rodo | When Stories Become Hydras

Okay, I think I found my topic for today's meta (I'm keeping my schedule, see?): long stories.

Not stories that are long, mind you. Stories that feel long (not necessarily the same thing). A good story should make you forget time. It should suck you into its world until you wish the story would never end. I've read quite a few stories like these, and I love them. But there are other stories too. Stories that promise to be these amazing stories that you wish would never end, and then ... they just don't. They get longer and longer, full of stuff that is totally unnecessary, that deters from the purpose that is just plain boring to read. These are stories that I wish were betaed by those competent people who know when a story might be better off being shorter. I know I told an author once to cut a few scenes. Am I just an exception or do other people really not mind these stories?

Anyway, I will list a few stories that felt too long for me, and why:

1. Incubus by Crimson1:

A Supernatural slash fanfiction for people who don't like incest and who don't mind OCs. Well, that was more or less the only option you had before Castiel showed up in canon. Basically, it started with Dean and Sam meeting this guy called Sasha for a hunt. He turned out to be an incubus, and there was instant attraction between him and Dean. As of today, it is 83 chapters/791.324 words long.
I adored this story, up until somewhere around Arc 6/chapter 40. Suddenly, there were a lot of OCs. A lot. (Well, for Supernatural standards anyway.) Before that the story coped with a few ones only, mainly case related, who didn't become all that important and vanished into nothingness after the case. But afterward, there were all these incubi and succubi and the case characters gained too much importance. Not to mention the fact that the author just wouldn't stop making the characters like things she likes (that's called the pepperjack cheese syndrome, I believe). And of course there were the endless sex scenes (the incubus should have been a hint, I guess).
After Arc 6, I only liked the story, and now (Arc 10) I consider abandoning the story, because there is no end in sight, the characters and plot only get more complex (with added angels and bad guys) and the sex scenes stay just as frequent and become even longer. This story would, in my opinion, really profit from some editing.

Vizzini's Rule by buttononthetop:

A Torchwood fic that I apparently gave up on exactly one chapter before its end. It's basically a chronological retelling of canon from Ianto's PoV, and I loved how we got insights into his character, but the whole fic got kind of dailysoapy once Ianto and Jack started having sex. Suddenly at least half of the chapter (of which there are over 100) was about sex. Every chapter. In the end I was just yawning and skipping the sex. There was just so much of it. Most of it didn't seem to have any purpose in the story either, no matter how I looked at it. I think endless sex scenes are my absolute favourite guaranteed way to bore your readers.

The Sacrifices Arc by lightningwave:

This is just an example for many very long Harry Potter stories that suffered from a syndrome that I would call The Endless Pseudo-AU Plot In Which Nothing Seems To Happen. Or at least that's the impression they gave me. Other examples would be the Draco Trilogy and Faith and its sequel. The story generally starts out in some canon-friendly way, but the more the story progresses, the more the author seems to lose touch with what the canon universe seemed to be about. Characters suddenly become OoC, more and more things are added to a universe that is complex already, and if you don't read it all in one go you end up wondering why the hell you thought this might have been a good story and not an awfully wordy monstrosity that had almost nothing to do with canon anymore.
To be fair, sometimes I like these stories (especially if I read them in one go), and I think I'm in danger of writing one myself, but looking back I'm often left wondering why I thought they were so good. Not only does the plot get so blown up it's impossible to follow, they are also often written from a number of PoV that are hard to keep track of. They too often feature a lot of additional OCs that complicate matters, especially because most of them are surprisingly well crafted.
But all things combined you really wonder why you keep reading while nothing seems to happen. All these scenes do have a point in the greater narrative, but that narrative is just so complex that over long stretches I (and maybe other readers) get unbelievably bored because it seems like nothing happens. Everything stays more or less normal, but character A and B have a conversation and C reads a tiny newspaper article while D receives a letter from her parents with a tiny clue inside and E sees something suspicious.
Long and complex narratives are great, but they have to be handled in a way that keeps the story interesting. And the authors need to look back on canon every once in a while, I think. I have no idea how to fix this, to be honest, but there has to be a way.

I'd like to know about your experiences and theories about this as well, because I don't think I'm the only one who hates feeling that reading a story becomes some sort of chore that I only keep doing because I really used to love them. And is there any way to tactfully tell the authors that their beloved hydras really aren't as lovely as they seem to think?

Note: This is probably not very well thought out (I'm running on caffeine). I also apologize if linking these examples hurts the authors. I will take out the links if it does, just leave me a comment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ok, endless sex scenes are a sure way to turn me away from a story, too. As for reading endless stories to the finish - I just don't do it. I love long stories, actually prefer them, but it should be one long story imho, not an endless number of stories of an endless number of characters. I also really dislike soap operas, so I guess I mostly agree with you. I didn't finish the Lightning Arc because it went from pleasure to pain, which I sadly have to say about the second part of "Cambiare Podentes", about "A Year Like None Other" and some other pretty well liked stories; but also about some fantasy books like RRMartins whatsitsname, or sadly, Robin Hobbs Liveship trilogy (though I still want to finish that one, some day).

I feel that a story is still ok as long as you can look at any part you've already read and figure out pretty quickly what it was about. If you really can't remember, or feel you don't care, it might (personal quirks set aside) be an indication that the scene was mostly meaningless, or useless.

I don't know why I always read on even if I technically lose interest (I finished the Sacrifices Arc and it was hard work). I know why I do it with books (if I paid money for them, anyway). Most books also don't seem to have that problem because they're professionally edited.

I know there is a certain way of thinking in fandom according to which the longer a story the better the author/story is, which is simply not true. I think most stories that reach 300k could use a bit of editing, but that never stopped people from hyping them like crazy. When I read them as WIPs, I sigh every time one of those horribly long chapters ends up in my inbox.

I guess I should be lucky that I never read farther than the first chapter of A Year Like None Other.

Oops, it's meant to be Lightningwave's Sacrifices Arc...

These are stories that I wish were betaed by those competent people who know when a story might be better off being shorter.
If you're betaing a WIP, it can be really hard to tell what will be important to the story in the end and what won't. I know I failed as a beta in such a case. But I also admit those are the parts of betaing I suck most at - I'm better at the grammar/syntax stuff :o)

I've read loads of long fics that I gave up on, but I can't tell how much is it because they really should have been written differently, and how much they just weren't to my taste. I will say I only read IYAP once and even at the time knew I'd never read through it again, because I felt it was overwritten in the middle, and could have used much tightening up. (That doesn't mean it wasn't brilliant in parts.)

I've read loads of long fics that I gave up on, but I can't tell how much is it because they really should have been written differently, and how much they just weren't to my taste.

For me, there's definitely a difference. If I stop because the fic is really not to my taste, I generally don't feel sorry about it, and I most definitely don't continue reading even though it's painful. I do that when the fanfiction is at least partially interesting. Like the stuff between the sex scenes or what little I can spot of the overall plot.

If I really don't like the story anymore I just shrug and go on.

When Stories Become Hydras

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