This is actually a really hard question for me to answer, because I rarely think my stories are going to be long when I start them. I’m getting a better handle on it as it keeps happening, but I still think “oh this story will be like 25k” when I start it, which is an improvement since the very first 100k+ fic I ever wrote was for a mini bang writing challenge with a word count minimum of 8k, and I thought I wouldn’t be able to reach that. Ha. Hahahaaaaa….
I’ll try to answer it, but I am going to tag @jupiterjames to chime in because she knows my process better than I do, and I’ve also infected her with my longficitis. She may have insights that I’m missing because I’m too close to the source lol
I’m actually quite mystified by people who can constantly write short fics, because that doesn’t come naturally to me at all. I’ve always been a wordy fucker, but over time my scenes have gotten longer. That’s something that just came with practice and becoming more comfortable with my own writing style.
For content: I have an overabundance of ideas, like, all the time. You’ve probably seen that I often give some away because my cup overflows. I keep huge bullet pointed lists of vague ideas and tropes that I want to write about. I often end up taking 3-5 of those bullet points and smooshing them together into a single story. Satin and Sawdust was like 6 bullet points on my list, and I had to figure out how to make them all connect. That was half the fun of writing it! And I’ve been eye-balling that meme going around where followers can give me 2 AUs to squish together, because THAT IS MY JAM.
That’s how I end up with Big Stories from small beginnings, but as for how I manage to not make them drag out? I don’t have a good answer for that, because I don’t know. To be honest, I often freak out during the writing process because I think I’m moving too fast between plot points. It’s really common for me to pop into JJ’s messages with “is it too soon for this thing to happen???” and she always tells me no, but I usually end up putting more stuff in to spread it out anyway. On the flip side, my overabundance of ideas often causes me problems too, and I drop a lot of stuff that probably would make it drag. I cry to JJ about those too. Honestly, I cry to her a lot.
I’m not afraid to ask if I’m adding too little or too much, and I think that’s important. I can figure that stuff out by myself, but it takes much longer and more angsting is involved. Writing can be done in a support vacuum, but I don’t work that way. I mostly work with one person at a time, but there are a ton of writing groups out there that focus on helping each other improve, and they’re a super valuable resource if you ever feel like you need someone to check your pacing. Outside perspective of pacing will always be different than your own.
Side note: writing buddies are The Best, and if you can find one, treat them as the blessing that they are. Taking functional criticism is difficult, but a trusted writing buddy will either soften the blow, or tell you to suck it up, and they’ll know you well enough to tailor their approach!
I don’t know if this helps, like, at all, but it’s as close as I can come to describing the absolute mess that is my creation process.
As for how long it takes me to write, if I’m not being lazy, it takes me 3-4 months to write about 110k on average. I type very fast, and it generally only takes me a few hours to write a 5k chapter, but I only write a few days every week. I can write much faster, because I’ve won NaNoWriMo before and it didn’t even seem that hard to do. The 1667 words a day goal is easy for me to knock out in 90 minutes a day. I like to take 2-4 days off between chapters tho, which is why I don’t pump out 50k every month lol
I like setting timers for myself, because when there’s a count down I am more likely to keep my fingers moving and the words going. If I don’t have a time limit, then I will waffle over sentence structure and word choice. If you can prevent yourself from self editing too much (it won’t stop altogether, that’s impossible), you can actually crank out quite a bit.
(I say “you” but I mean me. If this works for you too, then awesome 😀 )
My final piece of advice though, is Don’t Think About The Word Count. Just focus on writing the scene. Length is less important than substance, and if you never write a 100k fic that doesn’t mean you’re not a talented writer. You just have a different writing style than me over here with my huge-ass beast fics 🙂
I’m happy to be tagged, especially since we talk about this all the time!
I’ve told @ltleflrt that there’s a difference between a “real” short story, or short fic, and a long fic. Long fics are actually easier to write. You don’t have to choose your words so carefully, or really pick and choose what to use to make a full functional story with very few words. Short stories are something you really need to be trained to do.
But all in all, there’s no real trick or secret to making a long fic that doesn’t drag. Some people are Hemingway and some people are Frost. Ltleflrt is Frost. She has a lot of ideas and a lot of moving parts that climb her word counts without dragging down the pace. Some people aren’t like that. They don’t need as many words to make the story.
She and I have often postulated that I could write one of her 150K fics in 50K. It’s the style. And what the author chooses to include. She often veers off the main plot to offshoots that add to the story, but aren’t exactly necessary to the whole plot. They add vibrancy to the story, and that’s important to her. On the other hand, I tend to drive the main road for the most part because I don’t feel like taking the side streets. Both ways are good, and both ways often produce widely different word counts.
In the end, the only way to NOT make the story drag is to ignore a word count goal. Focus on only the story you want to tell and the best way for you to tell it. If you WANT higher word counts, but haven’t really reached them, do what she does. Smoosh some ideas together into a bigger idea and see what happens!
Jupiter Astrid James 