With the recent update on HPMOR, I’ve been reading a few HP fanfictions : HPMOR, HP and the Natural 20, the recursive fanfiction HG and the Burden of Responsibility and a few others. And it seems my brain has trouble coping with that. I didn’t have the problem with just canon and HPMOR (even when (re-)reading both in //), but now that I’ve added more fanfictions to the mix, I’m starting to confuse what happened in which universe, and my brain can’t stop trying to find ways to ensure all the fanfictions are just facet of a single coherent universe, which of course doesn’t work well...
I am the only one with that kind of problems, reading several fanfictions occurring in the same base universe ? It’s the first time I try to do that, and I didn’t except being so confused. Do you have some advices to avoid the confusion, like “wait at least one week (or month ?) before jumping to a different fanfiction” ?
For one thing, I try not to read many in-progress fanfics. I’ve been burned so many times by starting to read a story and finding out that it’s abandoned that I rarely start reading new incomplete stories – at least with an expectation of them being finished. That means I don’t have to remember so many things at once – when I finish reading one fanfiction, I can forget it. Even if it’s incomplete, I usually don’t try to check back on it unless it has a fast update schedule – I leave it for later, knowing I’ll eventually look at my Favorites list again and read the newly-finished stories.
I also think of the stories in terms of a fictional multiverse, like the ones in Dimension Hopping for Beginners and the Stormseeker series (both recommended). I like seeing the different viewpoints on and versions of a universe. So that might be a way for you to tie all of the stories together – think of them as offshoots of canon, usually sharing little else.
I also have a personal rule that whenever I finish reading a big story that could take some digesting, I shouldn’t read any more fanfiction (from any fandom) until the next day. This rule is mainly to maximize what I get out of the story and prevent mindless, time-wasting reading. But it also lessens my confusing the stories with each other – it still happens, but only sometimes when I read two big stories on successive days.
My advice: Don’t read them all, choose a couple that’s interesting and go with it. If you have to read them all (looks like you have the time) do it more sequentially.
With the recent update on HPMOR, I’ve been reading a few HP fanfictions : HPMOR, HP and the Natural 20, the recursive fanfiction HG and the Burden of Responsibility and a few others. And it seems my brain has trouble coping with that. I didn’t have the problem with just canon and HPMOR (even when (re-)reading both in //), but now that I’ve added more fanfictions to the mix, I’m starting to confuse what happened in which universe, and my brain can’t stop trying to find ways to ensure all the fanfictions are just facet of a single coherent universe, which of course doesn’t work well...
I am the only one with that kind of problems, reading several fanfictions occurring in the same base universe ? It’s the first time I try to do that, and I didn’t except being so confused. Do you have some advices to avoid the confusion, like “wait at least one week (or month ?) before jumping to a different fanfiction” ?
Write up your understanding of the melange, obviously.
For one thing, I try not to read many in-progress fanfics. I’ve been burned so many times by starting to read a story and finding out that it’s abandoned that I rarely start reading new incomplete stories – at least with an expectation of them being finished. That means I don’t have to remember so many things at once – when I finish reading one fanfiction, I can forget it. Even if it’s incomplete, I usually don’t try to check back on it unless it has a fast update schedule – I leave it for later, knowing I’ll eventually look at my Favorites list again and read the newly-finished stories.
I also think of the stories in terms of a fictional multiverse, like the ones in Dimension Hopping for Beginners and the Stormseeker series (both recommended). I like seeing the different viewpoints on and versions of a universe. So that might be a way for you to tie all of the stories together – think of them as offshoots of canon, usually sharing little else.
I also have a personal rule that whenever I finish reading a big story that could take some digesting, I shouldn’t read any more fanfiction (from any fandom) until the next day. This rule is mainly to maximize what I get out of the story and prevent mindless, time-wasting reading. But it also lessens my confusing the stories with each other – it still happens, but only sometimes when I read two big stories on successive days.
My advice: Don’t read them all, choose a couple that’s interesting and go with it. If you have to read them all (looks like you have the time) do it more sequentially.