Whoa there, let's not get offended where no offense was intended toward any author, 'k?

Some people prefer not having to click through 300 - 400 chapters of a drabble series... some people enjoy their stories in compact, tasty little bites. It's not a reason to take offense one way or the other, as several people posting here noted.

NO ONE is saying that they WON'T read your work if you write only drabbles. I believe the main point of the thread is that some would prefer a couple of 'compilation' chapters at the end of a drabble series - and some were wondering if such a thing was possible.

Myself, there are times when I will copy/paste a number of drabble 'chapters' into a WP doc, primarily because I often print out what I'm reading to be read offline. Not having constant wireless access, it's hard in some places to be able to continue reading (like to and from work when someone else is driving, y'know?) I'd rather not kill a metric ton of trees in order to do that.

I can see both sides here. I understand the allure of writing small, concise chapters that convey so much with so few words. I understand the desire of many of us to be able to read chunks of story in one click. I truly do understand and, regardless of which side of the fence you're on, you need to make that effort to understand the other side as well.

Again, I don't think ANYONE here is saying they'll never read your work if you only write drabbles, so there's no need to take offense, srsly.

~~Wiccan~~

So let me get this straight...you and perhaps others find issue with clicking the 'next chapter' button repeatedly..? If that is the only thing anyone can find at fault with my drabble 'Golden Veil' (rated MA) then I can live with that. If someone doesn't wish to read my drabble because they find it such a hardship to click the next button repeatedly than that's their prerogative and I respect their viewpoint. They don't have to read my work, but I know many do read my drabble despite the fact that they may be tired of clicking the next button cause I am just that good at writing.

That being said, I want to thank everyone who is patient enough to read my drabble.

WunderBerry wrote:
Chapter stories can take days to complete reading unless you sat down and just did nothing but read for an entire day (and even then you need more for TftHotM), where as a drabble series you can do is just couple hours give or take.
[/size]

I know right? XD! I mean I adore the chapter-stories, but yeah, length wise they do take time to read. I just like writing and reading drabbles because you flick through them super-quick.

A couple hours versus days, sometimes, is just right.

I only spend the time reading chapter ficlets if they're really good.

If you can't catch me in the first chapter.

I'm gone.

Clicking elsewhere.

~ Pyre

I've got to disagree with Sugar0o on this one, from both a writer's perspective and from a reader's.

From the writer's perspective, I'm all for drabbles. They are easier to write, even though you still have to spend time editing and perfecting them, unlike a 3000+ chapter that's going to take hours to write and proof-read, drabbles can be done quickly. Which means quicker updates for fans more often than not. There are exceptions of course, time and motivation being a big one, but if you have the time and motivation than quicker updates.

I've also found that drabble series get more reviews, quicker. Now a chapter story will get review, eventually, but it seems like you really have to work at it and post a lot of chapters before the reader will come. Just a personal experience, but it seems like drabble series get the reviews off the bat, while chapters need a bit more prompting unless you have fandom-fame and fans already.

However, I do see the downside to drabbles from a writer's perspective. They're kind of like a trap, they're easy to write and, at least from my perspective, they get the reviewers. That can lead you to only wanting to write those, and straying from the chapter story. I fell into this for a while, and was really hesitant to start Summer Tryst because I feared falling back into it.

There is also the downside of you can get kind of lost in the drabble series and just meander. With such short installments, you can spend 100 snippets just describing a single week, especially if you're doing the 100 word drabbles.

From a reader's perspective, I don't see where Sugar0o is coming from when it comes to clicking. I guess if you have a slow internet, that's the only time I could see it because it would likely take longer just to load the chapter than to read it. However, I have a good internet so I've never had to experience this, and in this day and age, I really don't see many people with slow connections anymore. Not to call you lazy Sugar0o, but that's exactly how this argument strikes me. Now if you have a slow internet, by all means, you have every right to complain then, but more about your internet than about the author's choosing to write short drabbles.

And a drabble is a quick read, mind you. Some chapter stories, you're going to have to devote time to reading. I know this is an extreme, but take into consideration Tales from the House of the Moon. I can read fast, but even for me, those chapters took half an hour to complete. I read Impeccable yesterday, and I don't know the exact time it took, but it didn't take more than three hours, if that. Tales from the House of the Moon took days to complete. Less extreme would be The Breeder, and that still took days, or The Twelfth Concubine, like all the others, days. Chapter stories can take days to complete reading unless you sat down and just did nothing but read for an entire day (and even then you need more for TftHotM), where as a drabble series you can do is just couple hours give or take.

So yeah, just my opinion when it comes to drabbles. They have their downsides, but from my perspective, the upsides out weigh the downsides.

woah that was long

IRL has kinda stolen me away for a bit, from this discussion. Honestly my intention was just that i was reading a Drabble that i actually DO follow. The author updates when she can, and they are always great reads, while a bit sporadic, i realized that we were in the 300+ range, and it occurred to me that if i wasn't following this story from the beginning already i would probably never read it.

I felt sad by this b/c i know that when i see a drabble fic that's complete, and like 400 chapters i still wont read it mostly b/c of all the clicking. it truly dose put a large damper on reading because your reading 100 - 500 words before your having to go to the next chapter.

i've been reading SK for almost @_@ 8 years now, it really takes a great fic these days to keep my attention. I know i'm not alone. breaking things up like a drabble fiction doesn't make this easier because of the clicking. Honestly. it shorts my attention span for these things by at least half.

I do understand that posting them in mass would make the flow break a bit, dont get me wrong but I've seen it done and it actually doses hurt the fiction as an overall because I know I'm reading a drabble fic still, it is not meant to be set up like a chapter fic, larger chapters are doing just that, pushing them together.

We did this sometimes with DDN in chat, i'm sure some still do. While 8 - 15 prompts might be given, some authors, myself including put them all into 1 chapter update in a fic of some sort rather then posting 8 - 15 chapters. Not only dose this stop spamming on main page, but it also up it all there nice and easy to read.

I'm not trying to stop goals, or reviews, or even tell people they have to write more i'm just trying to express my viewpoint as a potential reader, and make it easier for the person like myself who see's that fic and then shakes their head because they know they'd have to click like crazy to get to the point. I've actually stopped following a great deal of drabbles that i know would be excellent fics mostly because they are getting to be too large in chapter count, and the clicking would make me crazy.

after all, your overall point in any fiction drabble or not is to tell a story, if people are refusing to read because of how it's set up, kinda makes that a moot point.

i really hope i'm not offending anyone, i'm just trying to put the thought out there.

p.s. i dont think posting mass chapters at the end of a drabble fic with a condensed version would make it so that it's no longer a drabble in some way. It's primary set up would be in drabble form, the last few chapters would be just larger versions of already posts chapters. I'm not sure on any of the other admin's take on this, mostly just my own thoughts. I do know from an award stand point those chapters wouldn't be eligible, it would be their original chapters that would be for posting dates.

Okay Drabble authors out there:

I am not always a fan of drabble mostly b/c i HATE waiting for updates, 7 days and all we get is 100 - 500 words? it upsets me honestly, What I'm asking though is that we make a Completed Drabble Movement, that you condense your stories into a few thousand words per chapter at the END of your fiction.

Meaning if you have 300 chapters at 100 words each, I and anyone else that might want to read your fic have to click on 300 chapters just to get 30,000 words read. This honestly stops me from reading MOST drabbles, completed or otherwise.

Either the wait or the massive amounts of clicking to get the fiction read is undesirable.

What I'm asking, and I'm sure others would be happy to agree with, is that when your done, maybe post 5 chapters at the end with a condensed version of your fic.

This is not a demand, or anything most more or less, asking. I can honestly say I would read more of these wonderful fics if i didnt have to click 300 times to do it. And lets not forget some of them are getting into the 600+ range. I'm sure there are more then a few people who just refuse to deal with them because of this.

While I understand where you are coming from, gonna say I have to pass on this idea. My goal is to reach 1000 chapters, only 36 drabbles to go, and I only have 1 large and 2 small scenes left to Fang's Master.

The reason I won't be able to do this is because it would take far too many condensed chapters at the end to put all of mine in there. The story is already over 127k words. My question would be, would this even be allowed considering we aren't allowed to post double chapters and that would be exactly what we were doing.

Maybe, and I stress maybe, after it is all finished and I actually get the okay from the admins, I may turn it into a regular chaptered story and post it separately, but for now I actually like it being a drabble story and I love that it has the most chapters of any story on Dokuga.

I understand from the reader's perspective that drabbles can be kinda a pain, only getting a few updates sporadically, which is why I tend to update anywhere from 10 to 60 drabbles at a time, but it also requires the writer to really dig deep and be able to describe something in as little as 100 words and still have it make an impact. I like the challenge honestly.

And quite honestly, I don't actually see a difference in the number of readers/reviewers from my drabble or my chaptered stories. My stories all tend to get over looked anyways so *pfft* .

Good luck with the movement though and as I said, I do understand why you are suggesting this .

I understand where you're coming from Roo. Part of the reason I do drabbles is because they are easier to write (at least for me). But I do try to keep my posting to a minimum and if I can, I try to have a set ending in mind so that I don't go over a certain chapter amount. It can get frustrating clicking so much. So I try to keep mine at a certain length in order to help readers.
The only drabble story I have that does the 100 word thing is the one for the DDN's and I'm trying to keep that one ending before I reach 75 chapters.

Then again, I also understand where Hairaan is coming from. Setting goals like that (1,000 chapters is amazing) is good. But again, Roo has a point- clicking sometimes gets annoying.

That said, I shall take both of your comments into consideration for future stories I write.

Maybe a solution to this might be to make a new category in the archive for pdfs of entire completed stories. This would great for downloading also.

I totally understand on both sides.

I only write longish chapters when it's a large oneshot since I don't do chapter stories.

I have had reviewers many times ask me to extend my writing to a couple thousand words for the drabbles too, especially for my strictly drabble-told stories.

I would probably only post the drabbles as one big chapter or a couple in another archive rather than here. I've seen it done on FFNet in various fandoms so it does work.

The format might get confusing though since drabbles break up the flow of the reading and the narrative, thus the clicking, since the author's intention is to string together many single ideas into a continuous story-line, not to write one long story all at once.

Saying that I would not be comfortable if we had a downloading feature on Dokuga allowing our readers to PDF our stories. I know some other authors might not be comfortable with this either, as it would allow the readers to essentially take the story, copy it down, and repost it elsewhere. Not that they would, but the PDF process makes it easier.

I know they allow this on Deviant and AO3 which is something the author cannot opt out of which is a shame, really.

If this were to come to Dokuga I would want it to be optional for the author to decide to PDF their stories for download, not the readers, since the stories are the work of the authors.

It's courtesy.

Additionally this is actually a good idea to discuss. I hadn't thought of the difficulties of reading and or of posting drabbles.

I do try to post three to five drabbles at a time as RL allows. So I've tried to post between three to five hundred words per drabble for a couple years now, which evens out to about 1200 to 1500 words depending on the drabble size per update, so the readers don't wait as long.

I do tend to be fairly sporadic though. >.>. So my updates go weeks to months between. I can't help that. My apologies. Between RL and work my days aren't always mine anymore.

~ Pyre

I agree with the PDF option being at the author's discretion. As for the long chapter option, since I tend to type all my drabble stories in one long document on word, it's not too difficult for me to make a PDF if a reader feels that the option would be easier.

I can see where r0o is coming from; a drabble fic I enjoy has 600+ chapters, and that far in it got a bit tiring to constantly click- but by then I liked the story enough that I just easily disregarded it.

I'm not very comfortable with the .pdf option, as I've seen first hand people while in high school taking fanfiction stories, changing names and key words, and using them in creative writing classes (not even kidding, most of them got caught at least), and I think it is easier to protect my works by having an exclusive place to have them (Dokuga).

What I would suggest is maybe add a reading mode where you can open all chapters in one browser page, like clicking a Read All option. Drabble forms would still be preserved, but easier for readers to read multiple at a time. Bam, everyone's happy.

Lace wrote:

What I would suggest is maybe add a reading mode where you can open all chapters in one browser page, like clicking a Read All option. Drabble forms would still be preserved, but easier for readers to read multiple at a time. Bam, everyone's happy.

Great idea... if we had the money to pay someone to work on coding that into the site. See, that's the major problem here, the site creator went walkabout and we've had to depend on the generosity of Mitharus when he has had time to tweak this or that. Soooo, it's not likely to become a feature in the near future, but thank you for sharing it with us!!

~~Wiccan~~

wow.



just wow.


Well lets just put it out there, i dont have a slow internet, i'm not lazy, I'm actually busy enough that i have little to no time to deal with things like fanfiction which SHOULD make drabbles my preference but i DONT read large drabbles count fictions that i havent started from the get go, that are not complete. And again it all boils down to the clicking 300+ times. My monitor is only 1600x900, this means that for every drabble that has a set up like thus:

title of chapter
rating or extra info
AN
that
takes
up
5 lines



(unneeded spacing)



then

100 - 500 words of fiction, i have to do a LOT of mouse moving to get to the next chapter button. i actually like drabbles that get to the point, don't lose focus, and actually make a good fic. AND i usually DO read completed drabbles. Still dosesnt mean i like clicking through 500 chapters to get to the end of it, or waiting while it's updating. As I've said I've been reading for like 8 years, i have more fiction on my "waiting to update/read/liked" walls then a LOT of people, all while working 40+ hours a week, and a somewhat social life. If your looking for a fic, there's a great chance that Wiccan and Myself have probably read it at some point or another. This also being said, if the fic has an over use plot line, which is nearly impossible to avoid after 17 years of SK in the making, i cant help that it's not going to keep my attention. I also cant help that i do not enjoy clicking 300+ times to read a fiction, ANY fiction, EVER. Did you know that I'd LOVE to re-read She who the Prophecy Foretold rated MA btw, but that massive 400,000 work count deters me? I'm not starting a fight, lord knows i surly could.

I'm NOT picking on drabble authors, I'm not picking on anyone! I'm rather annoyed, and vexed by the idea that i would in some way attack any author on dokuga, a site that I've been a member for for years, and happen to deeply love. @ the very idea.

What i WAS saying was that i WOULD like chapters at the END of COMPLETED drabbles to be larger condensed chapters.

On an end note, If you've had to move your space bar down any bit while reading this, and had to move your mouse to get to the "reply" button. Now you know how I feel, now multiply it x300+ and think to yourself... maybe she's got a bit of a point.

Sorry Wiccan :

Okay, ladies...


I WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND AND WE WILL NOT GO TO GRANDMA'S!


Or something like that.

I seriously doubt that anyone was implying that anyone was lazy. Srsly.

Obviously, there are people like r0opants and I who just don't have a lot of time, period. And, yes, if you're using a laptop or a tablet, it gets tedious to scroll down, mouse over and keep clicking on the next chapter. And sometimes, like me, you don't have wireless in certain places, or... well... whatever the reason.

Again, the point has been made... the thread was about posting compilation chapters at the end of completed drabble fics. A few people had ideas for how this might be accomplished, and that, I believe, was what we were looking for.

The assertion that one hardly ever reads drabble fics might be true for some people, but it is NOT TRUE for all, nor does it hold true for all drabble fics with people who avoid them.

The implication, intentional or not, that some people might be too "lazy" to click through so many chapters would certainly not hold true for many readers as well.

What - again, in my belief - was and might still be needed here is ideas on how we can enhance the drabble fic experience, regardless of the reasons. AMIRITE??

So, from here on out, I'd like to see more ideas like Lace gave us, whether they would be practical, or possible, or not. But no more getting offended and drawing up sides between drabble lovers and chapter lovers, 'k?

PRETTY PLEASE?

~~Wiccan~~

EDIT: Thanks r0opants for adding the rating!

Not a suggestion, but question hehe. Now it might not actually work for mine considering how long it is, though if this gets the okay I may add it once the story is complete.

But while we have you on here Wiccan-chan, would posting an extra chapter or two at the end of the story that included all of the drabbles be okay? Didn't actually see this answered in the earlier posts, unless I just missed it.

The reason I ask, is I could swear there used to be a rule, can't find it now lol, that we were not allowed to post duplicate stories. Which technically this would be. And not in the least bit complaining, I am legitimately curious.

Although side question, since I don't see the rule anymore, point it out to me if it is still there, but for one like mine that has as many drabbles as it does, would we be allowed to repost it as an actual chaptered story; ie actually rewritten into chapters instead of just spaces between the drabbles.

Of course the usual award nomination rules would apply, only the original chapters could be nominated and such. Either way let me know on both of these questions . And I apologize in advance if it doesn't make sense, my head is foggy from a cold; gotta love getting those in June.

Ugh, summer colds... direct from the depths of HELL if you ask me! Poor girl!!

Anyway, to answer your question(s):

First, adding full-length chapters to the end of a drabble series would not really constitute a duplicate story in my book. I would view it as more of a compilation of what went before them, y'know?

As far as I know we don't have an ironclad rule against duplicate stories... but then, posting a chapter story created out of a drabble story technically wouldn't be a duplicate either, I don't think. My two cents' worth on it anyway, and it would seem that r0opants is of a similar opinion, so that's two Admins out of the three currently active, eh? I get the feeling that DQ wouldn't mind so much either, or she'd have weighed in here as well.

And, yes, the usual award nom deadlines would apply to the drabble series, as it would be the "original" story, thus any compilation chapters or compilation stories wouldn't be eligible.

Hope that answers things for you, m'dear... and that you make a SPEEDY recovery!!

~~me~~

Yep, that clears things up perfectly . Then I'll go ahead and post a new story once the drabble collection is completed so it'll be easier to read .

And thanks .

Hairann wrote:
Yep, that clears things up perfectly . Then I'll go ahead and post a new story once the drabble collection is completed so it'll be easier to read .

And thanks .

Any time, m'dear!!

~~me~~

To add input to r0o's original suggestion, I would definitely not mind posting a finished chapter version of my drabble fiction (when it gets finished, no idea...). Still gets the job done for easier reading, and can also get writers who usually write drabbles to maybe branch out into longer forms of writing. The reason I started a drabble fic was more as an exercise for me to have a goal of 100 words, instead of an intimidating 2,000 words that just induced chronic writing blocks, and it's helped a lot! The only problem I could see from this would be clarity issues- two versions of many stories, if it became the norm for drabble authors, while someone is sifting through fanfiction searches. Minute, but would probably be pesky.

Also, I'm not sure on policies on the site pertaining to it, but perhaps member donations for website facelifting? It is a rather small community, so that would probably take some time to gather whatever amount was needed, but I think if enough people wanted it and were able to give to the community, it could happen. I have no idea how much it costs to pay someone for coding on a website though, so I've no basis as to how ambitious this is LOL.

Um I'm not quite sure where the top and bottom is for this topic but I've the jist of it.

I understand both sides, the the drabble side a bit more. So I had a question, what about interconnected or just disjointed drabbles?

Because I know mine are already in the teens but if I put them together I don't think it'd make total sense.

So like would it still be easier to compile things? Plus some of my drabbles are already complete, so idk?

I think that's something that would be up to each individual author to weigh.

If it's gonna look like a hot mess all put together, I don't think I'd do it. If there's some continuity to it, I'd probably give it a shot.

Just my two cents' worth, though!

~~Wiccan~~

I can see both sides of this, I can understand how difficult this would be for an author. But as someone who reads almost exclusively on my phone or tablet, it is difficult to advance chapters without a mobile-friendly version of the site.

There is a workaround that I will sometimes use, but it will only work on a desktop browser (there might be an Android version). There is an extension for Firefox called AutoPager that will automatically load the next chapter in the same browser window as you scroll down, so no clicking! There is some setup required if no one has ever created rules for a particular story. I can try publishing some of mine if anyone is interested. If someone has submitted rules online, AutoPager will find them automatically and prompt you to load them, in which case, no initial setup is required.

I do not know how this will work for reviewing. My guess is any reviews submitted using this method will all post to Chapter 1.

There are similar extensions for Chrome, but I believe they are mutually exclusive.

I have two drabble-fics, neither of which is very high in high count or chapter count. I'm not a fan of drabbles that have an extremely high amount of chapters, if only because it seems like they are purposefully extended past their normal end, or it seems like they have enough content to create a more fulfilling chapter story.

In the end, it's an authors preference, but I'd much rather see the amount of drabble-fics decreasing and more chapter-length stories being created. It just seems like there are better plots and... more effort put into full-length stories; in fact, aside from the two I have, I would not create another drabble because I feel like they're just taking over the site. Sometimes, bite-sized is great and works for a story, but most of the time it just feels like it's the easy way to get read and reviews. I honestly am thinking about fleshing out my one completed drabble into a chapter-story... and not updating the other (or simply leaving them both as is and focusing on my full-feature story).

To me, condensing drabbles isn't the issue... a good story is, to me, worth clicking through... but more often than not, drabbles seem to go on without a plot to keep them threaded together. They take so little time to read, too... I do agree with that. Sometimes, I don't mind at all: they work great for some stories, but... in general... I miss seeing more stories with more effort created. That said, I do understand why they have gotten so popular - I mean, I do have two myself, but I lost interest because they did feel like a cop-out to really making an effort on a larger story.

Drabbles are great for an author to get some motivation and feel like they're actually updating consistently, but not so great to the people that want to read stories here, I think. Before I ever saw this topic, I felt this way, and began working on my longer story in an effort to not be hypocritical... just, I don't know, I'm rambling now.

Arynn wrote:

In the end, it's an authors preference, but I'd much rather see the amount of drabble-fics decreasing and more chapter-length stories being created. It just seems like there are better plots and... more effort put into full-length stories; in fact, aside from the two I have, I would not create another drabble because I feel like they're just taking over the site. Sometimes, bite-sized is great and works for a story, but most of the time it just feels like it's the easy way to get read and reviews. I honestly am thinking about fleshing out my one completed drabble into a chapter-story... and not updating the other (or simply leaving them both as is and focusing on my full-feature story).


I agree although I'd like to point out that chapter stories are only possible for an author if you have alot of time and dedication and focus. I personally struggle to write them, since I don't plan my fanfiction stories. I just write them on a whim. I don't work by layouts or guidelines. I do however have a tendency to write a fic until it's finished. I make corrections/edits and then I post it. Those ficlets tend to be only really long oneshots though and not chapter ficlets.

I write drabbles too, although I update them sporadically due to working in RL.

I also write chapter stories, but those are non-Inuyasha. I just can't seem to focus long enough to to write anything longish for this fandom or the Sess x Kagome pairing. I'm too into other fandoms being Mass Effect and Transformers. They're more Scifi-focused I guess which is something I've always liked to read and or game through in the case of ME.

XD

~ Pyre

P.S: I guess I write as interest prevails for drabbles, oneshots, and anything else too.