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FanFic Q&A Thread

Griff4815

No. 1 Grovyle Fan
I didn't see one of these around so I decided to make one.
Here you can basically ask questions or for advice about your fic or questions that aren't worth making a whole new thread over.

If I'm not allowed to do this, sorry.

Anyways, ask away.
 
Oooh, I have a question. I've been posting a few illustrations in my fic. I checked the rules, and it says illustrations are allowed, but I just wanted to make sure - cause some of them aren't technically illustrations, they're more of just pics of the characters. Is that allowed?
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Yes, posting illustrations or artwork accompanying the story is okay (although of course, it is not an excuse for not describing the characters in the story itself).
 

Psychic

Really and truly
There really isn't a limit on either. Ideally a story should be treated as a television series where each chapter should be about the length of one episode (usually half an hour, sometimes a full hour but that's a bit too long, really). There's no real way to judge when a chapter is too long, so you just sort of need to use your own judgement and realize that at some point, your readers will probably get bored or tired.

A story is too long when the reader is just begging for the main character to just die already and have the story end. That's the best advice I can give on story length. XP


~Psychic
 

Sike Saner

Peace to the Mountain
Ok, got one question, too. How long is too long for a chapter, or even a story?

I'd say that's purely a matter of opinion. I don't mind very long chapters (it'd be kind of hypocritical of me if I did XD), but I know that some people do prefer for chapters not to be particularly long.

In terms of what's allowed, I don't believe there's a length limit (it's not allowed for chapters to be too short, but I don't believe there's such a thing as chapters being too long to be allowed on these forums).

Now, the physical limit for a post is 50,000 characters. A chapter that exceeds that amount of characters (or which, combined with any foreword or author's notes or anything of that nature exceeds 50,000) is allowed; it just has to be spread over as many consecutive posts as are needed to get the whole thing posted. If you hit the character limit, just continue in a second post and so forth. (A chapter spanning more than two or three posts would probably be more likely to seriously try people's patience or schedules, though... ^^; )
 
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Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
I have the opposite problem--how SHORT should chapters be? Because in Obsession (and heck, most of my one shots), I wind up with chapters that are a page or less. But they've said what I need to say, and to add any more would be extrantanious.
 

Quackerdrill

say yes to love
Short chapters are a problem for me, too. I believe that the rules state that a chapter must be a page's length... so if it's any shorter than that I suppose you could space it out more, or something? I know exactly what you mean, though-- I hate adding things just for the sake of addition. But as long as we have authors on here cranking out two posts worth of chapterage, us concise guys are gonna get complained to.

(By the way, did it really take almost three years to get a Q and A thread on here? Heh!)
 

duncan

Well-Known Member
Ok, got one question, too. How long is too long for a chapter, or even a story?

Like everyone said, it's mostly a matter of opinion. I always keep my chapters in one post, but that's just because I'd rather have more shortish chapters than fewer long chapters.

Quite a few fics I read have chapters that fit into two posts; that doesn't bother me. But, say if there's a chapter that fits into three or more posts, that's a problem. I always review what I read, so it takes a while to read and write a review. If a chapter is that long, I just won't have the time to do it.

That's just what I do, but if you've got a chapter that would fit in more than two posts, just split it into two chapters to make it easier to read. That's my advice, though.
 
I have the opposite problem--how SHORT should chapters be? Because in Obsession (and heck, most of my one shots), I wind up with chapters that are a page or less. But they've said what I need to say, and to add any more would be extrantanious.
I asked the same question about two years ago and I'm pretty sure the answer I was given still holds true. Anyways, at least a page is preferred as the limit but if it is well written and no more is needed then less than a page is acceptable.

And your fics are good so they should be fine. ^_^
 

Griff4815

No. 1 Grovyle Fan
Wow, i didn't think i posted this thread since I decided not to at the last minute. Well, as long as its helping people. :p

I'm kind of wondering, what makes a fic go from PG 13 to R? Since there's gore, language, some mature themes, and sexual innuendo in mine, I don't really know how far I can go until it's 'R'.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
It depends on how intense it is and how much of it there is.

Gore: I'd say that as a guideline, if it graphically describes exposed internal organs, I'd call it R.
Language: If the characters are running around screaming anything that the automatic forum censoring would block out with asterisks at the top of their lungs in just about every chapter, it's R. Or well, actually, if they use the swear words in a more vulgar fashion than just as exclamations or emphasis, it's R, but otherwise not really unless it's got borderline gore and sex as well. Although if there is heavy language in the form of exclamations but no sexuality or gore, you might want to include a warning that despite the PG-13 label it has lots of swearing. I'd at least personally not consider censored exclamations anything worth R-ing the fic about, but the MPAA might disagree.
Sexuality: If you were a little kid and did not know about the existence of sex, would you just blink and not understand what you're reading, or would you go "Ewwww!"? If the latter, make it R. Basically, I'd say that if you can tell the characters are having sex/talking about sex/alluding to sex, but only because you're expecting it and can read between the lines, it can stay as PG-13. If you refer directly to the reproductive organs or what the act entails, I'd bump it up to R. If it contains the graphic details of who is sticking what where, it's NC-17 and you need to get it mod-approved.

That is assuming that what I mentioned is the only instance of questionable content in the story, so if you've got lots of it altogether in the story, you might want to bump the rating up anyway even though each instance of gore/sex/language is milder than described above. So if virtually every chapter of your story contains something being torn apart by something clawed, it might qualify as R anyway even though it doesn't have any intestines lying around.

But that's just my personal feelings on the subject. Other mods are free to disagree.
 
Hi!

I'm kind of wondering, what makes a fic go from PG 13 to R? Since there's gore, language, some mature themes, and sexual innuendo in mine, I don't really know how far I can go until it's 'R'.

You could use PG-15, the halfway point. Gore... depends. I mean, if you're just describing blood, I wouldn't get grossed out. But if you're talking about a character getting his arm shredded by a Growlithe, or ANYTHING about organs (which always makes me shudder) you could just post a warning at the beginning of that particular chapter. Sexual innnnunendo, huh? Lemon or lime? ^_^; If it's not something you'd show a twelve-year-old, PG-13 - 15 or higher. Language I've always thought as okay if it's how the character speaks, and you put ***'s in for some letters, but that's just my opinion. And I don't know a single thing about rating mature themes. HOPE I HELPED (tho probably not)

~Mix
 

Griff4815

No. 1 Grovyle Fan
The gore thing is cleared up for me, thanks.

I don't know what is meant by "Lemons" and "Limes", except that they are both tasty, citrus fruits.

As for language, The A-word would probably be in the rare argument. The D-word in statements. The S-word in times only when dramatic statements called for it. And would it be appropriate to replace the f-word with "fack".
 

Bay

YEAHHHHHHH
To Griff:

These are the basic defintions of Lime and Lemons:

From the fanfiction rules
What are these citrus fruits?
Lime: sexual content is not shows directly; instead there are hints and suggestions of it
Lemon: very descriptive sexual content

There is also discussions about Lime and Lemons in the Roses and Chocolates One Shot Contest thread and another thread on the subject of writing that kind of subject in fanfiction.

To Maze:

Yeah, you have to rate your fic, it said in the rules. Good though that you put the warnings. If you want to put the rating in the title though, like "Taxonomy of the Heart [PG-13]" (assuming that is what you will rate the fic ^^;), then you can ask the moderator. Putting the rating on the first post is fine, though. ^^
 

elyvorg

somewhat backwards.
On the same note about ratings, I was wondering, how much violence/innuendo/language is needed to push something up from U (or whatever the "everyone" rating is) to PG-13? I have PG-13 on my fic for safety, but I don't know whether it will ever actually need it or not.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Well, there is a rating between G and PG-13, of course (PG). The difference between G and PG is more or less that PG can have some bloodless action violence (The Incredibles, for example, is rated PG for action violence) but G can only contain violence to an absolutely minimal amount. G can not contain any severe swearing, sex or drug usage whatsoever, but PG can have some slight profanity or brief nudity. According to the MPAA website, any drug usage at all demands a PG-13 rating at the least, as does significant non-sexual nudity, realistic (i.e. bloody) violence, as long as it is not "extreme or persistent", in which case it should be rated R, and any use of the harsher swear words whatsoever. Ridiculously enough, the MPAA apparently wants more than one occurrence of the harsher swear words to generally warrant an R - as I said before, I'd really ignore this particular rule if the only thing remotely approaching an R rating in your story is the use of profanity, and instead just call it PG-13 with a warning for lots of swearing - even the MPAA occasionally leaves it at PG-13if the swearing is still little (they're still prudes, though: the PG-13 movie that got away with the highest number of 'f***'s is supposedly As Good as It Gets, with three) and it is used in a non-sexual manner in a film otherwise far from an R.

Of course, these are ratings designed for movies, so it may be a little odd to speak of something like nudity in writing, but it should help as a guideline.
 
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