Drabbles and posting to AO3: how should we do it?

[snowgall]

slythindor100's Last Drabble Writer Standing competition is nearly over, and all this voting on drabbles has made me think Deep Thoughts (TM) about the ideal way to post such things to AO3 (because I think it's great when authors post their works to AO3, and I hope all the LDWS authors will do so after the competition ends!)

There seem to be three schools of thought when it comes to posting LDWS drabbles to AO3, and each has their merits and drawbacks:

1. All drabbles together in one chapter of one story

Examples:
unbroken_halo's 2013 drabbles
shadowofrazia's 2014 drabbles

pros:
--simplest format for short fics
--doesn't clutter up add as many fics to an author's list of works on AO3

cons:
--all the drabbles have the same URL (harder for linking/reccing)
--someone searching for your work by title at AO3 may not find it. "LDWS drabbles" is not a very memorable title
--readers can only leave kudos once and comments in one place
--ratings and tags can only be added to the work as a whole, and what works for for one drabble will not necessarily be applicable to all, and may be unnecessarily confusing (thanks to torino10154 for pointing this out)

2. All the drabbles in one story, but with each drabble in a separate chapter

Examples:
megyal's 2010 drabbles
leela_cat's 2011 drabbles

pros:
--each drabble has a unique URL for reccing etc.
--doesn't clutter up add as many fics to an author's list of works on AO3
--readers can leave comments on each chapter separately

cons:
--someone searching for your work by title at AO3 may not find it. "LDWS drabbles" is not a very memorable title
--you can only leave kudos on the whole story, not each drabble
--ratings and tags can only be added to the work as a whole, and what works for for one drabble will not necessarily be applicable to all, and may be unnecessarily confusing (thanks to torino10154 for pointing this out)

3. Each drabble in a separate story, but connected in a series

Examples:
uniquepov's 2011 drabbles
teprometo's 2011 drabbles
lamerezouille's 2012 drabbles
kedavranox's 2013 drabbles
icmezzo's 2014 drabbles

pros:
--each drabble has a unique URL for reccing etc.
--each drabble can be titled in a memorable way for easy searching/finding
--each drabble can get its own rating and applicable tags
--readers can leave separate kudos on each drabble

cons:
--a lot of story entries which will clutter up add more fics to an author's list of works

This is the sort of thing I spend way too much time thinking about!

Clearly the third option is the most popular one, and there are good reasons why that would be. However, I can see a strong argument for using the second format instead, as it will lead to far less clutter a more compact listing of fics in your list of works, especially considering that you might not consider drabbles to be of equal importance to novel-length fics.

But of course, it's up to each author to do what they think best. I'm curious if anyone else cares about these things, and what your preferred method would be!

(thanks to capitu for brainstorming some of the pros and cons with me!)

Comments

[writcraft]

Oh, this is really interesting!

I had planned to do the second format before reading this, and I think I'm minded to stick with that, so I'm pleased you think that's not a terrible idea :D

<3

[snowgall]

I don't think *any* of them are terrible ideas :) I'm always happy when an author posts their work to AO3, as it makes it so much easier to find in the future. And I definitely see a lot of pros to the second option - looking forward to seeing your drabbles up there soon ♥

[this-bloody-cat.livejournal.com]

I had never actually thought of posting them as a series! I usually post them all together, separate them by chapters -- I'll admit this is mostly because having too many works on Ao3 makes me rather nervous :)

[snowgall]

That's definitely one of the reasons that makes me lean towards option 2 - not so much being nervous (as I'm not a really a writer) but I like being able to sort through an authors list of works more easily :) But then option 3 has its benefits too, so I start to waffle!

[cagnurit.livejournal.com]

From a reader's POV, I prefer the second method, very much so. Because I'd like to read all of the drabbles of the authors in one page <3

[snowgall]

Yeah, when a work is very short it does seem to make sense to keep several of them on one page. But then, if the subject matter varies a lot it can mean that they don't form a coherent set, you know? So many things to consider!

[thesilverwitch.livejournal.com]

I usually find the second bit the most helpful because it keeps everything in the same place, makes your author page way tidier and if you post the drabbles over a long period of time you're bound to get a large amount of kudos on just one work, which I always find fun. The third method works as well, but it makes it harder to go through an author's page imo.

[snowgall]

Oh the thing about gathering kudos on just one work is an aspect I didn't really think about! It's true that shorter works usually gather less kudos, which I suppose could be disheartening. But at the same time, if you have 5 drabbles I like, I would want to be able to give 5 kudos, you know? I wish you could give kudos chapter by chapter. :)

[eidheann_writes]

I tend to post everything of mine below a certain (arbitrary, likely inconsistent) length in a single catch-all work as separate chapters. This is mainly because I had a group of them before I had an ao3 account. Since then, I've kinda wished I broke it up differently, by theme or use or. Or or.

Which isn't exactly what you are talking about, but having done that, my strong preference would be for 2. A themed group with multiple chapters under a single work.

[snowgall]

Oh yeah, I know what you mean about catch-all works. I've seen several authors do that, especially for older short works, and I can understand why they do it. But if the works don't have a coherent theme to them (even one like "these were all for the same fest"), then it can be a little confusing to the reader as to why they're all grouped together.

I would also think that adding an additional chapter later on to such a catch-all work would mean that you wouldn't be able to garner new kudos for that work, which would be disappointing for both the reader and the writer :) Sometimes when an author goes back to a previously complete fic and adds a new chapter or "part 2" or something, I wish they would do it as a new work in a series instead of as a new chapter. If it's a new chapter, then I can't give kudos!

[huldrejenta.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've definitely thought about this, I'm glad I'm not the only one, haha :)

I think I would've chosen alternative 2. It feels tidies, and I prefer not to have too many very short drabbles posted seperately.
Love how you've done this :)

[snowgall]

Oh thanks - I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks about things like this! I keep waffling back and forth between option 2 and option 3. I agree about keeping things tidy, but then I also like being able to give separate kudos, so I can't decide!

[kedavranox.livejournal.com]

I definitely prefer drabbles posted separately. Having them together breaks the moment and atmosphere for me. I usually won't read a drabbles that are all together in one post unless the stories connect somehow. :)

[snowgall]

Oh interesting! I can see what you mean about the moment and atmosphere. Though I guess it would also matter how you have your viewing options set at AO3. I usually prefer that AO3 show me a whole story on one page without breaking it up by chapter - that's how I like to read longer works, anyway. I prefer scrolling to paging.

But that would mean if I were reading chaptered drabbles that they would then all be on one page, and then the potential disconnect with the themes would be more apparent. But you *could* choose to view each chapter separately too. Would that work for you?

[gracerene]

This is exactly my opinion as well!

If somebody were doing a drabble fic, then I'd want them posted them all in one fic separated as chapters. But personally, if the drabbles themselves aren't actually connected, then I'd prefer them as separate fics. Even if intellectually I know they are unrelated, there is something about having them connected that would bother me, both as a reader and if I were to write them.

[capitu]

I still like the second format the best. :)

[snowgall]

:) And I still can't really decide! Every time someone makes an argument convincing me of option 2, someone else will say something that makes me think option 3 might be better. I can't commit!

[sdkshelly.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't understand the con of cluttering up an author's list of works. While I'd love it if there were an option on AO3 to treat series like folders, in that the series would show up in your masterlist with an "expand" button so you could see all the works in the series individually if you wanted to--I'd love that to be implemented! But I write a lot of drabbles and shorter pieces that aren't always connected by any theme (or if they are, it's basically something like the anniversary drabbles I did, and they have a wide variety of pairings, etc.) and I don't understand the whole notion that they're cluttering my AO3 page by having them listed as their own work. You can filter someone's works very easily, sort them by word count and pairing and such if you're looking for longer works versus drabbles, etc.

[torino10154]

Yes, this very much. Unless they are a related series, it just doesn't make much sense to group them. I've done it in the past but looking back on it now, I actually don't think it makes sense.

I am editing to add a link to the things I have grouped in a series. So for example now the whole set has the warning for non-con or character death or underage when it most likely applies to just one. If you don't want to read one of those, how has grouping them helped anything? They couldn't be more different than each other. That can even be true of a single pairing though. I do fluffy H/D and non-con H/D. If you just skip from one chapter to the next, you're in for a surprise.

[snowgall]

Oh of course - I didn't mean it as an indictment. Indeed, I generally prefer it when an author has all their works of whatever length on AO3, and I like it when each individual work can be tagged appropriately and titled on its own. So I like what you are doing!

My main issue is with AO3 (although really, I love the archive). As far as I know, whenever you browse a list of works, you always get the same large-size boxes for each work with all the details, tags and summary, and 20 per page. Even though the details are great and aesthetically pleasing, It can make it hard to scan through looking for one particular thing when there are dozens of pages to click through. So I can understand that some authors would like the idea of reducing the number of works listed, by grouping drabbles etc. into chapters. If AO3 had more flexibility in how it listed works, then opinions would likely be different.

[pauraque]

I agree with this comment 100%!

[blithelybonny.livejournal.com]

This is interesting because I have some, what might as well be considered drabbles because of their length, as separate works, but for my music drabble meme, I'm keeping them all in one story, but separate chapters (more like the LDWS drabbles would be/second format).

I think it depends on the situation too. Like if there's a through-line, it might make more sense to keep them all in one story on one page or with different chapters. (I'm not doing that, lol, but I totally get how that would make more sense.) But I think I really like the idea of a series too, since they aren't necessarily connected at all, except for their origin as the LDWS drabbles or whatever.

[snowgall]

It's so interesting to hear everyone's opinions about this, because people really feel strongly one way or the other sometimes!

I also noticed above that eidheann_writes said she might have done things differently for one of her sets of stories if she had thought about it earlier. So that was sort of the point of this - to help people think about what *they* want to do by laying out the pros and cons as I understood them.

[lq-traintracks.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind, I come at this conversation as a writer and not so much a reader. I mean, I read. But I've never had an issue finding what I need in an author's catalog on AO3 and come to the conclusion that it was the drabbles that might be the issue. There are a lot of writers who've written a LOT, and no matter the length of the story, there are just going to be a heck of a lot of pages of stories. I think it's a bit of a slippery slope to come around to compressing drabbles together as a way to decrease the number of works. I know you didn't mean to diminish drabbles, but I'm very much of the opinion that they take a great deal of finesse, work, and talent to do well. (I do not consider myself a great drabbler, btw!) I think it's a bit sticky to try to compress an author's works by focusing on the drabbles as possibly "less important" and therefore groupable.

I know I don't speak for everyone. This is just how I feel about it. :-)

Edit: Because you've asked me to upload more of my shorter fiction that I wrote as traintracks to AO3, so I totally know that you're not anti-drabble or anything! I want to be clear on that. And I'd like to do that sometime, too. I shouldn't have tried to upload something like 60 stories all at once. I mean, total hand crampage! ;-P

[khalulu]

Well, it's not just "put them together because they're only drabbles", though - the discussion was originally about drabbles written for H/D LDWS, so they are somewhat linked if only by the theme of the contest - H/D & Dumbledore quotations, or magical creatures, or magical artefacts, or whatever. It's a timely discussion for me because I have written 4 for this round of LDWS and I wrote 8 for round 3 which I haven't put on AO3 yet and have been thinking I should. Maybe because I haven't written drabbles outside of LDWS, in my mind they are linked sets, even though they are not linked in content or tone.

ETA: I just went back and saw that method 3 can make them part of a series though, so maybe my point doesn't really make sense - I don't know!

[kitty_fic]

I think the second option would work well for a series of drabbles that were in some way connected or (maybe?) even in this case where they were all written for the round at a ldws...

But generally I think I'd prefer they were posted separately if they are completely separate.

Though I do admit that I have however in the past thought that it does clutter up the author's page to have so many drabbles or tiny ficlets posted,- but I just saw some good points made from others here in the comments that it's pretty easy to filter those out and I'll remember that the next time I find that to be a problem

So, overall I think I prefer the third option for otherwise unrelated drabbles.

I know that a lot of people (specifically in other fandoms) treat tumblr fics like this also and group them as chapters in one story even though they are completely unrelated. And that's especially frustrating for me when I'm sorting/filtering/searching for a specific kink or theme on AO3. There will be a story with tonnnnns of tags, but no way to tell which chapter has the one I'm specifically looking for.

[snowgall]

Oh yes, this! I can't stand it when there's a fic with what seems like a billion tags, and it turns out that it's because the fic is made up of dozens of unrelated chapters so the author can't tag each chapter separately and just bungs them all together!

So if a set of drabbles or ficlets all had a related theme, then I could see grouping them together as chapters, sure. But when they're wildly different? No. That makes no sense.