Real talk: how long do you take posting chapters on fanfic? Cause part of me is like “oh it’ll be fine if I take a couple months cause life- out of all people AO3 understands.”
But then I wonder if I severely overestimate the attention span of current fans in the wake of instant gratification and consumerism.
My fandom brothers! Doth ye still wait years for a fic chapter update? Is there hope for a long winded scribe?
I update anywhere between 2 weeks and 2-3 months and never promise any kind of regular schedule, it really just depends on how life be at the moment and whether the writing corner of my brain is in feast or famine mode. (might be worth noting that for some reason my brain requires that chapters be at least 6k words but more often end up being 9-12k+)
I do feel like I'm very slow with updates at this pace, partially due to the instant gratification and consumerism climate and partially due to the fact that I just want to read my own damn fic but I have to write the thing first (an actual scam).
As a reader, I've subscribed to fics that update every week and fallen behind (because life) only to come back to the fic months after it's finished. I've also subscribed to fics that didn't update for months and/or years and sprinted back to AO3 for that sweet sweet hit of happy brain chemicals.
At the end of the day there will always be people who drop off (life gets busy, interests change, etc.) but there will always, always be people who stick around too.