User blog comment:Sockstar1/So You Have Decided To Write A Fanfic/@comment-1876796-20110628070734/@comment-2032682-20110628122427

Maybe 99% is a bit much, but generally it's the fact that there are lots of "first chapter only" stories started by new accounts.

Someone gets excited reading other fic, gets an idea, starts writing their epic idea, publishes.. then loses interest or doesn't get reviews or they don't know what to do in the 2nd chapter and it never updates and it just sits there as an orphaned fic.

Should beginners start with short stories?

I say yes. A short, concise idea that can be written in 500 to 2000 words should be the maximum anyone writes for their first story, in my opinion. That's not a hard rule, so a 3 or 4 thousand word story can be just as good as long as it's completed as single chapter and not only the first 500 words (again, can suffer the "get bored never update" syndrome).

I believe people should write smaller fics until they get used to writing and planning and actually feel they can follow through.