Chapter length · 11:08pm Aug 27th, 2015
We're coming up on some rather... big chapters. Right now:
Ch 13: 17,000 words
Ch 14: 16,000 words
Ch 15: 31,000 words
Such chapters require a huge time commitment to read, I know this from my own experience both reading and writing them lol. After talking with my editors and co-writers, we thought of a solution where the chapters would be broken down into smaller ones, ch 13 and 14 would broken into two and ch 15 would be broken into three chapters so no one chapter is significantly over 10k words.
However each chapter would still be released on time, just on different days, 13 and 14 would come out Wednesday-Thursday on their week. 15 would come out Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday on its week.
What do you guys think? Is this something you'd like to see, or should I just leave the chapters whole and continue as is?
Well, so far the general consensuses is to leave it as is.
The Looking Glass updated 2-3 times a week?
All my yes! Triple and double updates are better than 1 giant update!
Wow I can't believe I forgot to give you a follow!
Thanks for telling me about 15 through this.
I thought we decided to keep 15 roll like ist is..
I think it is a mistake to cut something you wrote as 'one'
It's better to break them up otherwise the chapters can feel "heavy" to read. Not many people can go through over 30,000 words in one sitting. I'd have to stop reading actually because I doubt I would have the time for any single chapter of that size.
I've been waiting for this for quite a while. These chapters are getting too large, my friend.
I'm cool either way. I can sit through a loooooong chapter or I can deal with them broken up a little bit. I have a 50K chapter coming up to read soon in my read it later file. Do whatever you think I'd best to make the story flow better.
I find absolutely nothing wrong with a large chapter size... I have no problem with committing to a chapter of that size
I'd much rather read it in full, as to not interrupt the flow of the chapter.
When I'm devoted to a story, as I am with yours, I'll easily read it in one sitting. Though, I draw a limit at 55k words in a single chapter. Did that once, and it took me several hours longer than I expected or wanted. (don't regret it though, just don't want to repeat that experience)
Perhaps my opinion is a tad biased, considering the stories I read, and their length. Still though, I'd love to read the chapter in whole.
I'm cool with reading them in full.
In the end, once a story is posted, it's there and settled. Granted, posting a broken up chapter does cause some hiccup to the pacing in a sense, but only for those that read the first part before the second has landed. All readers that come along after a split chapter is already up in full will not notice any real difference beyond clicking to the next page.
Long chapters are fine and dandy, but the time investment compared to a general tendency to read it in one shot and not make a bookmark...well, I really think breaking 20k words is going too far most of the time. One of the nice practical things about Kudzuhaiku's The Chase is that virtually all chapters sit around 2500 words or so. Makes for a ton of chapters, but in a medium like this, it's also excellent pause points for a reader. There is also the issue that a chapter might outstretch it's intended focus.
Personally, I have found that while I like to have enough to read for me to sink into a story, if a chapter is too long, it can feel like a chore to read. Or at times, be off-putting because of the time commitment it can take if you detest interrupting your reading in the middle like that.
Oh man...chapter 15 is gonna be one hell of a ride to edit. God help me lol.
L
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3351876
How long is a piece of string?
A chapter should end at a cliff hanging point which makes the reader want to continue the story. A chapter could be three-hundred and twenty words or forty-thousand words—they have no defined length.
The important thing about a chapter is that it covers everything the author wants it to cover. If there isn't much to cover, it can be short; but if there is a lot to cover, it can be long or very long. Doesn't matter. Fallout Equestria has a chapter with 51,539 words in it.
L
3352063 So you'd rather runt the risk of telling at length rather than showing? I won't pretend to understand that kind of choice at all. And that is one of many thing that will go wrong as the chapter length gets longer.
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It's not a matter of showing over telling when it comes to chapter length. What matters is that everything gets covered within a chapter—plot progression, character development, conflict, resolution, or the start of a subplot. If you divide up a chapter merely because you think it might be too long, that's when you take a risk of jarring your readers from an incomplete ending of a chapter.
L
There is no reason to break them up. If someone doesn't have time to read it all in one go they can "break it up" themselves by simply picking back up where they were last. I'm 100% for just publishing them as is. If that's how you wrote it and wanted it to be initially then that's how it should be published IMO.
3352115 You are in fact correct, but if you "chatter" excessively you risk losing readers, sometimes in droves. My best example that I can give right now is Elder Scrolls Online, it's a great M.M.O. R.P.G. with a very serious flaw. And that flaw is this, two to three paragraphs are regularly used when all you need was explained in the first.
So in plain language the more words you use the greater the risk of those words becoming arbitrary. A chapter should be long enough to do what it it needs to do, yes I agree with you completely, but it should never be so long as to be a burden to the readers. As with most anything striking the right balance is the key.
I am probably going to read them all in one sitting each even if they are split as I have been setting aside time each Thursday. Might end up doing 15 over a Thursday and Friday tho.
The current chapters are all very good about being neat packages that also draw the reader to the next chapter so I wouldn't want you to split chapters arbitrarily if it would damage that effectiveness.
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That seems to be the consensus, the chapters are meant to be read as a whole and while there are breaks that allow for a split, there's a lot of resistance to the idea.
i'd read it either way, and coincidentally, i was just thinking earlier 'man, even with these chapters being decently long it feels like i read them far too quickly.'
Chapter 15 would be the only one I'd say is overly long. The longest single chapter fic I've read was 25k words and the longest chapter in a multi-chapter story was nearly 22k words, and that was pushin it for me, and I love reading.
Honestly, yeah, it's a big commitment, but splitting them up doesn't do a whole lot either way in my opinion, and it could even make for sloppy breaks unless you made some tweaks.
I suppose it makes it neater for those who can't read it in one go, and they end up not needing to use the bookmark feature.
I'm on team leave as is and let people bookmark it and save their place if they can't read it in one go. I think it would drive me crazy to have the chapter just cut off when I'm just going to read it all anyways.
I still get discouraged by seeing extremely long chapter lengths. I think the discouragement from that outweighs the slight weirdness from breaking a chapter at a point that wasn't totally intended. I would suggest breaking them up into the multiple parts. Judging from all the people that have weighed in, I think you ought to explicitly say that those chapters are all part 1/2/final of each one. Publish them on the same day, I guess.
But I think I already told you this when you asked earlier. So yeah.
3352063
Meh. If they aren't defined, then the author or readers should define them because not every story needs a forty thousand word chapter followed by a five hundred word one.
So therefore, in my opinion, these chapters were getting to be way too long. For a story like this, I can think of only a couple times where it needed to be as long as they were, and even then, they could have been split up.
The point is to write chapters that keep the reader interested but also not spending an afternoon reading them, ESPECIALLY for a story of this nature. You can't read half a chapter and finish it later; it doesn't work well when you're in the middle of a sex scene, right?
But to each his own, I suppose.
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It's a tough question, on one hand the chapter was written as one, and meant to be read that way, on the other they are getting long, (especially ch 15). I'm beginning to wonder if a happy medium would be to break them up, but release every part of the chapter at the same time?
On the other hand the bookmark function does exist for a reason and people can save their spot using it. Either which way I go some people will like it and others will hate it...
Of course that doesn't help me solve the problem though...
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To be quote honest, there is no happy medium. People will hate it no matter what you do. Personally, I haven't had a massive problem with it, but I just don't enjoy spending a long time reading on one chapter when the majority, if not all, is sex. This is most likely because I've been babyed by Austraeoh-length chapters (usually never over 2,000 unless for a reason), but still, I've never enjoyed it. That's why I haven't read Background Pony yet.
But in the end, I'm outnumbered. So I'd just advise you use your best judgment as the author of this story and do what you feel is right for both the story and the reader. I'll still read the story, no matter what you choose.
I agree with Lunatone. Chapters should end at a point where it's natural (and ideally where the reader wants the next chapter immediately). The resulting length is irrelevant.
I don't mind long chapters, however I can read roughly 100,000 words an hour so...
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If I may, I'm going to use you as an example. Now, one thing I've noticed is that this site has a large number of people who, by some fluke of nature or pure skill, can read ridiculously fast, making length nothing unless it stacks up in the millions of words. That's really cool, and it's made me try to improve my reading speed. However, it seems those who don't read as fast are seemingly in the minority. I could be wrong, of course, but I rarely have talked to someone who has an average or below average reading speed; it seems like most people do cocaine and meth before they read these stories, man!
So that means people that read barely above average, like me, or lower kind of get swept to the side. And that's the bigger point here. How many people read chapters like these in a relatively fast amount of time? And how many don't? Should these chapters stay at the length they are because there are so many people that read fast, or should they be spliced in order to make it easier for everyone?
All things to think about, but once again, I reserve the final say to the author, and I'll follow it until the story ends.
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Also a point to remember, reading =/= comprehension.
Obviously not true for everyone, I'm sure there are some that can read super fast and recall everything, but there's probably just as many if not more that read super fast and miss several (important?)details.
That being said, I have a hard time arguing against the logic of, "That's how the chapter was written so that's how you should keep it."
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Incomplete ending to a chapter, huh? Generally speaking, most people have the ability to tell, no matter the length, if what should be accomplished in a chapter has been accomplished in a chapter. When you start writing long chapters, you run into the problems of irrelevancy, redundancy, and rambling. People tend to start putting in too much before they realize what they should have put into the chapter and had the reader leave with is confused and smothered by the mass of content within said chapter.
But I digress. I can't disagree with your logic because I believe it to be true as well, but I can't agree with you on this story in particular.
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Names have always been my failing, but I remember most things.
Interestingly enough, there is a positive correlation between reading speed and reading comprehension, and I honestly am proof of that fact, seeing as I can nearly recall all of the Austraeoh series and its intricacies. Kind of.
However, while I'm cool with chapters 13 and 14, I believe chapter 15 most likely needs a break or two. I don't really know if that's so because I haven't read it, but call it intuition that makes me think there should be something to split it up.
I'd say go with keeping the chapters how they are now. 30k words can be done in less than two hours, faster depending on how fast one reads. I look forward to it no matter the outcome, though, so write on!
As I said earlier, leave it as it is.
15 got way too much sex and everything, so you won't be able to cut it right and not disturb the reader.
Eh, we have bookmarks now so its not as bad as it was earlier. I remember trying to read Background Pony and having trouble finding to time to read a full chapter in one go but now it should be a bit easier thanks to recent updates to the site. Though on a side note, I still miss banners.
I can understand both sides of the argument but at the end of the day this is your story. Someone wouldn't put down a paperback book for a chapter being to long or like we said you would just bookmark it. That's what the function is for, the reader not the writer. You shouldn't be limited to a world count. The word count is effected but the content you have. It shouldn't matter if it was 10 words or 100,000 words. The point is it should be written how you intended, not based on standards other writers have set for themselves. Like I've always said, this is your story and you should write it how you intended it to be. If people lose interest that's their choice. They have options. Length of chapter shouldn't matter if they are going to read the next one anyways. I'm quite excited that we are getting lengthened stuff from you, and I'm quite blessed that we get anything from you at all. You are talented and people can see that. But if they choose to stop reading because they are getting more words then what they are used to don't even bat an eye at it because there will be readers who just can't get enough of your writings.
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3352798 Okay so with the bookmarks that'll help me out a lot. Thanks for reminding me about them.
3352533 This is very true. I often have to scroll up and deep read something again because I've skimmed a minor plot point or missed a key dialogue point.
It's also true that I'll notice and be annoyed at an arbitrary cutoff in a story. I can tell very easily and it irks me to no end when an author decides "K break time, I'll just leave it here."
Flow is by far the most important aspect in a story (for me, at least) and badly written chapter breaks kill my desire to read on way more than having to spend more time reading.
I say just bring it on! I've enjoyed every chapter, whined and moaned when I had to wait for the next one.
31K words will only be a pleasant present for me! And if people think it is too much, use the bookmark function (which I think is a rather cool and unique thing since they seem to follow the account rather than the device, something I've wished for on ebook readers).
I do hope, that we'll concentrate more on the two ponies in the future chapters. And -pardon the pun- hold the horses on bringing them back to Equestria. :-)