I was talking with my beta about stopping my own fic mid-planned-outline just to give myself time to come up with more plot to frame the relationship stuff in. She made me feel better by pointing out that plot was Hard, and that's why most fics just focused on the relationship stuff and ignored plot (i.e. Fluff). So now I'm curious as to whether this is the real reason there is so much plotless fluff

So now I'm curious as to whether this is the real reason there is so much plotless fluff

I think that might be the reason for some of it, but I also think that some plotless fluff is written primarily for wish-fulfillment or self-comfort.

Speaking of plotty fic, I have noticed a trend (at least on AO3) in one of my fandoms for plotty fic to involve a whole lot of telling and not much showing. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like stories are edging closer to synopses.

Speaking of plotty fic, I have noticed a trend (at least on AO3) in one of my fandoms for plotty fic to involve a whole lot of telling and not much showing. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like stories are edging closer to synopses.

Plot IS hard. When I was writing my monster plotty fic, "show, don't tell" was something I frequently reminded myself of. Yet, so much of the plot was driven by wacky psychological stuff, it was hard to find the line between describing though processes without doing too much "telling" and finding some way to "show" the introspection. And the characters kept doing unexpected things...

Yeah, fluffy banter is soooo much easier.

I don't find plot all that difficult, to be honest. Actually, one of the reasons I rarely finish anything these days is that I'll start with something PWP, and wind up with a novel's worth of plot to justify it in my head, become more interested in the plot, and I just don't have TIME to write long things.

Speaking of plotty fic, I have noticed a trend (at least on AO3) in one of my fandoms for plotty fic to involve a whole lot of telling and not much showing. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like stories are edging closer to synopses.

Drives me nuts, and you are not wrong.

Irritatingly, I pretty much know the plot of my stalled fic, I just can't convince myself everyone's acting like themselves while I tell you what it is. So I'd much rather just describe the premise at this point than make it an SPN story with resonance.

But that's just me.

Reading a plotless story with just the feels is easier to do than a overly plotty story without enough relationship--in SPN. Because the show is predicated on a relationship, but not all shows are. Even if you're not a shipper, most people are there for one of the interactions, as well as (or instead of) the business (vs family).

I used to read a lot of case files before I got properly shippy and they almost turned me off fic, because they paid lip service to plot, and did it really badly, but were just vehicles to serve up identical relationship dynamics every time (thank you Korotny). I'd rather a story not pretend too hard, so I know what I should be expecting, and whether I should bail.

I tend to think plotty stories, done well, are harder, but character is necessary to plot, and plot can (and should) include the working out of relationships. A romance novel has a plot, after all: the working out of the relationship, and it has to include the setup, complications, and resolution, the same way a casefile does.

The difficulty comes with the subject of the plot, because the logistics of a plot involving a fight against killer robots are more complicated than the logistics of Nate and Sophie realizing they're in love.

I think it's easier to cheat with purely-relationship stories because we all know the beats and tropes so well that if someone gives us a paragraph summarizing the relationship history at the beginning of a story, it's just useful information--you can cut to the chase (or the porn). Whereas in a story about killer robots, a paragraph about how the killer robots arrived from Pluto and the Leverage team is on the run, reads like the writer's too lazy to tell that story.

I dunno if that makes any sense.

I've got several stories saved where there's two pages of really kick ass plot and eight pages of sex. I generally stop reading after the plot bits and lament how there was a really good story there that just didn't get proper attention. Sex is all well and good, but I read for the plot.

The plots come to my head first, though I've had a few fluffy bits pop into my head. I love plot, though I often have to put down a story because the characters are saying "But *why* are we doing this? I'm not taking another step till you give me a good reason!"

I usually get bored with plot and skip ahead to the sex. Plot (like anything else) is easy to do badly.

Granted, those are the stories I've saved. There have been dozens more where "Oh, an excuse for sex? And prosaic sex at that? Next story."

I'll start with something PWP, and wind up with a novel's worth of plot to justify it in my head, become more interested in the plot

This is sort of me, I'll start with a plot bunny or a scene, then try to figure out how to get to that scene, and suddenly there are ten different plot threads weaving around the characters. The plot bunny that started my latest stalled project, and specifically a scene, hasn't even appeared yet in the story. And the point that I've decided to take an official break (halfway into the entire story), still won't have struck on it. And when I pick up the second half of this monstrosity, the plot bunny won't rear it's head until maybe three quarters into that! And I know that it could be longer if I was any good at writing introspection.

(One of the things that I love about not getting too naval-gazey is that I get comments where the reader seems to draw their own conclusion that is either spot on with what I had intended behind the scene, or points out shit that I wasn't consciously aware of or intending, but makes me look super smart).

I am incapable of short one-shots.

I have a beat in the story where I kill off a whole group of people, and now am stuck with having to repopulate certain roles in order to try and adhere to reality, and I'm running out of canon characters or how filling the gaps in the ranks would happen IRL.

I've stumbled upon fics where I've skimmed down and down, nope only halfway undressed, page down page down, finally in the bedroom, page down five times, onto part 2! A sex scene should not be 10,000 words.