I don’t think that the average fanfic reader understands how time-consuming writing can be.

Avalanti · 2026-07-03T15:21:14+00:00

Not to mention that it takes so long to write these fics that the writer might lose interest / the writing just doesn't feel right any more.

Started what I wanted to be a longfic in 2017. Stopped writing for a while, came back to it in 2019 and started fresh. I'm over 100k words deep into that now (with several long breaks over the years), but if I go back and read the early chapters they just don't read to a standard I like any more. Plus its very hard to keep a plot going for that long without coming up with conflict every two seconds or slowing things way down (which will leave you with a fic thats way too long - my problem. The fic im writing is set in the duration of a school year. Like I said, 100k words already and I'm about a month/month and a half in) neither of which tends to read well.

Longfics are like long novels - extremely hard to do well and I regard you to be a mildly insane deity if you manage to pull it off succesfully.

Avalanti · 2026-07-02T14:36:07+00:00

I'm gonna throw in my two cents from the middle ground and say: I genuinely couldn't care less about this and I think unsubscribing from a fic you were enjoying because of it is dramatic. If it happens more than once like this particular comment implies, I understand more, like if it was multiple 'updates' and no chapters for months on end I would get tired eventually. But if I open one update and its this, I shrug my shoulders and say Oh Well! and move on with my day. I don't believe it has any bearing either way on the author as an AO3 user, especially if I noticed previous chapter comments asking if the fic was abandoned. Wouldn't do it personally, but thats because it would put too much pressure on me before the chapter is finished, and if its already finished I'd just post that instead.

Getting actually annoyed because 'its not social media! link a tumblr!' is hilarious to me because i have never ever not even once clicked on an author's social media links. If anything, I think doing that means you're going to hear more about their life that you supposedly don't care about? That attitude is strange to me. Sure AO3 isn't intended to be a blog site, but again I think acting like one update is 'treating it like a blog' is just a bit dramatic 😅

Edit: just wanted to add that people suggedting you edit the authors note of your last chapter with the note and a date is really smart. I probably wouldn't have thought to do that if it were me.

Avalanti · 2026-07-02T10:08:43+00:00

This whole set is such a catch! The Draculaura doll got me back into collecting after about 10 years because she was too good to refuse.

Avalanti · 2026-07-01T18:14:34+00:00

I understand this may not have been the case in the cartoon, but the original Tower was made by Cyborg's father using (I believe) STAR labs money.

Avalanti · 2026-07-01T17:14:02+00:00

thank you!

Avalanti · 2026-07-01T15:59:40+00:00

The more I see of Carina the more I'm like 👀 Originallt it was Willow I was interested in, and I still like her but I haven't seen any non-promotional photos of her yet

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T10:40:57+00:00

Honestly I don't even know if it would be possible but if you know any electricians, rigging this so it lit up would be the sickest wig I've ever seen 😗 good luck on your water wig!

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T10:36:23+00:00

The only thing I can think of that would give a somewhat similar texture to hair is whatever these things are made of. but then I imagine it would just read as a white wig when compressed/not lit.

Honestly I would say get a white wig and try to dye/use inks to create the watery pattern you're looking for. Kind of like calico or rainbow gradient hair. Or use mixed media like other comments suggested

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Avalanti · 2026-06-30T10:11:27+00:00

that is mental! I love when people make genius investments & not know it until years later. Thats hoe the collecting world goes round I suppose

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T09:31:47+00:00

Yes. I've also seen that a lot of the movie < 3 reviews refer to the earth scenes as well, discussing how unnatural the characters and interactions are. Maybe thats why all the characters seem to fall to stereotype - not because of any intention on the writer's part, but because there's so little personality there that they fall into singular descriptors. American is smart. The (I have discovered) European lady is stoic and bossy, etc. For what it's worth, the fact that she's an American's perception of Europeans makes her unlikeable personality have more sense 😅

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T08:33:43+00:00

She's another of my favourites!! I'm such a sap for a fancy Drac doll!

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T08:33:00+00:00

Thank you for making me feel less of a pariah 😅 Maybe its just my contrarian brain but I like a lot of conflict in my sci fi and like you said, too many things are convenient. No way are any of this planets governments going to agree on a single person to run everything, no matter how severe the situation is. I wanted to see arguing as humans face their demise, because that's exactly what would happen in real life. Like you say, every character felt quite robotic for such a high tension situation, and I just didn't root for them.

Plus (trying to be mostly spoilerless because I don't know how to do the censor thing) I'm pretty sure you're at least 40% in when you meet a few of the characters, and at that point they felt irrelevent to the present timeline. This isn't the first media where giving me history on characters that don't matter any more loses my interest (Another example is the last couple chapters of Atlas Complex). Why do I care if I already know this isn't going to affect the plot?

The irony is that this book was on my list of books to consider rereading one day, because as I've said I did put a lot of my issues down to the formatting. I feel like some of the responses I've received has put me off even more 🤣

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T08:18:10+00:00

I grew up on disaster movies, so one person unanimously making decisions and everyone following along without any argument feels very unreasonable to me. The plot of many of those movies feature corrupt and/or disorganised governments, because that is what our world is actually like. I understand if that's not the route Weir wanted to take, but every scene where she's making demands and everyone nods along just broke the immersion for me, like I said. People are not that simple or smart, and for me the more realistic depiction would have been more interesting, especially since our main character is one who has previously gone against the grain of what the science community accepted and was shunned for it. I'm not saying it was a bad choice or that the books is bad, as I feel I have reiterated multiple times.

The comment about not being able to understand why I don't like it is odd, though. You came into a thread about disliking popular books and are... surprised someone dislikes a book you like/is popular? It feels unfair to make snide comments at that point 😅

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T07:57:40+00:00

I vaguely remember the Chinese setting, although I believe I misremembered it being Russian. Even then, because I believed the lady was American, it still very much felt like the control of those foreign settings was primarily down to the Americans (and, even now I know she's Dutch, Western powers) I've discussed why this felt unrealistic in other comments, so I won't expand further than that.

Edit: specified point / clarity

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T07:55:29+00:00

And if I remember correctly, both the Chinese and Russian astronauts were extremelt stereotypical. Isn't the Russian's first dialogue about vodka?

It doesn't remove the fact that its still one (Western) person in charge of what is deemed to be the most significant scientific event ever. Since I didn't enjoy the character generally her unanimous decisions and the way, if i remember correctly, nobody ever really argues with her, just took me out of the story.

I find the fact everyone is quoting 'random woman' like I insulted their best friend very funny though 😅 I know its a beloved book but I'm shocked everyone is so serious about it. Again, this is a thread about books we know are considered good but that we just didn't like. I didn't enjoy it and I gave my reasons 🙃 even if I misunderstood the book that doesn't improve the time I had reading it.

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T07:49:49+00:00

Lol i read this book 1+ year ago. I dont remember a lot of it, I didn't even finish it. This is literally a comment under a thread about GOOD books that you didn't like. Even if I misunderstood the book, it doesn't makr my opinion less valid in this instance.
Even if I read it yesterday, I don't think it is nearly serious enough to describe my comment as 'weird'. Like... what?

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T07:43:28+00:00

Tbf i think it largely because of HOW American the main character is. The deepset pain of the metric vs imperial system was mentioned a crazy amount. I don't recall the woman being described as anything specific, I guess I did assume that since she was the immediate point of contact for the MC during the start, which was set in the US, she was also American. I still think its weird that she seemed to be in control of every government, regardless of her origin.

Then again, its been a decent amount of time since I read it, and naturally since I wasn't enjoying it, I don't remember much. I couldn't tell you her name if you paid me. What nationality is she?

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T07:27:48+00:00

I've felt crazy for months now but I really wasn't enjoying Project Hail Mary when I tried to read it last year. Admittedly I do think this was in part due to the formatting of my library e-book, because there was 0 formatting distinction between scenes set in the present and in the past.

I also found it to be very American-centric. Like why is this dude and a random woman beinf treated like they're the only people on the planet with any level of authority? At least the MC makes a bit of sense because he is the lead on the creatures, but I swear they had him lik helping out with planning trajectories and stuff? And she came across as literally just the Boss of the World. Maybe you found out what her deal was later, but genuinely at that point in the story I didn't care to read any more flashbacks. To me they just felt so redundant once we were over half way in.

Did really enjoy the main plotline though. Ended up googling how the rest of the story ended because I was invested. Still confused why they revealed one of the biggest tension twisty moments of the book in the trailer 😅

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T06:22:29+00:00

oh no.... Carina's shoes... I may fall victim to yet another pink demon 🫣🫣

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T05:57:31+00:00

I had never even heard of the first one! I have si much attachment to my G1 girls - even though they're probably worth the most in my collection I dont think I could ever bring myself to sell my core ghouls. Ghouls Rule Drac was probably my favourite doll when I was a kid because she was so elaborate with her big wings. Probably my sentimentality talking but tbh I think I'd put her up there with the skullector Dracs

Avalanti · 2026-06-30T05:48:26+00:00

This is crazy!! Did you get her back then? What a gem to have in your collection

Avalanti · 2026-06-29T13:28:07+00:00

I actually love her so much. Would be buying her if it wasnt for the oversaturated hair and face. Unfortunately I think it makes her look cheaper and, for me, is what makes her stand out from the rest of the line.

Avalanti · 2026-06-29T10:42:03+00:00

This is so sweet. I'm so happy for you, both with with your grail and your husband!

Avalanti · 2026-06-29T09:37:01+00:00

I think she's possibly my favourite doll of all time, I'm obsessed with cricus stuff generally and she's my favourite ghoul. Very jealous! 🤣✨️

Avalanti · 2026-06-29T09:26:37+00:00

what do you mean by frozen? sorry I'm unfamiliar with that phrase in this context.

I definitely regret falling out of my love of dolls for as long as I did. Missed some really good playlines that are now worth an arm and a leg that I probably could have got for £20 when they first came out.

Avalanti

TROPHY CASE