Pollute the Air

[heavensqueen]

Did your favorite fandom get rejected because it was one fic over the limit?
Have you just fallen in love with a new fandom the day after nominations ended?
Or are you morbane?

Tell us all


Also:
In the last post the idea came up to create a community where you can post your most shameful yuletide requests anonymously. Check out youwantwhat 

Comments

Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Because of a discussion in another thread, I'm wondering:

-What range of fic length would you prefer to get in an exchange?
-Are you likely to mention this in your letter, if writing?

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I only accept fic of exactly 3,333 words.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

1A: I prefer to get fic that's a minimum of 3k words. The skys the limit for the max wordcount.

1B: The fics I give fall between 3k and 15k, with the average being around 5-7k.

2: I have no problems with people who dislike longfic, but I feel that it should be opt-out rather than opt-in. I would feel really rude having "I really don't care for shortfic. Longfic is my favorite, but I'll take whatever, honest!" even if it's true. I love my gifts no matter what the length, as long as they include my prompts or my general likes, but if they stop around 1k or 2k I always wish they were longer, no matter how "perfect" the ending was.

Saying "I love shorter fics!" comes off a lot less arrogant, even though it's the same sentiment of policing and dictating your writers word count, possibly against their will.

If you don't want longfic, please just say so! I wouldn't begrudge you for it.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Mentioning length in a letter is kind of rude unless you prefer shorter to longer. That being said, I really prefer to get anything from 3k up to 10kish. Unless you're a fic-writing wizard, there's not enough space in 1k for much to happen, and if it's not exactly up my alley, fics over 10k are kind of a chore to read through.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I have no preferences about length of fic I get in an exchange. If the fic is good, I don't care how short or long it is. So no, there's no need to mention anything in my letter.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Every exchange I do, I say I don't have a preference, and every year I secretly think "but I really want longfic."

Generally, because I have been lucky in exchanges, I get a fic that does everything I want it to or stuff I never would've thought of, and then, on my third reread, I realize it's in the 1.5-3k range and I am completely surprised.

Conclusion: I apparently don't actually know what I want, and if you write well a lot can happen in 1k.

(I mean, I can't make anything happen in 1k, I need more words than that. But my assigned authors, pinch hitters, and/or treaters have managed to make it work so far.)

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

It's petty, but if the fic is between 1000 and 1050 words, I'll be a bit suspicious the author had a hard time making word count and it will show in the fic. Other than that, I don't mind.

I selfishly wish more people wrote in the under-3k range for Yuletide, because when the archive opens I want to read lots and lots of different things, not get bogged down in longfic (unless it's written specially for me). I don't read all that fast or have the greatest of attention spans.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

In general, my perfect fic length is ~10,000. Enough to reread in a leisurely manner on a lazy weekend morning, not so much that it takes a huge chunk of my day to do so.

But in an exchange like Yuletide, I don't really expect much, but I suppose I hope for at least 3K-ish. Enough for a basic plot, as opposed to just a vignette (although those can be nice too).

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I'd never tell anyone how long their fic should be for Yuletide (other than over 1000 for the main gift, obviously). Word count totally depends on the type of fic you're writing and on your style as a writer.

My ideal would be 5,000 words but for Yuletide I think about 3,000 words is pretty decent. It's long enough for a bit of plot, a bit of character development, a bit of whatever else you might want.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I want really long if it's a good fic and really short if it's not. So, it depends?

In general, I prefer to read fic that's at least 15k, so it has some plot and build-up, but if it's a good story I'll read any length.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I'd prefer something that's at least 20k, because I love longer fic, but I'm not going to mention that in my letter because that would be rude as hell and I also really enjoy shorter fic.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I'd prefer longfic, because all of my gift fic so far has been under 2k and of the introspective character study, retelling of canon scene, or snippet of something larger variety that I'm just not fond of. I don't really hope for anything in the 3k+ range because I know most Yuletide fic isn't, but it'd be a nice surprise.

Agreeing with the other anon, though, if my fic is under 1050 words (and especially under 1010 words) I tend to worry that the author had trouble meeting the minimum and padded it with adjectives or an out of place filler scene. Not always the case, but I'd worry while present shaking.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Because I can really only write in the 2500 range, I think my prompts tend to lend themselves to shorter stories too. I mean, they're usually something like "I'd love to see more of the relationship between character a and b after this happens,' or "I'd love a glimpse at pre-canon character a," which could end up being really long, or a nice 1500 word glimpse.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Anything from 1-7k. I'd rather get a thousand words of something amazing than 9k words of coal.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

For yuletide, I honestly am happy even with badfic, my fandoms are so small that anything at any length would make me happy. I have received some amazing 1000wd fic the last few years that crammed so much into so few words that I felt like I was reading something a lot longer.

That said, on a personal reading lvl outside of yuletide, I prefer reading long fic (anything betweeen 8k-50k). Even mediocre-midlevel long fic because I just like having that much more meat to sink my teeth into.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I love longfic, and have gotten really lucky on that front, for the most part.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Noob here. I don't have a set preference. If the story's well-told, I'm going to love it, regardless of size.

What is the typical size of a Yuletide story?

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I prefer something in the 3k-7k range, and I prefer to write in the 5k-50k range, although if there's a complete story I can tell in 10k or less I try to write that rather than the story of my heart.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

10-20k would be ideal. I won't mention it explicitly because it's vastly above the Yuletide minimum. Also, what I really want is a certain kind of plot, so that length range is just a vague estimate of how many words it takes most people to write that kind of plot without it becoming a bloated mess full of extra words to make a big bang/nanowrimo/etc. lower limit.

I do mention liking plotty fic in my letter every year. If my writer feels up to writing something like casefic, it will naturally end up being on the long side for Yuletide fic. Hopefully, they'll let the needs of the story dictate the exact length.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

I think it depends partly on what fandom and what prompts you match on. I would be thrilled to death with 1000 words of porn for my OTP, but if you chose to send them off on an adventure together rather than rolling around in bed, that story could easily be much longer. Another of my requests will be for a 5 minute fandom, and I doubt if most writers could get more than a couple thousand words at most out of it.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Anything above 10k is too long for me, and anything below 2k makes me suspect the writer didn't like my prompts and phoned it in. 2k-10k is the best range for me as a recipient. As a writer my own fics tend to fall in the 2k-6k range.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

Related poll:

Assume that two fics are about equally meaty/have delivered about equal parts of what you wanted. Would you rather receive:
- Longer fic with more filler
- Dense, shorter fic

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

The longer the better. Wouldn't ever mention it. Whatever the writer comes up with is their choice, and there's nothing wrong with shorter.

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

the longer the better
and
ha ha ha, no

Re: Coal Poll - fic length

[(Anonymous)]

You gotta take the coal poll
If you wanna get a fanfic.
You gotta take the coal poll to get in.

If you want a Yuletide fanfic,
you gotta take the coal poll.
You gotta take the coal poll to get in!

Coal poll!

...Sorry that was all I could think of every time I saw this subject line.