A Dilemma · 10:37pm Feb 15th, 2015
I have a problem. Well, multiple problems actually: chapter length, chapter quality and time until upload to be specific. I need a little advice on how to proceed here, so I'm going to explain my problems one by one and hopefully one of you can provide a bit of guidance.
So, chapter length has become a problem with the rewrite of the Celestia scene: whereas the first version was far too short to be meaningful and felt rushed, the current one, whilst it's looking to be the right length for itself, might take the chapter past the nine-thousand word count at least, perhaps even further. Chapters so far have been around 7000 words long: a nine to ten thousand word one is pushing it a little in terms of size, and presents serious problems on the editing front. I self-edit, and it has taken me nearly an hour to get through some of the previous chapters: one this long could take even more time to do right, and with the re-edits of the other chapters to do as well, the workload threatens to get overwhelming. Reading through the chapter so far, it's already feeling overlong even with half the Celestia scene and the lead in to chapter five missing.
As for quality, the final third of the chapter is some of the roughest-edged I've written since I first joined FimFic, and will need some serious work to get it where it needs to be for upload. A lot of that lies in impatience: subconsciously, I've been rushing through much of the last segment in order to get to the big finale, and the rest has noticeably suffered as a result. So not only is it feeling overlong before I've finished writing events, but a significant amount of detail needs adding to flesh the neglected sections out, making the finished product even longer. If the chapter feels bloated now, it's only going to be more so later on.
Both of those factor greatly into the time until upload: I have at least 1500, probably 2500 words to write of the Celestia scene, then another possible 1000 to make the last third less skeletal, and I also have the edits of the earlier chapters to get done. That's going to take time, potentially quite a great deal of it if things go on the way they are, and I really don't want this story left update-less for much longer. It's not just about not wanting you to wait too long for another update, it's also that if this chapter - or at least a significant portion of it - isn't in a state where I can sit down and think 'okay, that's that off the list', I am going to go mad with the feeling that I'm making no progress. I am going to get very tired of this story if I let that feeling build up, and if there's anything I want to avoid here, it's burning myself out on this chapter and being unable to stand writing any more of it.
I do have some ideas of what to do, but these are not without their issues either.
One idea was to simply detach the scene and open next chapter with it. This would allow a much sooner upload, but has the disadvantage that I was really banking on the Celestia scene as a concluding moment and don't really have any scenes which would easily be redone as an ending instead. It would also push the last 2500 words or so out of chapter five and into chapter six, which would cause a fair amount of disruption down the road. You'd get a chapter sooner, but one with an ending which might not be the most satisfying, and a lasting consequence of shunting later events further and further along through the chapters.
Another, similar idea involved removing the scene and having it as its own self-contained chapter, like a 'Chapter Four - Part Two', which would get around the issues that come with shunting it into chapter five, but would perhaps disrupt the overall flow of the story a little. Again, the ending might be unfulfilling, but not only would chapter four release sooner, but the Celestia scene would also be uploaded earlier since I wouldn't need to wait for the whole of chapter five to be ready.
Finally, I could just continue with the chapter as it is, but as I previously listed, there are a lot of risks involved in that plan. The wait would be long, the chapter itself might feel significantly overlong and I also run the risk of getting tired of the story, but the ending would be quite the conclusive event and I would not need to adjust my plans at all with this course of action.
So, do I:
A - Move the 'Tia scene to Chapter Five and deal with the consequences later.
B - Make the 'Tia scene its own sub-chapter and risk an unfulfilling ending.
C - Continue as planned even with the issues involved.
D - Follow some other course of action, suggested by you.
Please comment an answer, I don't want to have to make a choice on this without something to back it up besides my own whim.
I am going to say either C or D. Ultimately the break points between chapters are not that big a deal so you can move them around within the story just fine so long as you do not actually reorganize the flow of the narrative. Thus the simplest solution is to simply write everything and release it in one giant chapter, but if you are not confident in your ability to remain motivated through that you can throw in chapter breaks wherever you feel like it and just release them as smaller chapters regardless of what the chapter endings look like.
2799855
Thanks. While I'm not confident that what I'd produce through option C would be quite to the standard I'd like, it's nice to hear that you don't mind the chapter endings being a little underwhelming and that you're okay with me putting chapter breaks wherever I feel works best. I'm currently leaning towards a combination of B and C, where I use the giant chapter format of C but write in a pause of sorts, so that I can upload the main part of the chapter and have it on the site to be read while I continue exactly where I left off and complete the Celestia portion, to be uploaded soon after.
2799947 That sounds like a good plan to me, and you can always switch fully to C later if you feel like it.
2800038
Supporting.