Sticking with long-fics?

[Katty]

Does anyone else struggle to stick with multi-chaptered fics? I've got a few that, over the years, I have forgotten and neglected.

Ironically, my first ever fanfic was a 26 chapter Harry Potter monstrosity that I deleted about 6 months later... ever since then, I've struggled to get over 5 chapters! I currently have four multi-chapters on the go, and I'm trying to stick to the dont-post-your-current-chapter-until-you-have-the-next-one rule - and am having varied success.

Any other ideas?

[ubiquitous]

I'm not one to talk, having my main multi chapter fic still going after 5 years. But I think plotting out the general arc is a good way to go. I get more written down that way too ^.^ I have more progress on Penance than the married!Alanna/Jon one, cos I've forgotten/no idea where I'm going with it.

[boosette]

Nor am I one to offer advice - I've never finished anything of great length, and for a long time I just moved characters around geographically rather that move them forward emotionally or - gasp - plot.

I think your best bet is figuring out how you write - some people work better with detailed outlines, others flying by the seats of their pants, others still somewhere in-between. For me, a complete detailed outline leaves me feeling like I've already told the story while pantsing it leads me ultimately to convolution and stalemate. I need some kind of a guide - I'm still figuring out the balance between guide and pants.

Figuring out what the theme of your story is is helpful - that way you know what effect your scenes are working for or what direction to steer your character development in.

Also having someone actively invested in the story other than yourself, to bounce ideas off of or to generally tell you you're proceeding swimmingly. *waves at lisa*

Figure out if you're the kind of writer who can skip a few days, or if you'll lose momentum if you don't write every day - even a few sentences. (I'm somewhere between.) And then ... write! Write the whole story and then edit and post so you're not switching between writing and editing brains at chapter breaks.

[Rojo]

My rule of thumb: If you start a new, lengthy fic, do not write past the first chapter because the previous one will never be finished. And do not post it until the previous fic is finished. I like to go ahead and make outlines so I still know where I wanted to go with the plot for when I finish whichever fic I was already working on.

Sometimes, I really feel a desire to write, but not for an update for whichever fic I am currently working on. That is when I tend to write one-shots and random drabbles.

I think your best bet is figuring out how you write - some people work better with detailed outlines, others flying by the seats of their pants, others still somewhere in-between. For me, a complete detailed outline leaves me feeling like I've already told the story while pantsing it leads me ultimately to convolution and stalemate. I need some kind of a guide - I'm still figuring out the balance between guide and pants.

I use to write the latter way--by the seat of my pants. But then I figured out if I made a vague outline that still left options incase I chose to change something later. This is part of an outline that is sitting in my inbox, waiting to get past the first chapter:

Chapter I: set stage & explain what is going on
Chapter II: introduce K (G praying for help?)
Chapter III: G attacked, barely gets away
Chapter IV: introduce romance and G healing
Chapter V: G challenges R; fight (cliff-hanger SFans)


I have a friend who betas my current length fic. She is not great, but it does not matter to me because I am only finishing this fic because (a) I do not want to disappoint people, (b) I swore to never give up on it and (c) my pride does not allow me to give up on it.

[rainstormamaya]

I fail very much at finishing long fics I start (Mirayle- two years, half-done, 26 chapters... Tales, one year, two-thirds done, 56 chapters...) and I often lose momentum after a brief spurt of writing like crazy. I'm doing quite well with Tales now that I've managed to get started writing again, I know where it's going, but another fandom has taken over my brain, so that really doesn't help. I usually write chapters any length from 1,500 to 10,000 words, depending on the fic, and can't keep to the have-a-chapter-in-reserve thing either- except with Tales, which is not so hard because, uh, a chapter for Tales consists of three drabbles. I very rarely write down a plot outline: the only time I ever did that, I lost it, which was clever of me.

If I have any tips, it's to make sure you know what happens in the middle. This is usually where I get stuck; I know, often in excruciating detail, how it begins and ends, but middle?... Houston, we have a problem.

[Lisa]

I'm complete suckage at longfics. I finished a 15 chapter fic once (in another fandom), but I had to have a *concept* outlined for the whole thing.

Whenever I do a long fic, I try to have an outline to get me going - a timeline of events, or perhaps the concept. When I did "So Mote it Be" I had two parallel concepts going on (Raoul's reflective chapters and other characters' narratives, creating the whole timeline); if I hadn't, I don't think I would've been able to finish it.

[Anaroriel]

Long fic for me is a hit and miss kind of thing. Sometimes I actually finish what I intend to write, but a lot of the time I don't. It depends on how much I'm invested into the project, and how excited I am to write later scenes and chapters.

Also, if I have a pretty good idea what the end looks like (and not too much detail in the middle cuz I would get bored easily) then it's not too hard to actually finish what I started.

If projects get too big, I actually start to panic a bit because I can't actually visual the entire thing. Too many characters, descriptions and scenes can actually be quite blinding.

[boosette]

Also, if I have a pretty good idea what the end looks like (and not too much detail in the middle cuz I would get bored easily) then it's not too hard to actually finish what I started.

Yes, this[/quote]! I take it a little further, though. I like to know where I'm going (which finite number of destinations the story can end up, or even an idea among several) and a solid start and as little in the middle as I can get away with. That way telling the story is an adventure for me as much as reading it is for my readers.