haha, yeah, i see what you mean re: longevity bias... it's easy to forget a section that dragged if you're really pleased with the climax, and all that.
i do think writing a really memorable, good shorter story that doesn't just feel like a gimmick/punchline/cheap trick is harder in a lot of ways than stuff that's ~10k words or more... like, "Solstice" is a totally solid story, i have no idea how i'd make it better per se, but its whole schtick is "what if Shirley-Jackson-The-Lottery-but-Fire-Emblem," which feels kinda derivative/cheesy enough that it belongs in B tier. it's good at what it does but it's not doing that much. whereas "Bird in the Hand" is in a lot of ways just a fun romcom, but it's 12k worth of romcom so i had a ton of room to make it unique & special & its Own Thing. the shorter fics i have in S-tier benefit from just... being short, concise concepts that i was able to very vividly portray with a pretty unique-to-me kinda voice. writing both of them felt a bit like being struck by lightning lol.
(also ahhh i'm so glad you liked "Sink"!!! as i said, i personally am very fond of it, so i'm always SO CHUFFED when anyone else likes my goofy lil West Virginia AU hahaha)
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i do think writing a really memorable, good shorter story that doesn't just feel like a gimmick/punchline/cheap trick is harder in a lot of ways than stuff that's ~10k words or more... like, "Solstice" is a totally solid story, i have no idea how i'd make it better per se, but its whole schtick is "what if Shirley-Jackson-The-Lottery-but-Fire-Emblem," which feels kinda derivative/cheesy enough that it belongs in B tier. it's good at what it does but it's not doing that much. whereas "Bird in the Hand" is in a lot of ways just a fun romcom, but it's 12k worth of romcom so i had a ton of room to make it unique & special & its Own Thing. the shorter fics i have in S-tier benefit from just... being short, concise concepts that i was able to very vividly portray with a pretty unique-to-me kinda voice. writing both of them felt a bit like being struck by lightning lol.
(also ahhh i'm so glad you liked "Sink"!!! as i said, i personally am very fond of it, so i'm always SO CHUFFED when anyone else likes my goofy lil West Virginia AU hahaha)