Those were the days
Mar. 4th, 2003 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhI was thinking about a time, I think a year ago, when I was just starting to think about writing my own story and therefore decided to get a little better about reviewing others. As most people did at that point, I trolled around ff.net looking for smut during my lunch hour. The best stuff was always SBRL. It might have been just the tons and tons of H/D dross that turned me off that ship; there isn't nearly as much SBRL crap.
At any rate, that was how I found Of Linen. It was only three or four chapters in--it didn't even have the cool binary titles yet (though, Bally, where did they go?). It was the first chaptered fic that I actually watched unfold before my eyes, logging on every day hoping for a new chapter. It was also one of the first fics I ever reviewed, and certainly the first chaptered fic for which I reviewed nearly every chapter. For various reasons Bally has taken them down from ff.net, which is good for me because then you can't see how plebeian I was then.
(And as an aside, I went over there today to see if the reviews were still there, and within five minutes of poking around I had eight pop-up windows. God, I am so glad I am never over there anymore.)
But I was thinking about that experience of reviewing, and this post from Bally, both of which were prompted by Midnight-Oil (plug, plug) and my duties as a discussion mod to review all the fics, which lead me to read Of Linen in toto for probably only the second time. My reactions, while not completely different, were definitely changed. True, this is partially because I'm writing myself and may be a more critical reader or because I've been around the fandom, and the SBRL portion of it, for longer.
But also, reading a work as a whole is a very different experience than getting it chapter by chapter. I'm going to make a whole post about structure later, but one of the most impressive things about reading Of Linen chapter by chapter was that it came out so fast--great language, written very quickly. Reading/reviewing it was experiential, a real-time sort of thing. I'm not sure how much real criticism you can give of a chaptered fic when you review chapter by chapter as it comes out, because you don't have a sense of the story as a whole. Sure, when reading novels we pick them up and put them down--but we have the whole to react to. We know how close we are to the end, how many loose ends have to be wrapped up, etc. It's difficult if not impossible to do that with a WIP. So you end up reacting to the plot in a "what will happen next?" way, rather than to a cohesive work. Language also counts more.
Of course, none of this follows for short fics. They're too short to worry about structure, often too short to worry about plot. One-shots are about the moment, immediacy, imagery. However, one should not review a chaptered fic as if it were a series of one-shots. Not every chapter can pack a punch.
I'm realizing that I will absolutely have a different feeling about Cassie's Trilogy reading it as a finished work than you all have reading it as it goes along. But I think that is a good thing, all the way around. I'll try to explain that later as well.
At any rate, that was how I found Of Linen. It was only three or four chapters in--it didn't even have the cool binary titles yet (though, Bally, where did they go?). It was the first chaptered fic that I actually watched unfold before my eyes, logging on every day hoping for a new chapter. It was also one of the first fics I ever reviewed, and certainly the first chaptered fic for which I reviewed nearly every chapter. For various reasons Bally has taken them down from ff.net, which is good for me because then you can't see how plebeian I was then.
(And as an aside, I went over there today to see if the reviews were still there, and within five minutes of poking around I had eight pop-up windows. God, I am so glad I am never over there anymore.)
But I was thinking about that experience of reviewing, and this post from Bally, both of which were prompted by Midnight-Oil (plug, plug) and my duties as a discussion mod to review all the fics, which lead me to read Of Linen in toto for probably only the second time. My reactions, while not completely different, were definitely changed. True, this is partially because I'm writing myself and may be a more critical reader or because I've been around the fandom, and the SBRL portion of it, for longer.
But also, reading a work as a whole is a very different experience than getting it chapter by chapter. I'm going to make a whole post about structure later, but one of the most impressive things about reading Of Linen chapter by chapter was that it came out so fast--great language, written very quickly. Reading/reviewing it was experiential, a real-time sort of thing. I'm not sure how much real criticism you can give of a chaptered fic when you review chapter by chapter as it comes out, because you don't have a sense of the story as a whole. Sure, when reading novels we pick them up and put them down--but we have the whole to react to. We know how close we are to the end, how many loose ends have to be wrapped up, etc. It's difficult if not impossible to do that with a WIP. So you end up reacting to the plot in a "what will happen next?" way, rather than to a cohesive work. Language also counts more.
Of course, none of this follows for short fics. They're too short to worry about structure, often too short to worry about plot. One-shots are about the moment, immediacy, imagery. However, one should not review a chaptered fic as if it were a series of one-shots. Not every chapter can pack a punch.
I'm realizing that I will absolutely have a different feeling about Cassie's Trilogy reading it as a finished work than you all have reading it as it goes along. But I think that is a good thing, all the way around. I'll try to explain that later as well.
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Date: 2003-03-04 09:32 pm (UTC)Hmm, I was just remarking on the serialized vs. whole book publication schedule recently. It's interesting to see serialization in fanfic, when it has pretty much disappeared in commercial publications. Reviews people give chaptered fic should be different than the sort you'd give a book and I think readers can offer real constructive criticism even without knowing the entire plot. Readers may not have a sense of the story as a whole but are able to ask questions and raise points about where plot lines are going.
I would agree that plot movement counts for more, and sometimes it seems the striving for dynamism compromises the work as a whole. While not every chapter in a book published in its entirety needs to pack a punch, in serialized publications each chapter does need to stand alone (aside from not really ending), otherwise there is a greater risk of losing the reader. It's easier to abandon a story you've lost interest in when it's serialized, where if you had a book in hand you might continue reading hoping it would get better and no additional effort (e.g. going to a site)is required to finish it.
I'd be interested in how authors of chaptered fics would edit their works to reissue them as books, where they would reorganize and cut or add to make a more cohesive work.
Thanks for sharing your early fan experience. As someone who has recently come to HP fanfic, it's always interesting to hear others' reactions and evolving opinions.