Almost quit a 47-chapter fanfic at chapter 12 because of a typo, then the author's note at the bottom saved me | Best Slow Burn Stories - Pinecone Attack
Almost quit a 47-chapter fanfic at chapter 12 because of a typo, then the author's note at the bottom saved me
Last week I was on ao3 at 2am scrolling through the Harry Potter fandom tag, and I found this 47-chapter fic called something like 'The Long Way Home' with only 300 kudos, and I almost skipped it because the first paragraph had three typos and the formatting was all over the place. I stuck with it until chapter 12, which was like 8,000 words of just two characters sitting in a kitchen talking about nothing, and I remember thinking 'this is wasting my time, I'm out.' But right before I closed the tab, I scrolled to the author's note at the very bottom, and the writer said something like 'sorry this chapter is slow, I promise everything from here on out is the payoff for these first 12 chapters, I just needed you to care about them first.' So I read one more chapter, and then I read until 6am, and by chapter 20 I was crying over a scene about a broken coffee mug. The thing is, if that author's note hadn't been there, I would have missed one of the best stories I've read in five years, and now I'm wondering how many other slow burns I've ditched too early. Has anyone else had a moment where a random comment or note made you keep going on a story you were about to drop?