What makes a fic worth reading?

[emilie786]

This is really a question for anyone and everyone:

I've had quite a few thoughts and discussions lately about reading and writing fanfic, and I was just looking over my wips and wondering, how do people decide what fics they want to read? What makes readers keep reading, or stop? At the end of a fic, what feeling would you have that would confirm to you that it was a fic worth your time? 

If you are a writer, are there any things you do to make your fics appealing, engaging, and ultimately worthwhile?

Comments

[or_midnight]

This is such an interesting thing to think about! I almost hesitate to give my honest answer, because I think it's a little unusual and also 150% NOT something I think people should deliberately try to do in order to make their fics more appealing or something. But I really go for lyrical prose. The literal language of the fic has to be put together well for me to really really like something. There are lots of different styles that do this, interestingly enough, I just like it when a writer deliberately uses written language as art, not just as a means to convey information. So that's usually what engages me the most as a reader.

That being said, there are a ton of other things that might make a fic worthwhile, even for me, and there are plenty of other things that people other than me enjoy or find appealing/engaging. Extremely straightforward, journalistic narration is a plus for some readers!

In general terms, I also like it when someone knows what they want to do with a fic and then commits to that. If it's an emotional arc or a specific plot or worldbuilding or whatever, I want to get what the author was trying to do.

That last bit is what I think I try to do the most as a writer, as well. I just try to be true to concept as well as I can, and I kind of leave the decision about whether the end result is worthwhile up to the reader. I try to be less concerned with readers and more focused on just getting the whole story out of my head in as complete and accurate a fashion as possible.

In terms of stopping reading . . .hmm. Mostly, if something doesn't grab me pretty quickly, I just don't read it, period, so I rarely stop reading something once I've already gotten very far into it. Usually, if I do quit mid-fic, it's because of a series of things that have rubbed me the wrong way. Sometimes it's factual inaccuracies about things I know a lot about (rare, but has happened) or specific subject matter that I don't want to read about, but most of the time it's just a realization that the author and I aren't on the same page at all with respect to the source material or the commentary/message/story they're trying to tell. And, again, that doesn't necessarily mean a fic is objectively bad. I don't like hoppy beer, no matter how well-crafted it may be, and that's no fault of the brewer, it's just a matter of personal preference. So I kinda think of stories like that, I guess.

edit: came back to add that I'm really curious what other people think about this! I can't imagine that we would have the variety in literature and fanfic that we do if there weren't a LOT of different answers.

[emilie786]

That is fascinating! Thank you so much for responding! I agree about lyrical prose, I like it too! That's maybe kind of hard to find in fanfic I think, what do you think?

Do you have a favorite fic or an example?

I agree about being able to understand the author's purpose. I know I've asked people what they thought the purpose of one of my fics was and they usually only get a really vague idea of what I wanted to accomplish. Definitely something to work on.

I like your focus on telling your story as a writer rather than focusing on the reader. It sounds like you trust the stories in your head and I really admire that!

And yes, I get that everyone will like different things, I think that's wonderful too!

[or_midnight]

Maybe I have been just absurdly privileged that some incredibly talented writers have let me hang out with them over the years, but I have read plenty of fic that could go toe to toe with published fiction any time. No joke. I never bookmark anything, but I've been rummaging around looking for old favorites for a while this evening, and there's a lot of high quality work out there. So I don't think it's unusual to find in fic at all, actually! If anything, people take stylistic risks in fanfic that they wouldn't otherwise be able to play with, and sometimes it falls flat, but sometimes it leads to really amazing and remarkable work.

As to your note about people not really understanding what you're trying to accomplish with a piece: don't sell yourself short, and don't overestimate your readers' perceptiveness. I mean, yes definitely value good feedback, but finding your audience and connecting with people who are already inclined to get you can be almost as crucial as what you actually write.

Hopefully relevant story: a long time ago, I went to a writer's group at a library regularly for a year or so, and they never liked a single thing I brought to share. They weren't mean, they just didn't vibe with any of it. I struggled and struggled to bring things I had already written that I thought they would like, and I just always left feeling more and more discouraged. Finally one night we talked about some description I had written, and they were just grilling me about it, like, how does it work? Where is this character? What is the door doing?? And finally one of the ladies who never talked very much said, "Oh for heaven's sake," and literally drew a little picture of the scene I had written. Like, stick figures and blobs for furniture, just a diagram, but it was exactly what I had been picturing when I wrote it, and she had understood it perfectly. After the meeting, I was like, "I'm so grateful to you for doing that, but was it really kinda hard to picture it? Did I actually not describe it very well and you just managed to figure it out?" and she was like, "No. they just weren't paying attention."

So: you may be doing a better job than you think of being true to your stories.