Baffled (and disgruntled, there's a surprise)

[quasar273]

I wrote two fics for Yuletide. The first was in a fandom I'd never heard of before reading the request. But I caught up with the canon and wrote what I felt was a nice, meaty story that captured the author's voice and style pretty well. I was nicely satisfied with that story, and I looked forward to posting it here after the author reveal.

Then I volunteered for a pinch-hit, and despite having a better familiarity with the source material, I just couldn't get that one off the ground. I had one piece of inspiration that allowed me to put some realistic detail in, but I couldn't find a plot. So it turned out to be just a vignette, some conversation about what happened after the end of canon, not even twice the minimum required story length. I was not satisfied with this story and figured I probably wouldn't even bother to post it here later on.

Then the archive went live, and the comments started coming in, and I got just as many (sometimes nicer) comments for the vignette as for the plotty story. In fact, the vignette got two recommendations! And none for the story I thought was much better. I am baffled.

So, what's up? Is it relative popularity of the source material? I didn't think they were that much different -- both bookfic, although one is more recent than the other. Is it the combination of a rare fandom with a long story, making people unwilling to try the meatier story unless they know the source? Or am I just that wrong about the relative quality of the stories? Soon, friends, you will be able to judge for yourselves!

But I still think the long one is way better. Hmmph.

Comments

[quasar273.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't think they were that different in popularity, but maybe I was wrong, because the Stevermer series is older and the Melusine series is quite new. But I also often disagree with the general fannish reading community about the relative merits of long vs. short stories, so I suspect that may be part of it, too.

I love plot, and I frequently miss the subtle and elegant, so naturally I go for long stories. And I see glowing comments for shorter stories and think maybe I should develop my appreciation for subtle and elegant, yeah, I really should. But then I write a short story which I'm quite sure is not at all subtle or elegant, and it gets as many comments as the long one! So I become doubtful about the collective wisdom of commenters.

But really, I have no basis for complaint; both stories got very nice comments, and I'm glad the short one drew nice words since I was so worried about it. And after I wrote this post, the longer story did garner one rec, so all is fair and I'm no longer disgruntled. But perhaps still a bit puzzled.

Anyway, I hope when you do have the time, you enjoy the stories!