Progress update and chapter structure ponderings · 11:22pm Jul 28th, 2015
Y'know, every week I say to myself that I'm gonna write something interesting in the blog, dammit, and then every week I think that nobody else will find any of the things I'm thinking about then interesting at all.
Recent times have been pretty messy here. My health was... peculiar for a while and as a result I wasn't able to write a word for a week or so. But hopefully that's over now (it wasn't). I've finished the first draft of the next chapter of The Crown of Night, and am now editing. It's another big and complicated chapter, as they all are, so editing it is quite a task in itself, but I'm hoping it will move along in an orderly fashion and let me finish soon. Optimistic, I know, but hey, it's better to hope than not.
But here's a question. The norm for me is that I get bogged down in a way of structuring my chapters where each chapter feels to me like a Complete Story. This is the most obvious way I know to make sure each chapter is juicy and satisfying.
But a consequence of this is that the chapters end up being very long, and that updates are very far apart, both things which can scare off readers old and new. This seems to me to be less than ideal. So I'm thinking maybe I should instead split these long chapters (which is to say, pretty much everything I write) into smaller chapters, and publish them more regularly. Hopefully this would mean shorter waits between chapters, and chapters that aren't so massive that they scare off readers.
Mind you, the way my writing process works, I'd still be writing all the way through to the end of each storyline before I could begin publishing the first chapters. If the system works, that shouldn't matter though.
I'm tempted to do that. But, I'm unsure if I should apply this new format to the current chapter. The main reason, and maybe this is one of those things that only I would ever think to care about, is this: that it would break with the established format of this particular storyline, Impossible Things, aka “the one about Saddle Arabia”.
Basically, I was saying all along that this would be a story in three parts, of which two parts have been written. Those two parts are clearly labelled “act one” and “act two”. It would be... odd to follow those up with an “act three” which is split into three, or four, or two, or however many parts it would be. It doesn't help that on top of that you have interludes before each part, showing things happening to other people in other parts of the world.
Another point is that I'm not sure I can hack cliffhangers, and that unless I put a complete story inside each chapter it will be bound to end at an arbitrary, unsatisfying point. And, you know, my brain will latch on to anything to make me feel bad and uncertain about anything I do, apparently 
Your thoughts?
Posted in defiance of nerves,
-Daedelean.
Personally I think that even sparse chapter publication timetable isn't a problem big enough to scare me off. Another point is that dividing an act (not specifically this act 3) may lead to blurred beginning/ending consequences (cliffhangers aplenty aren't good thing, I suppose) and abundance of clicking "Next ->" button, that I may count as inconvenience for some of readers.
Anyway, if you want to change your way of providing public with your word constellations - so be it. But I think it may be redundant.
I myself will be just fine with any decisions of yours (provided you will continue your writing, I mean).
I have to agree with
3277918, while the idea of updating more regularly with short chapters may be a good idea, some readers are unfortunately turned off by that. I, for one, an a little more patient in matters of updating stories (hell, it takes me six months plus to update a single story) and will not mind waiting. After all patience is a virgin they say
I am indifferent. Others, however, might not be. Just do whatever you're most comfortable doing. No one's forcing you to write.
3277918 3277940 3278057
I can only speak for myself, but years back when I read a lot of webcomics I often found that I was far more likely to follow a comic that updated regularly, even if it wasn't great, than some I thought were incredible but which only updated very rarely. Comics with spectacular art like Lackadaisy and Dresden Codak may look great, but when it takes four or five months to make each page... I just plain couldn't be bothered to keep checking in.
Huh, it actually looks like Dresden Codak is updating fairly often now.
Likewise here on fimfiction, I've read a lot of stories that I thought were great but which stopped updating ages ago, and thought to myself that I was in no rush and I would happily continue reading them if or when they started up again. But then when they do come back I might well discover that I have completely forgotten what was going on. When that happens my first idea is to read the previous chapter and refresh my memory... but I'm much more likely to do that if the previous chapter was short or moderate length. Otherwise I'll think "well, I'll get back to it later" and put it on my RIL list... and then forget all about it.
So I'm in the kind of unfortunate position that I'm looking at my own stories and thinking if I were a reader, even though I think it's great, I am not sure I would continue reading this. That being the case, how can I expect anyone else to think differently?
I'm sure I can't be the only person who gets this, and the way to avoid it, that I can see, is shorter and more regular updates.