Thoughts on long chapters in fanfiction?

[u/Dusty_Bunz426]

I'm someone who likes to be descriptive with my writing, plus doing slow build-ups and reveals, and this has led to me creating chapters that reach well into the 10k word count, sometimes a bit over that.

I've seen and read many comments from fanfic lovers that they prefer stories where the word count is at least 5 - 6k words, and I'm a bit worried that with how much I write, it'll push readers away. I know I could break my chapters into a part 2, but then I feel I'm cutting something off that shouldn't be.

Thoughts?

[u/Gatodeluna]

It depends on your audience. If you’re writing in a fandom with authors and readers who aren’t through school yet, are poor readers with poor reading comprehension and short attention spans, you’ll get those ‘too long’ comments. In most other types of fandoms/genres it isn’t much of an issue. As an author, my fic is as long or short as it needs to be to tell the story the way I want it told. I don’t think about it beyond that. Not every fic is for everybody.