over a year ago - but it does have one benefit: you can actually interact with your readers/reviewers in most circumstances. So even if you have to remind them what's up, you can still talk about your story and, who knows, get some feedback in real time or just have fun talking to them about it. Sometimes, that can be even better than a review itself.

The thing is though, I don't know who someone will or won't remember. That's why it almost seems pointless in a way; how many characters am I meant to do this with, and am I supposed to guess which character I've written isn't memorable to someone?

Maybe a synopsis of prior events that relate to the chapter would be a better way to go. A synopsis of the plot and whatnot should naturally fit in characters. That way, you don't have to guess; they're just all there. Unless the synopsis ends up being bigger than the chapter itself, then... I don't know, this is where I'd think waiting until a story is 100% finished would wield better results here, but that method just has other pros and cons attached to it that have already been talked about in this thread.

 

[Ereshkigal]

• If I'd broken this post into five chunks and posted them one by one over the course of the next three months, would you have been more or less likely to actually read it all of the way through?
• Do you have or have you ever had a consistent upload schedule? How'd it work out?
• Have you ever had any issues arising from the format of periodic uploads?
• Have you ever thought about or tried an episodic or arc-based upload structure like the one I'm considering?

1) More likely. I'm a lot busier in life than I want to be at the moment. It's just this time of year. It'll die down in April. I'm still reading it in snippets.

2) Yes. Life got in the way, as well as muse issues. Consistent upload schedules are great if you have an endless source of creativity, but once you irk your muse things can be difficult.

3) I have, a couple times. Internet hiccups, access issues, and other problems can crop up that force delays. Not to mention a computer can crap out on you and lose all of your work.

4) Yes, once. It didn't work out so well. Part of the problem is that you can easily burn through all of your ideas after only a small number of postings and end up struggling to come up with content. Typically, this approach works better when continuity doesn't matter as much or even at all; that's why it's a common feature of comedy works. It can also work well for horror settings, like the Cthulhu Mythos, or story anthologies that follow a theme.

But when there's an overarching plot, you can quickly end up with a tale that is either too disjointed (and sometimes too rushed) to keep reader attention. You can also end up abandoning the style entirely partway through, causing a jarring stylistic shift.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Maybe a synopsis of prior events that relate to the chapter would be a better way to go. A synopsis of the plot and whatnot should naturally fit in characters. That way, you don't have to guess; they're just all there. Unless the synopsis ends up being bigger than the chapter itself, then... I don't know, this is where I'd think waiting until a story is 100% finished would wield better results here, but that method just has other pros and cons attached to it that have already been talked about in this thread.

Even when I am reading novels I can sometimes forget who a character is if they haven't been referenced for a while XD

I am thinking I might make some sort of general character guide similar to what a number of fantasy series do and just have that as a guide for all the significant players in every story. I personally am not fond of the idea of 'Go and read this chapter again to better understand this one', because some things are meant to be surprises, and in the situation that brought up my initial post, it seems I would have either had to have linked to all the past appearances of the character in question and/or posted a summary of her entire role in the story to make things clear.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Even when I am reading novels I can sometimes forget who a character is if they haven't been referenced for a while XD

I am thinking I might make some sort of general character guide similar to what a number of fantasy series do and just have that as a guide for all the significant players in every story. I personally am not fond of the idea of 'Go and read this chapter again to better understand this one', because some things are meant to be surprises, and in the situation that brought up my initial post, it seems I would have either had to have linked to all the past appearances of the character in question and/or posted a summary of her entire role in the story to make things clear.

Not only that, but it's not always reasonable to expect people to go back and re-read things. Which sucks, especially if you have massive edits that make it worth re-reading, but not every reader is going to have the time or will to do it. A general character guide should be enough to jog people's memories a bit, even if the finer details might still slip by.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

I don't have a consistent upload schedule, as that forces me to rush things and that leads to dubious-quality chapters

"When it's done" is the approach I use and it's worked out well enough for me, which isn't saying much when an average chapter for me barely breaks 2k words and that turns off a lot of people because I guess chapters that take an hour to read are fun?