Leangth of trainer fic?

[Scyther]

I’m making a trainer fic, and I want to know how long I should make it. It could be short, efficient, like anyone other’s.

Has anyone read Saffire Persian’s, The Ties That Bind? The reason I ask this is because it makes a reference to a really long journey; four or five years. I find that to be very intriguing, I would love to be the first person to make this type of fic.

However, I’m not sure I could pull this off. I could lose interest, or you, the audience could.

So, what do you think? Should I try it?

 

[Butterfree]

The idea that trainer journeys last several years is hardly new; it's just that leagues are assumed to be an annual thing, and thus that a trainer's journey collecting badges around one particular region to participate in the league once is generally no longer than one year. The trainers may then continue to travel, go to different regions and so on, for several more years.

Even if you're here referring to specifically the idea that getting to the League for the very first time takes several years, I highly doubt that hasn't been done before, and even if it hadn't, it isn't precisely something that can sensibly be called original - the only effect this would generally have on the story in itself is with adding brief references within chapters to the passage of days, weeks or months during which nothing especially noteworthy happens, which obviously doesn't have much impact on the story as a whole. The alternative is detailing the entirety of that four or five-year journey, and I really cannot see that as becoming anything more than a bunch of filler, really - if you're going to make something that's four or five times longer than the average trainer fic, it's at least 200 chapters or so, which means on average at least about 20 chapters pass between all Gym battles, and there is only so much stuff that can happen in all these in-between chapters without getting into an absolutely ridiculous number of subplots. This could only work if the characters, setting and story were all really fascinating enough to hold one's attention for all that time, which would take a very good writer to pull off - definitely not something to attempt with a first fic. :/

 

[M&F]

It depends on some factors.

First and foremost, what Butterfree said: do you trust your skills so much you believe you can keep a long fic going without causing interest loss?

Then, you should think about how the plot is supposed to work. After all, trainer fics are fine by me as long as they have a plot behind the old collect badges and beat the elite (or participate in the league) stuff. Can whatever plot you have planned last long, or does it have to meet an end soon so it won't become a stalemate?

At any rate, "long" and "short" are totally vague words. If you decide on making it long, how long would long be?

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

I agree with what they already said. I have one thing to add (which may or may not be a rewording of what they already have said, but...)

Don't stretch the plot to make the story longer. If your plot lasts 5 chapters, don't pad it because you want a 10 chapter story. It's more enjoyable to read a story that's short and well-written than it is to read a story that's long and stretched out.

 

[Negrek]

You definitely wouldn't be the first person to have done something along those lines... even my own current chapterfic covers a trainer's journey spanning around four years (and the character only ends up with something like six gym badges and four pokémon after all that time). There's no reason that a long trainer's journey should necessarily translate to a long(er) fanfic--after all, you yourself mentioned that "The Ties that Bind" evokes a trainer's journey of several years, and yet it's only a one-shot!