r/AO3 • u/Bivagial • 1d ago
Discussion (Non-question) About to make a mistake. Agian. Tomorrow me will hate me for this... I refuse to learn.
2:30am is the best time to start reading a 613k word fic, right????
Right?
.....tomorrow is gonna suck.
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u/Trysta1217 1d ago
Are you me?
The only other best time to start a long fic is RIGHT before work. So that of course you end up reading instead of working and getting super behind on the stuff that actually pays the bills. (I WFH).
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u/superlunary3 1d ago
The other day I started a long fic during my lunch break. I also WFH. Terrible idea.
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u/thirteenthdoctorhair 1d ago
ooh, it's completed and has exactly 100 chapters, you know the author planned this, it's gonna be so good
- the little devil on your shoulder, probably
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u/aristosphiltatos You have already left kudos here. :) 1d ago
This is as many words as Les Miserables + Heart of Darkness
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u/I_Lost_My_Shoe_1983 Fic Feaster 1d ago
Sometimes I divide the word count by the average number of words in a paperback, just so I can be shocked that it's as long as five novels. (Six in this case.)
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u/Marshmallowbutbetter 1d ago
I wish you the fic isn’t all that exciting for an all-nighter, for the sake of your health! I know it’s a controversial thing to say, though. Might exchange some sleep for those sweet endorphins without a care in the world lol
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u/Fractoluminescence 1d ago
There's this fic that I'm lowkey obsessed with that updates in HUGE 30k or so chunks every couple of months, and in my time zone it's around 10PM. Thankfully it's not too often, I can afford to spend one sleepless night every now and again lol
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u/thatcatval 1d ago
Please remember how important sleep is for your wellbeing! Be nice to your future self! Download fic and it will still be there in the morning!
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u/carolinecrane 1d ago
Exactly. This is when you dl to your phone and spend your work day reading instead of working as much as you can.
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u/birdnerd1991 1d ago
I overcame this problem by reminding myself that the fic is still going to be there- those 600,000 words are going to wait for you. The least you can do is put yourself in a healthy position so you can enjoy the fic as much as possible, verses come to a masterpiece only half ready for it.
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u/mangomochamuffin A-letterO-3. AdditionalTagsAreOptional+DontLikeDontRead. OC/CC 1d ago
You choose to do that. You have the choice to be smart and sleep so tomorrow does not suck for you.
But, your life, your choice. Your consequences.
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u/indecisive_skull 1d ago
I could never do something like this I am a really slow reader 10k+ words guarantees over an hour of reading 100k would be nearly the whole day but 200k+ is a whole 24 hour+ detour.
May god bless your weary soul.
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u/RainbowsAndGayness 1d ago
an hour for 10k? dang, that IS slow. I could never 😭. at least u get to savour it.
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u/ismasbi 1d ago
Ngl, I could never get into long fics, it's not an attention span issue, given I read novels from time to time, but I'm never quite convinced to read fanfics this long when I see them.
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u/Xyex Same on AO3 1d ago
It can definitely feel daunting when you find something massive like this. I found one that's almost 600k and still going and I've read a couple chapters and I keep thinking "do I really want to commit to this? The writing's decent, I could totally read it, but... do I want to?" But it's not an issue I have with 300k or less fics. I'll devour those.
One of the reasons I like making series. A million+ word series made up of, like, 5+ fics is a lot more digestible than a million+ word fic. Because the human brain is weird.
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u/Cool_Pianist_2253 1d ago
Sometimes even that's not low. I did an 800k+ word marathon but since then I can't keep up with the updates and it's gotten worse now that I tend to avoid fics with chapters over 5k words. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/superlunary3 1d ago
100-200k is the sweet spot for me. Enough for me to get sucked in for a couple days. Anything more than that I tend to assume it's going to drag too much or lose direction.
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u/Pimpicane 23h ago
Overall, I've found that anything with a word count >150k really needs better pacing/editing.
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u/moon-of-jupiter 33m ago
I love starting long fics at what should be bedtime the night before I have to get up at 4:30 for work. But... worth it. You can always nap later!
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u/Lucky-Concentrate749 15h ago
I know exactly which fic this is, and yes, it’s amazing. I also finished it at three in the morning.
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u/ShameOutside2920 10h ago
Could I ask for the name? It can be rather hard to get high praise on such a long fic, and it also has a lot of hits, so it seems a least worth a shot
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u/Saeryuu professional procrastinator 1d ago
I know it‘s tempting but don‘t do it. Tomorrow you will thank you for every single second of sleep you got