A Question For All Of You (ACTUALLY READ THIS ONE, GUYS) · 1:00pm Feb 17th, 2014
And I think I might have asked this very question before (I know I asked this about one chapter in particular WAAAAAAY back during LPP)...well, whatever.
Should I try to reduce the chapter sizes that I make?
The reason I'm asking is because I see that a lot of other stories have shorter chapters and people are pretty chill with that, i just wasn't sure what all of YOU thought about it. I usually fill up about 10 or so pages depending on what point in the story I'm in and then I might make some longer or shorter for effective cutoff points. Now, granted, that might speed up publishing chapters since I'm about 61/2 pages in to Chapter 3 but I feel like I could either stay the course and give it another 31/2 pages or just finish out the last few paragraphs.
Thoughts? Ideas? Ponies? (answer: yes, always ponies)
~Darrtaa
I've happily read stories with chapters twice the size of yours. I think you're fine.
Chapter sizes are good as they are, I think.
Honestly, that's something that really comes down to preference.
Personally, I don't mind longer chapters or even long stories in general so long as the time that I have to invest into reading large blocks of words is worth it. Of course, "never waste your audiences's time" is the one unbreakable rule in all of storytelling, in every medium, fiction or not... but hey; that just means it sure as Hell applies for long fics, too.
Still speaking from personal experience, when I write a chapter, I think it's best for that chapter to have an arc, where a concept or concepts (be they conflicts or story threads) are introduced, developed throughout, and then brought to some conclusion by the end of the chapter. Even if those concepts aren't resolved by the end of the chapter, your readers can feel satisfied because something was accomplished, but eager for where the story will go next, because they can at least guess what they'll get to read later. Sometimes I think about releasing shorter chapters that might only be comprised of a single scene, but then I hearken back to my standpoint on chapter arcs and decide to stick with the longer entries.
Then again, I've written single scenes that are longer than entire chapters that you've written. For that matter, are my sentiments even worth regarding when I myself have wrought such little recognition? You've got almost 300 followers and 18,000 total story views; we've got less than a tenth of that despite being around for nearly the same amount of time.
So keep doing whatever it is that you're doing. It seems to be working a Hell of a lot better than what we're doing.
- Christian 'Friends, bronies, cloppers; lend me your ears... so I may bitch' Harisay
I say, keep it the same. But just like the previous comments said, yes, it is all a matter of preference. Just like how I can get behind some fic chapters being an average 17000 words long
I enjoy it either way if the premise and the story is good of course
Cut this shit in half.
Better to get a chapter now, and another in pess time, tue shorter a chapter, the better.
Always ponies, erryday.
I don't mind much. Do what is easier for you, Dartaa. If you can get more done with smaller chapters then go for it!
1844480 Alright, thanks. And hey, my success is based largely off the fact that ponies + TF2 are popular among so many, especially here (there are like, a LOT of bronies here). Also, nice signature at the bottom there.
1844490 As you say, m'lord.
1844927 All day, erryday.
If having shorter chapters people will have more time to get through it and doesn't feel as much as a necessary to know what happens next. For it a 10k chapter can take some time to get through as I need time and patients to continue reading it (I do have reading and writing disability so that might take me some time to read, but that's me). Making shorter chapters also shuts people up when asking "When is the next chapter coming out?" ect. Because that's a bitch to listen to. Chapters come in faster, less complaining.
I do recommend to have them around 3-6k, 7 and up just makes it a hassle.
1845941 I try to aim somewhere around 4k-6k, I don't think I've gone over that more than a few times.
1845841 Your welcome.
Seems like a good formula to write something successful, doesn't it? Ponies plus another popular and enjoyable source with some snazzy cover art should at least get people's attention, right?
That's what we thought when we realized we had a lot of really, really good ideas to put into an Inception crossover, but hasn't turned out so well...
My signature changes constantly; every now and then it even has something funny.
- Christian 'See, as it was foretold! Kinda...' Harisay
1852825 Yep, still lovin' those signatures.
I'm sorry to hear that your fic wasn't as successful as you'd hoped, I'm too brain-dead to write something that involves Inception, but hey, I'm still getting faves/views on the ones I wrote a few years ago so hopefully people will come around and recognize your stuff more. You seem like cleaver guys, I'm sure you'll find some way to wow the masses.
1853637 Not as sorry as I am.
Actually, we tried submitting it to EQD again. Didn't get a feature the first time we tried, but our editor (who actually pre-reads for the site) told us it only just missed the margin.
What makes us seem intelligent? That I made a good point in my initial comment, or did you start reading our story?
Speaking of which that reminds me; did I ever leave a review of Lyra's Pyro Predicament? Because I remember reading it a while back, and even despite it's short comings and minor plot holes, I actually very much enjoyed it; even recommended it to my bros. But I don't remember ever leaving one of my trademark ass-numblingly long reviews on it.
Hold up; let me check...
...
... Hm, it seems I haven't...
Prepare for a wall of text the likes of which you've never seen before.
- Christian 'Something Verbose This Way Comes...' Harisay
1856478 Big damn wall of text, gottcha. And no, I haven't started reading your story but I can usually get a good feel for people after a few exchanges of comments and you guys seems on the up and up. Oh, don't sweat the EQD thing, I don't think I've ever gotten through to them...wait, someone said a while ago that I had been feature but I only submitted it once and they said no, so...hmm. Eh, whatever.