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!

[sai12.livejournal.com]

I've never read fic outside of kpop fandom but I agree there is a lack of long fic

But I kind of like there being lots of short fic. I can read a quick fic on my break or at lunch but long fic you can't just do that. And the time commitment needed for writing or reading long fic is probably outside of many kpop fan's ability? Since kpop fans are usually pretty young? But I am sure other fandoms have the same issue...hmm

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I LOVE all the short fic--so much of it (on lj) is so very good! But there's nothing like a longfic. I prefer novels to short stories, TV to movies, etc. So it's a matter of preference.

And the time commitment needed for writing or reading long fic is probably outside of many kpop fan's ability?

Maybe! I know I was reading longfic when I was...13/14, but maybe kids are different now, and writing a long one yourself IS a big time commitment.

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

I noticed too. Tbh, the only fandom I've been in besides Buffy that had quite an amount of longfics was Harry Potter -- but I spent YEARS in that fandom and it had TONS of longfic, and a good quantity of GOOD longfics, so I was spoiled and I miss it so, so much! Although my other non-kpop fandoms (BSG and Supernatural, mainly, and mainly in Spanish) have relied mostly in short fics or even fics with a few parts too.

I do think that maybe the "age" of the fandom helps a lot -- Buffy is a pretty old show by now, for instance. Even in kpop I have read quite a few Super Junior longfics (my fave Super Junior fic ARE longfics! save for a couple of them) and SHINee too and I've been told that DBSK has more longfics as well (but don't take my word on this). All of those groups have been around for longer than Infinite and I think this is very subjective but I find that in those fandoms there are more obvious OTPs and maybe that helps? Like, Yunjae, Eunhae and Hanchul are almost untouchable and when I first came into the SHINee fandom (idk now because most of my fave authors have moved onto EXO ;___; ), Jongkey and 2min were by far the most popular pairings -- it came with a lot of VERY passionate fans that wrote lots of long fanfics. I know that there are very popular pairings in Infinite too, but I find that, say, Woogyu aren't as /untouchable/ to Inspirits as Yunjae were to Cassies (or Yadong/Eunhae, too). Of course this is all very subjective, but I'm trying to look back at my experience in kpop fandoms (which isn't long -two years and a half-, but it's been intense!) and this is what I come up with.

Also, and this is a very personal issue -- I find that it's easier for me to be sure and to a certain point confident of my characterization of a fictional character than it is for me to feel the same about a boyband member. Because when I write about Spike, I have 7 seasons and I am using that and I know that that is all we've got I like to pretend the comics don't exist, so if I make X decision for a character, I know there won't be another episode tomorrow with that exact situation where the character does exactly the opposite as it did in my fic -- whereas on an ongoing tv show, that can happen, and when it comes to RPF, surprises can come AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT, and personally, yes, that stops me from writing a lot of things I'd love to write (if not literally, it affects my confidence and my lack of confidence stops me; anyhow, I end up stucking to one shots).

But ugh, I do miss longfics A LOT. I wish people would write more longfic. I've spent MONTHS trying to find a Hojong plot I can carry on for like, 10 episodes at least? But it's been AGES since I last wrote longfic and I never dare to even touch any of the ideas I get. I hope other people are braver, lol.

[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.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

That's a good insight about the age of the fandom--and the bit about the 'untouchable' ships. I'm really glad Infinite isn't like that, because I ship...everything, but I miss longfics so much!

I find that it's easier for me to be sure and to a certain point confident of my characterization of a fictional character than it is for me to feel the same about a boyband member

I totally get that. I wrote lots of fic for Buffy, but I was never ~inspired with it the way I was when I first started writing shoot to kill, so it doesn't appear to apply to me, but it definitely makes sense!

Well, if you ever find yourself a Hojong plot that can sustain a longfic, I will cheer you on every step of the way. Till then we'll hope that other people get inspired.

[indiesnopp.livejournal.com]

I know I'm used to long fics in HP, Buffy and CM fandom...in kpop fandom there are VERY VERY FEW
but strangely...EXO fandom is bringing some really impressive longfic (I like 'Zodiac' more than I do the band) and that is equally baffling

[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.

[f-lyn.livejournal.com]

Haha me too! Lol I went from 70+ to 100+ chapters in the HP fandom, to really really short ones in the kpop fandom. And the good long fics in kpop are even less =_=

I guess it's quite hard to imagine and create a whole new world from just what we have in kpop. Things like HP/Buffy have a lot of supernatural elements and themes that are still unexplored, which leads to better and more long fics.

Sigh, I really wish there were more of this kinds of long looonnng and well written ones in the Infinite fandom. I've one across some good and long ones in the BAP fandom, but none yet for infinite. I guess I'll keep my eye out until then :(

[yixingz.livejournal.com]

i haven't read fics outside the kpop fandom but i do agree with you saying there are very few longfics for majority of the fandoms i've read. the only fandom i've realized that has longfics is exo. most fics are 10k+ and many "one-shots" are even like 50k so they're super long O_O I've seen many chapter fics going up to like 30 chapters too ;o

i guess a factor with the production of long fics is the age of the fandom? fandoms with more older people (20+?) usually has really long fics for some reason. the authors i know who write extremely long fics are all above 20 years old and it's probably because they read novels and etc as a kid so i guess they have more experience with longer works? idk, maybe i'm generalizing too much but yeah LOL

(excuse my randomness... idk what i'm saying orz)

[atheend.livejournal.com]

My fandom, reading/writing fanfic experiences comes from kpop only. I've been in fandom for a good amount of years (almost 8 years and counting) and my safe bet is that is a miss of how old the band is, how old the actual fandom is, the age of the fans and how set is the fandom canon. Im still reading a Shinhwa fanfic from a couple of years ago (it has three long chaptered fics and is not finish) and DBSK fandom has a great amount of long fics. I remember it took me two weeks to read a fanfic that it wasn't finished (as of this date it is... well sort of LOL). I've read long fics in Suju fandom and some of Shinee fandom. Canon in fandoms do help with the amount of fics and the length of it. With the separation of DBSK & JYJ the Yunjae fandom hasn't suffer at all. They keep spitting all length fics in all the possible genre, is weirdly fascinating.
I think it will take time for younger bands fandom to get to that point or if older fans fall in love with the younger groups maybe good quality chaptered fics will come up.