This post brought to you by me really, really wanting some nice long kpop fics to sink my teeth into

[lirazel]

Does anybody have any thoughts on why certain fandoms seem to inspire more longfics and others don't? Moving from Buffy fandom, which had tons of multi-chapter fics, into kpop fandom, which has VERY VERY FEW, has been quite an experience for me. Infinite fandom is blessed with a multitude of really excellent short fics, but I really miss the feeling you get when you read a longfic, where you are totally immersed in that world, where you really go on a journey with the characters. And I can't help but wonder why there aren't many longfics (the ones that exist are usually not very good at all). What is it about a fandom that makes it more likely to produce longer works than other fandoms?

I for the life of me can't figure out what would make fandom culture be so different.

What are the fandoms you've been in that have many longfics? What are the ones you've been in that seem limited to short fics? And do you have any ideas on why they were that way?

Comments

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

TVD has precious little longfic, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the series still being ongoing? People write, reacting to particular episodes/storylines, and everything is going too fast for them to have time to plot longfic (except in a between-seasons hiatus, but that's still just 4 months out of a year). My only fandoms that I associate strongly with longfic are Buffyverse (it's been a few years since the series ended), and Harry Potter (there were really long breaks between books). I wonder how does this look for ASoIaF?

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I thought of TVD (and GoT) as current fandoms that don't have much longfic.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the series still being ongoing? People write, reacting to particular episodes/storylines, and everything is going too fast for them to have time to plot longfic

This is certainly a thought!

Certainly older fandoms had more longfic--BtVS, HP, X-Files, etc. Going with current fandoms: I feel like there's lots of Teen Wolf longfic and there's quite a bit of One Direction stuff, too (to name two that have taken over my friends). I just don't know what the pattern is!

[upupa-epops.livejournal.com]

That actually works with Teen Wolf though! Because it's a summer show with short seasons, and then they have the rest of the year to write.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Aha! I hadn't really thought about when it airs--since I don't watch it, I don't pay attention. You have stumbled onto something!

[ruuger]

I don't know, The Mentalist is an ongoing show, and has loads of longfic (alas, it's mostly ff.net quality, and about the main het ship, which I don't care for).

My guess is it has to do with the nature of the fandom's popularity - you have to be quite committed to a fandom to write longfic, so fandoms/pairings with more passionate fanbases would be more likely to produce longfic in large numbers, whereas a fandom with a lot of casual fans would be more short-fic focused.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'm surprised it has so much longfic--I know it's a cut above your typical procedural, but I didn't think procedurals often get much longfic. FASCINATING.

you have to be quite committed to a fandom to write longfic, so fandoms/pairings with more passionate fanbases would be more likely to produce longfic in large numbers, whereas a fandom with a lot of casual fans would be more short-fic focused.

Yeah, good point.

[silverusagi]

I wonder if it has anything to do with the series still being ongoing?

SPN has a ton of longfic and it's still going.

I think it just has to do with the nature of that particular fandom. I also think it has to do with the size. TVD is not a tiny fandom by any stretch, but when compared to the likes of BtVS, SPN, Sherlock, and Harry Potter, it pales in comparison. The more people you have writing, the more types of fic you'll have. The one shots outnumber the epics in all of those fandoms, but there's enough fic written that there are plenty of epics to go around.