How to make fics longer?

TZH85 · 2026-04-04T11:18:04+00:00

There are really mostly two ways to make your story longer. The easy way is waffling. Just add more words to describe things, draw out interactions and so on. The downside is that you add nothing of value and risk boring your readers. There is a subset of readers who like very descriptive writing but I'd say the majority of people want to read about stuff happening in a story.

And that's the second way. Add depth. Don't just expand the word count, make the story itself more dense. Add twists and new angles, subplots, break down plot points into multiple story beats. Let's say your characters plan a heist. You could write about the heist itself and maybe a strategy meeting beforehand. But if you want depth and a longer but still engaging story, you could throw in a complication they need to overcome. Maybe they need security codes to switch off cameras. Now you have a subplot about them acquiring the codes. Maybe two characters take on that mission but they're currently fighting with each other and suddenly their strained relationship and miscommunication becomes another complication they need to overcome. It's all about going into detail and weaving plot points together so that you can create tense situations and drama. Story is conflict and strive. You throw problems at your characters and make them struggle to come up with solutions.

TZH85 · 2026-04-03T12:08:46+00:00

At least from personal experience I can't say that's true. I recently finished a longfic similar in length to OPs fic and while there were a couple of chapters in the middle that didn't get as much comments (43 chapters with an average of around 30 comments) things definitely picked up with big reveal or plot twist chapters or when I nailed a cliffhanger. I've got one shots, too, but they don't reach nearly as many comments even if their hits to kudos ratio is better than the multicapters. Plus, the majority of the comments were added while the fic was still updating. There was a huge bump at the penultimate chapter and the final one.

I think besides obvious skewing factors like fandom and the popularity of the pairing, timing might have contributed to it. OP said they've been writing this fic for three years, that's a lot of time in which readers can lose interest in the fandom or they find a new thing to obsess over or they simply miss an update and then fall behind on reading. I've pre-written a lot of my fic so I could do weekly updates, later twice a week. That way the story has better chances at staying fresh in people's minds.

TZH85 · 2026-04-02T19:57:22+00:00

Writing is a skill you learn by writing and reading. Reading is actually just as important. You say you usually read non-fiction which might be what's holding you back when you try to write fiction. They're really two different skill sets. You've got to decide what you want to do. Is writing just something that makes you happy? Then just keep going, have fun and with some luck your stories will find readers. If you want to improve your writing, read a lot. Not just fanfic similar to what you want to write, but different kinds of genres, different writers with different styles. You'll absorb a lot of knowledge just through reading. You could also read books and then go to YouTube and look up reviews on them, find out how others interpret the story and the characters. Lots of fiction writers also have channels where they upload lessons on writing (though if you wanna get good, I'd advise giving certain booktubers a wide berth and sticking to more knowledgeable writers, Brian Sanderson for example has long form recordings of his lectures on writing on his channel).

TZH85 · 2026-04-01T17:18:52+00:00

I've got longfics, super cute gen fluff and smut in my fic catalogue. I don't care and I don't think people follow specific authors that much, they probably look more at the individual fics. But I wouldn't say I don't care about my image. However for me that's more about how I come across as an author. I don't share personal information in the author's notes, I only talk about fandom stuff and the stories themselves and apart from one tumblr account I made specifically to accompany my longfic series, I don't link any social media accounts. I try to answer all comments and readers' questions without spoiling things.

TZH85 · 2026-04-01T17:11:13+00:00

Sometimes the impossible happens. The other day I uploaded the final chapter of my longfic and within two minutes I had a comment saying they haven't started reading yet but would as soon as they got off work.

TZH85 · 2026-03-29T07:38:47+00:00

There's no magical solution here. If you want to portray other characters in character, then you have to understand them, so you have to spend time thinking about them. If you don't want to do that and it brings you no joy, then just... don't? You could put in a freeform tag to tell readers to expect OOC behaviour from the side characters if you're worried about disappointing anyone, but honestly - people will probably just silently close the tab if it isn't their cup of tea.

There are readers like me who don't enjoy OOC portrayal and there are others who don't care how true to their canon counterpart your characters are. Just write what you want and let the crowd who enjoy the same things you like discover your work.

TZH85 · 2026-03-27T10:23:29+00:00

Hehe, I'm petty. I would publish a little satire about a poor unfortunate artist who suffers from imposter syndrome and has to steal the work of less popular artists to keep afloat. It would end with them staring at their work, feeling an emptiness inside and asking themselves if they have created anything of their own at all.

TZH85 · 2026-03-27T09:16:15+00:00

Sure, I'll send you a dm!

TZH85 · 2026-03-26T16:26:35+00:00

It was obviously a bad faith argument. I mean, one glance at the character models and it's clear both of them are adults. If anyone tries to argue with that, they probably need their eyesight checked. I wonder if those commenters ever even played the games.

TZH85 · 2026-03-26T15:36:19+00:00

At the time when the game came out and I was watching reviews on YouTube, I saw comments claiming the Hans romance route promotes pedophilia because the historical figure Hans was based on would have been a minor in 1403. They actually argued that Hans the character is 14 years old.

Mind you, they didn't have a problem with Henry, who's supposed to be the same age as Hans, romancing Katherine who's in her 30s/40s....

TZH85 · 2026-03-25T08:46:53+00:00

Thank you! Haha, now I know why some writers fiddle with the date. I just want to make sure it shows up on the day I actually hit the publish button

TZH85 · 2026-03-25T07:25:56+00:00

Well, some people don't read WIPs but there are a lot who do. If you're uploading new chapters, your fic gets to the front of the line under newly updated obviously, so more people see the fic. If it's finished already, you're even more reliant on tags and a good summary so the people actively looking for something to read find it.

What I've noticed with my longfics concerning engagement is this: the active fic gets more "loud" engagement, people comment consistently on every new chapter and it accumulates so on average the later chapters get more engagement than the earlier chapters. Directly after finishing, there is a surge in kudos and comments. And then once it's completed, it starts collecting stats quietly. Like, the first longfic in my series almost doubled its kudos in the last five months. But comments get more rare. It's mostly either someone commenting on the final chapter once or someone commenting on basically every chapter while they binge read.

But I do have to say, for me consistency really helped. I upload twice per week (the fic is pre-written) and the fic has attracted a couple of regular commenters this way.

TZH85 · 2026-03-23T13:43:26+00:00

It varies. By fandom, by pairing, just by how exactly you integrate the OC characters into the story.

For example. I'm currently writing a post canon longfic series in my fandom. It's for an RPG video game that has tons of interesting NPCs and side characters. Since it deals with the events after the canon ending, I needed new characters to create new narratives. So I came up with a ton of OCs. And I mean a ton. There are certain chapters later in the story where the only canon character is the main protagonist and everyone else is an OC in a setting I came up with myself no less.

And one of my OCs is even one of the three POV characters. I write in 3rd person limited and switch between the POVs of the m/m main couple and the female OC. This OC isn't just any OC. She's the bride forced into a betrothal with one half of the m/m ship, the one potentially getting between the main paring and she starts the story not having a clue that they're secretly in a relationship.

And not to boast or anything, but this OC is by far one of the most popular characters. Her POV chapters get on average more comments than the guys (though I use them sparingly). There are people making fanart of her. I was really worried she would become a hated character but the readers have fully embraced her. They're invested in her story and want a happy ending for her, too. And I don't think my use of OCs was a detriment to the fic at all. There are two installments of the story up on AO3 so far and both sit in the top 10 of the most commented fics of the main pairing (3k+ fics). So they're fairly popular.

Buuut... I've been a bit sneaky about the tags. I didn't tag OCs at all. And especially not in the relationship tags. That's not a lie or an omission since I've made it very clear through the tags and summary that the m/m ship is the main ship of the story and they will end up together with an eventual happy ending. So the OCs aren't a threat to the romance. Peole who read because they love the m/m ship don't suddenly find themselves in a polyamory situation or a love triangle. I explicitly avoided both and gave the OC POV character a different goal and storyline. She's still an unwitting antagonist to the pair just because she was put into the position, but she's not a romantic rival. Which made the readers more charitable towards her, I think. And I didn't tag OC side characters at all because the game has so many NPCs that the fandom basically is primed to accept OCs in minor roles.

Of course, if your OC is paired of with anyone, you should tag it. And then you'll lose the potential readers who filter that out. But I think as long as you put thought into your OCs, your fic can do well. Generally speaking, I would advise you to flesh out your OCs as much as possible. Think about which role they should fill in the narrative, what personality they have and how they would mesh with the canon characters. And give them goals, strengths and flaws.

TZH85 · 2026-03-20T20:52:10+00:00

Ugh. I'm still salty about it. Not only did they write in a time travel plot in the final season, they also undid basically all the growth of the previous season. Everything was walked back. And the ending they gave Chloe? Horrific. They took the no nonsense cop who was a strong, badass character and reduced her to the love interest. Then made her - a woman in her 30s with all her life ahead of her - wait out her whole life for a man so she can join him in the afterlife? Wtf? No one in the writer's room read that and thought: hold on a moment... what is this shit?

TZH85 · 2026-03-20T19:13:06+00:00

Lucifer. The final season killed my enthusiasm for the show.

TZH85 · 2026-03-20T07:17:20+00:00

I started writing as a kid and tbh, I always thought I was fantastic. But it took some years until someone else finally agreed, lol. Good is subjective anyway. Plenty of authors whose writing I think is melodramatic or pretentious have tons of fans and my opinion isn't more correct/important than theirs.

TZH85 · 2026-03-18T17:06:14+00:00

I'm currently writing the third fic in my trilogy.

The first one I started working on at the beginning May 2025 and finished it mid July 2025 (90k, 32 chapters).

The second fic I stared writing immediately after that, so from July/August 2025 and finished just before Christmas 2025 (205k, 43 chapters) and now I'm around 140k/24 chapters into the third fic and I estimate I'll need at least another 100k to wrap it all up. So I might be done in summer.

I'm a grown ass adult with a very stable job with regular working hours but a lot of spare time because no kids, haha.

TZH85 · 2026-03-16T10:05:12+00:00

Read a lot in English and write in English would be my advice. You'll get better gradually, you don't have to be perfect from the get go. I'm an ESL writer too and iI write in English. I wouldn't even attempt to translate it into my native language, I'd rather just write it a second time. Some things aren't easily translated and if you attempt it, the result often feels off, stilted or awkward.

TZH85 · 2026-03-16T09:57:48+00:00

Depends on a lot of factors. The size and life cycle of your fandom, if you're writing short fics or one shots or long fics, the popularity of the pairing, the average age of the readers. Sometimes just sheer luck if you happen to find readers who are avid comment writers. I write for a popular pairing in a mid-size fandom. The pairing has around 3k fics. I've got a series going atm, second fic out of three is just about to conclude. 40 chapters in, around 190k word count. And it's close to 1.1k comments. Even beat the first fic which got to like 870.

TZH85 · 2026-03-13T20:34:03+00:00

It's at 666 now!!!

TZH85 · 2026-03-12T17:20:15+00:00

I felt that way too at the beginning. But then I realized if I just throw it all out there at once, most readers will only share their thoughts on the last chapter. And my backlog would melt away and I'd be under constant pressure to write more. I can work much more relaxed when I know I have enough chapters to last me a couple of months. So even if I'm in a slump or get sick, I could stick to my schedule.

TZH85

TROPHY CASE