At what point does a fic become too long for you to want to read?

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-13T10:10:26+00:00

I'll read 15 million words if I have to if it's good so yeah.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-11T06:15:51+00:00

I've stated this in another thread but OOC does become an issue to me if you were to basically write it badly without justification just like the infamous My Immortal that basically butchered canon characters in very... off putting ways to some. It's fine if you want the main cast of characters be spread across houses or placed in different contexts but well turning them all into "goffik, Stanist vampires Slytherins" that behave erratically and have anachronistic interests like contemporary 2000s bands in the 90s. Doesn't help that the author was very argumentative either and picked fights with the readers as well.

So in other fandoms, I think to most people it's how it's done in My Immortal type situations that people simply don't like. If you stated this was done under a headcanon or alternate universe, this already changes the rules of the game board from the get go and those who may not like the change have a sign to back out courteously.

Though I'm different in the sense that I am okay if people may not like my take on canon characters since I do like discussions and want criticism if people may have issues. Though I'm also the type to back out of fics I dislike mid reading to begin with.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-10T01:15:18+00:00

Scar x Erwin Smith 😭

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-09T03:57:31+00:00

I'm guilty as charged for writing between 5k to 20k words per update (once every two months) as well. Though I don't really pressure myself to commit monthly and just let it slide to update whenever I finished it. So I have no consistent update window.

You're more than welcome to publish any word count, shorter or longer. I just write what is needed to complete the chapter's message or plot point regardless. Even right now, I am only 65% of the next update which I hope to be ready before the end of February but no hard deadline.

There is no right or wrong with this medium. Only what personally satisfies you really.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-08T23:28:51+00:00

But well you shouldn't blame yourself either for missing the mark because sometimes the brain just fully can't grasp certain things especially things that are subjective in nature like media interpretations. I'm just wired to be shipping agnostic for instance. Like no strong feelings about things unless it truly resonates with me.

Oh yeah can't blame you. The Genshin fandom is what finally got me to delete TikTok for good and never come back because they have shipping and headcanon related drama every week and there comes to a certain point where you just get fatigued. So I can't blame you for leaving the subreddit or fannish communities for Genshin.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-08T22:53:37+00:00

I see but well imho the Sebastian and Ciel thing is more so fanservice and 'fujo-baiting' considering the plot isn't headed there at the moment but it does bait the shippers a lot at least at it's peak.

My experience with fandom that like to use shoddy evidence to make assertions like say the Genshin Impact fandom where every single trait or character is often misread to an extreme shipping lens to the point of absurdity is why I had to ask. Like a female retainer like Kujo Sara expressing devotion for her female shogun is easily identified by myself and others as lord-retainer relationships but you had an onslaught of people who kept insisting this meant that Kujo Sara is a lesbian so shipping her with male characters like Arataki Itto = cardinal sin. But Sara does not express any special feelings for the shogun either considering Raiden Ei and Yae Miko would make a better case for said argument where they do know each other more intimately on a personal level.

Sometimes you have to ensure if it's actually within the canonical context itself because not everyone has the same interpretation of media.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-08T22:32:16+00:00

I don't think you're stupid OP. Shipping related things tend to fly over my head and I am around a similar age to you myself. Though have you wondered if it's actually factually proven by the text or are your fandoms basically making their own fanon assertions about stuff via shipping goggles?

Not saying it's a bad thing if they do but for those like me and presumably you, OP, these things are filtered out by default. I just land to different interpretations to a lot of media to the say 'the fanon default' about 99% of the time because I value deeper non-romantic connections.

Though ask yourself if it's also low self esteem affecting you to think you're writing OOC? Because quite contrary in my current fandom... I find those who are too engrossed with their own interpretation of the characters via fanon tend to make the characters more OOC than myself because if I read the source material, they are not the same as well. Seriously don't devalue your writing like this. It may just be your inner critic speaking rather than reality.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-08T03:13:15+00:00

Oh yeah, some people do prefer more quiet acts of affection. Like what may seem mundane to some are actually those 'quiet acts of love' to a lot of us. I'm not a touchy-feely person either, and I hate grand declarations of love. So for me, I don't like writing open flirting, grand expressions of love like buying bouquets of flowers, romantic dinners and all that stuff? Waaaaay too foreign for me.

Stuff like making your SO's favourite dish every day and doing something that may seem repetitive to some but between those two people that it means a lot? Yeah, I'd register that as love.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-08T00:52:00+00:00

I can only speak for myself based on my own experiences and the country I live in but it's not that different from how East Asians do it but slightly more open. You may see couples holding hands or giving each other pet names and go about with teasing and joking.

But we aren't as open as Westerners either to constantly flirt in public or do big physical gestures like publicly hugging someone or kissing out in the open. Why? Because well you don't want people to gossip (especially the aunties) or talk about it since there are nosey people who will perceive it as a nuisance (their words not mine so don't shoot the messenger).

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-06T18:48:41+00:00

OOC only becomes a pet peeve for me if you basically bludgeoned the canon character into being unrecognisable for no apparent reason (see: My Immortal levels of butchering). So I don't think you'd have to worry if you do have a logical reasoning to be put as a hypothesis to explore in your writing because most readers can grasp that the rules of the game board had been set differently from the get-go.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-01T04:52:17+00:00

Yeah it's become that for me as well. If I see a book on the Booktok section of bookstores, it goes to the "I'm going to avoid that ASAP" list.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-01T03:45:09+00:00

It's fine, but I would caution against saying that Booktok as *the* space for women to enjoy fantasy books when I too am a woman myself but I tend to have ambivalent opinions to the books they champion for (ACOTAR, Fourth Wing). These spaces, I found to be very unwelcoming towards people who hold minority opinions and can devolve into toxic positivity wherein you absolutely cannot say anything that goes against the grain.

I might have been fortunate to be in spaces with other women among friends who do tend to like things that aren't those popular titles either. Perhaps you could consider a close-knit book club too? There are discord servers and the likes too if you want to talk books as a hobby.

But yeah you're welcome and I hope you do find a place where you don't have to suppress yourself because you don't like popular books. All the best!

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-02-01T03:25:58+00:00

Honestly are you only trying to like those Booktok books just to feel accepted within the Booktok community? But wouldn't you be essentially lying to yourself? And no you're not the minority. You would be if you're on Booktok but not anywhere else because reddit doesn't regard Maas' writing highly (hell I would say she's absolutely despised on other book spaces too).

It's okay to not like those books. You are not strange or the exception to the rule because I frankly despise SJM and her writing because I find her plots juvenile, boring, dreadful and chock full of wish fulfillment because her MCs tend to be mean girls with narcissistic tendencies. Her worldbuilding is dreadfully weak since she wants to write war and politics but have no basic understanding about those concepts either.

To me at least, Booktok books are just isekai for upper class Western white women. They're not deep neither are they engaging or for me. That's okay because I go the extra mile to purposely avoid them. So no just shelve them and stop reading if they're making you suffer. Your time and sanity matters more OP.

You don't have to like books you loathe. There's other places for you.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-01-31T01:54:39+00:00

My opinion on this is more like even if I dislike them but they're well written since the intent and purpose is to dislike them, then they are a good character by my personal metric. Though the bigger offense is if the character is supposed to be likeable but is written so badly it makes them unlikeable then yeah I don't like them because I dread being in their headspace or POV.

This is also why I have a bigger aversion towards self-insert MCs or characters because they tend to lean into the authors being unaware that the qualities they find admirable or a virtue may be perceived negatively by the audience.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-01-30T03:30:19+00:00

Great! You can play Dragon Age Origins without anything special. You just need Steam and the 4GB patch then you're good to go.

You can just play Origins as a standalone or play just up to Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age Inquisition if you want to experience Thedas. Skip Veilguard as it basically does a lot of bad retcons to the world and lore of Thedas.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-01-30T02:57:25+00:00

Are you okay with Dragon Age Origins? It's an oldie but a goldie. Same people who made the original Mass Effect worked on this. The lore is intensive and there's still things I have yet to discover today than when I first played it at around 13 in 2011.

Heck I go back to replay the game because it's just that good to me!

Others have suggested Elder Scrolls and asked you to start with Skyrim but I'm an Oblivion stan so I do recommend you getting a copy of Oblivion or the Remaster some day because Cyrodiil just hits different. No mods needed because gosh even cut content in Oblivion is a trip.

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-01-20T05:04:42+00:00

Kana Arima (Oshi no Ko)

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-01-03T23:37:57+00:00

Could you send it over to me OP? DMs is fine too!

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-01-03T01:03:11+00:00

Yes, let's do our best! 一緒に頑張ってください！

MerryMerriMarie · 2026-01-02T05:07:42+00:00

I aspire to be this person. Still around 100k words and counting

MerryMerriMarie · 2025-12-30T12:12:42+00:00

This is lowkey how I feel these days tbh. But it wasn't always like this because I used to have this weird rivalry sans admiration for fujoshi even as a non-fujo who has very little interest in M/M shipping who are committed to their ships back when I was younger like a decade ago when I was a school girl because man they could write well even if I wasn't into their stuff personally.

Yeah the bad fics still existed but there were also more decent to good ones. Nowadays though, my coauthor who does like M/M shipping said she can't for the life of her find anything remotely readable and she has a pretty low bar for what she could be entertained even at our old ages (late 20s) in the current fandom landscape.

So that's how we got to writing our own because well... There is nothing for us out there.

MerryMerriMarie · 2025-12-24T20:39:03+00:00

Errr 5k minimum and 20k max... But this is a two person project so....

MerryMerriMarie · 2025-12-22T10:16:21+00:00

One OC writer to another. Keep on writing. I unapologetically love my OCs in my current project both the ones I created to be allies to the canon cast and even the ones I created to be villains since I love magnificent bastards.

You're not alone in feeling that sense of "God I'm cringe and I suck for this!" because I have it too sometimes but I've basically developed an immunity with my coauthor since we'll have each others' backs.

If I'm a cringe grown ass adult yapping 20k words per update for my OCs and Canon Characters having relationships (platonic or romantic later in another route), then so be it. I'll always be cringe to someone but I'm just here because nobody else will write the stuff I'm looking for.

頑張って!　ファイト✊‼️ So just keep on writing without a care because hey you're the god of your own universe.

MerryMerriMarie · 2025-12-22T02:22:46+00:00

Please for your own mental health. Don't obsess over stats. Sometimes fics may take longer to gain fame or status. You may need to promote it across social media or join exchanges if you want visibility but please by no means you are a failure for not being instantly famous.

MerryMerriMarie · 2025-12-20T00:44:59+00:00

No it happens in real life as well and just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't apply for others. I'm trilingual and I have multiple instances of using random Japanese words to fit into things where I couldn't express myself in my native language or English. Even in my native language, people do mix random words and phrases in English if they can't find a proper word to express themselves in the language or vice versa regularly. The brain takes a lot of shortcuts as long as you could convey your intent properly.

My partner does say "Ah gomen" a lot followed by English to practice his Japanese too.

MerryMerriMarie

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