well, pretty much what the title says, in your opinion, or experience, what's better:

Would you rather see, or have, a long story of about 40k words in one shot.
Or 4, 5 chapters of 8k, 10k words each?

Also:
If it makes sense in the timeskips of the story: an introductory chapter of 4k words, followed for a longer chapter of 16k words, and a few repeats short-long/short-long chapters in the same story, is fine, or every chapter should have about the same number of words?

Thanks.

998183 I would rather see a long complete story.

EDIT: I just re-read it. I though you meant one 40K-word chapter. Gosh, I'm a dumbass.

I prefer it all be in one go, personally. I'm not a fan of one story being dragged through four separate ones, unless there are natural endings to each of them like the Harry Potter series.

Shorter chapters definitely (normally between 3 and 6k words). The end of one chapter and the beginning of the next acts as a short brether giving you some time to process what you've just read, which works better than dumping it all on you at once

That depend of the story for sad fic I prefer one-shot because a too long one would depress me for a week like Background pony did. It also depend if the story is interesting or not. But when I have time I like long stories.

I would do whatever feels right. In different scenarios, different chapter lengths are needed. For example, if the goal of a chapter is to meet a certain character, the chapter could vary in length depending upon how much information and plot development you want to include. Personally, I just write until I finish with a certain plot point.

Does that answer your question?

Short chapters because I don't have time to read 10K words.

Option number 1

Well, I enjoy lengthy stories, but not in chapters over like, 10k, unless it really keeps me reading. But I'd say that short chapters can lead to some cliffhangers for the next chapter.

10k words is roughly my upper limit for chapter length. Beyond that, my attention span just goes off a cliff unless the story is really, REALLY engaging (which very few authors can actually pull off). I put the sweet spot at around 4-5k words per chapter. Shorter chapters than that either don't make enough progress to keep me interested, or they move too fast to keep track of what's going on.

5 to 8k is the sweet spot for me, personally.

Short chapters.
Average reading speed is 200 wpm, meaning that 6,000 words is roughly half an hour (the length of one episode of the Horse Show including commercials). Pressing beyond the length of time demanded for a single episode is obnoxious and egotistical on the part of a writer.
You can still write out your million word epic, if that is what you feel must happen, but don't expect people to read the entire thing in one sitting.

Besides, really short (2-3k word) chapters have the advantage of being like potato chips. I'm more likely to burn through a 70,000 word story in one day if it has short chapters then I am to even start a 15,000 word one shot.

I would rather see a good story.

Either is fine for me, so long as the content is good. If it's a series, I just ask that the writer have the drive to keep it going.

By the way, if anypony is up for a long story, please allow me the self promotion: The Private Scrapbook

998199
You get this for mentioning Harry Potter

999203

999221
I think this would work better

999262Indeed.

999270
And I found a weird version too

999270>>999277
You both know the story I'm writting is "Yay, the movie, in 3D" or just started to post yay's by a matter of luck?
Also:

999359 I didn't know, so luck.

And best of luck with your story, whichever decision you make with it!

999359 lol, i just started because he had that fluttershy emote on one of his comments, but that's a funny coincidence