Definition of Backhanded Compliment

[apolla]

Nice fic. Very sweet. Too long though, so I only skimmed most of it.

This for a story only 4000 words long. I weep and wail for the future of the universe when that is considered 'too long'.

Comments

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

4,000 words is too long??!?!?! *dead* Probably can't read more than 500 without taking a break....

[zorb]

I got a comment like that for Operation: Distraction! Someone said I should have put it in chapters, rather than as a complete one-shot. What the hell difference does it make? It's the same amount of words! *shakes head at people*

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

The difference is that many people have really ADD-type attention spans these days *shakes fist at MTV* Anything more than a few thousand words at a time and their eyes glaze over. That's partly why both logansrogue and I divided our big Snitch stories into 6 parts; we figured nobody on Portkey would read a 35,000 word story in one sitting. Plus there were some natural transition points/cliffhangers within it. But she and I each wrote our stories as a single big story then divided them into chapters when we were done. People on Portkey, anyway, seem to prefer chaptered stories. I'm SURE I got way more reviews for 5 chapters plus an epilogue than I would've gotten for a very-long (70 pages) one-shot.

[cadey.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* Can we just smack them now?