I need some help and advice, regarding my next story. I am almost finished writing it and it will probably tip in at around 15,000 words. Now I know that is too much for one story, so how do I break it up and submit? Do I submit all chapters at once, and name each chapter, or submit one chapter and then another one later and then another, after that?
Just curious as to what has worked for you in the past as an author and I suppose, also, as a reader.
Your thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated
Reese
I would like to see some answers to that same question. My next story will be a bit longer, if I can even get it posted.
Thanks, amy
Jen,
Thank you, but can't we have multiple chapters as long as no one chapter is over 10,000 words?
The total story, that I'm currently re-editing will approach 100,000 words or more.
thank you, amy
The longer a story is the fewer views it generally receives. Not to say I and others don’t read 9k+ stories, members do. There seems to be a drop in views the more chapters you have. It’s a tough balancing act. I look at a max of 3-4k words, a personal choice as I’m looking for feedback on my story.
"Illegitimis non carborundum." Vinger Joe Stllwell
What you learn in life is important; those you help learn are more.
I’ve been posting a novel with one chapter a week. Each chapter is a little over 4,000 words. It is my personal opinion (and just an opinion) that many (if not most) Lush readers shy away from lengthy pieces. There are many readers out there and I hope to attract them by making my stories under 5,000 words (which is probably 2,000 words too many).
When I was able to read books I would read a book in a day unless interrupted, in which case I would be able to find where I was in a moment. Reading on my computer I tend to get interrupted a lot, often after 2-4000 words. It may be days before I get back to it. For me, the ideal presentation of a 10,000-word story is in chapters of 3-4,000 words or so, 4 or more days apart.
Reese and Amy... when I write, I tend to write an entire story in full before posting any parts, for a couple of reasons, the main one being that while I may have an idea where the story will go, it sometimes veers of in another direction, or another idea for something pops up. Either of those may require some retro fitting to have them makes sense. It also makes it easier to make sure details remain the same and the timeline makes sense. Then I go back through the story if it is longer ad look for logical places to make the breaks. I may add a bit at the end and beginning of each part so it makes a bit more sense if someone does not read every part.
One other thing I do is to not necessarily put each part in the same category and I do that for a couple of reasons. First, it allowed me to reach my goal of writing a story in each category (as long as the part contains the elements of that category, Lush allows it). Second, some people like certain categories more than others, so it introduces more people to the series and they may go back and read the previous and subsequent parts if they like the one part they read. I have one 20 parter that is over 100k words. Ideally, I would have liked to break it down to even smaller parts, but it was manageable at 20.
I do like to leave around a week between posting parts, though I have done a few only 3 or 4 days apart and some have been longer than a week between post when RL has gotten in the way. And I usually post an entire series before posting a new standalone or starting another series. The exceptions to this is usually because I post a comp entry and generally want those up as soon as possible. Otherwise, posting parts of more than one series at the same time tends to be confusing to the readers.
Recently, I have gone back to a few of my older stories and written a sequel, or a few additional parts to (yet to be posted). A lot of my stories tend to be 3 parters, though I have a couple that are 6 and 7 parters. Like some authors, my stories tend to be longer because I like to develop my characters and tell a story, rather than just write a bunch of sex scenes. Flash erotica is not really my forte.
Anyway, that is my take on multi part stories. I hope it helps.
Excellent advice and words of wisdom from all of you....
One of the things that I noticed right away is that my motivation is completely different than most of yours. Most of you take this writing thing very seriously, while for me its a harmless way for me to put some ideas down and see if anyone will read them and also just a time killer. Amy, much like you, I try to get into character development and romantic build-up before I get to any juicy sex. Two of my first three stories were 7800+ words, with my first story being almost 10,000 words. That said, it did become a recommended read and as a virtual rookie Lush author, I was very pleased with the number of views, comments and votes it received. I have been called verbose, but again, I like to write a story, that has sex in it, not a sex story and I think my first 3 all did that.
My current story that is finished in rough draft form has 19,000 words, which is what prompted this thread. I will probably try to break it into 3 parts, although I think the way the story flows, I may try to get away with just two. Much like you said, Adele, I will have to go back and re-work the endings and beginnings of each break to make them standalone stories in case people don't read them all, or even read them in order. and to facilitate the transition from one 'chapter' to the next.
One other question I guess I might have of some of you old-timers....is there a number of views that some of you have as a goal for your stories and over what period of time is that. I know some of you tout one million views, etc but surely that is over a long period of time. My oldest story is only 5 months old, at this point. So what would be a successful view count, for you, after say 6 months. I know that the views drop significantly the longer the story is out there, but I do see new views and even votes and comments on my oldest story.
Thanks for all of tips and advice, and continued success with all of your stories...
Reese
Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
Sorry, I'm late to the conversation. If I can, I like to publish stories as a whole piece. However, some of the stories I've written have gone above the 10K word limit, so I'll break them into segments (usually the length will depend on where the narrative "cliffhangers" fall). I try not to publish anything that isn't completely finished, so when I do publish I'll have an idea of the full length of the story. Then I'll label each installment: Title [Part X ofX]. That way the reader knows that there are more parts forthcoming and that each section is part of a completed whole.
Don't believe everything that you read.
I'll weigh in on this one too. I write stories because I have a very twisted mind, a lot of time on my hands, and to get the dreams out of my head so I can sleep! LOL! For me it's all fun... I have no desire to write an ebook or get any financial reparations from my writing. That makes it turn from fun to work and I have enough of the latter as it is!
I always make it a point to have finished the entire story before submitting anything - I don't want my readers to have to wait while I rush to finish the next chapter! Plus it allows me to follow the action better if it's all in one place. So I write it, run it through Grammarly, and then publish it.
As for chapter length, I used to do 5,000 to 8,000 words per chapter until I was advised that 3,000 to 6,000 was a better figure. So I try to stick to that. Overall my stories have gone from 101 words (for a writing challenge) to over 15,000 broken into multiple chapters. I have written two novels of 14 and 15 chapters as well as a sci-fi story that is 10 chapters or so. (sometimes I don't know when to shut up!)
My stories, as often as not, tend to have a slow build, the sexual pay-off not coming until the last third. The one-offs often come in at 6-9K words, which means if I broke them down to publish the first part of 3k there would be little or no sex at all. I can't see many Lush readers being pleased about that.
Looking at the readership my stories garner when compared with shorter works — say the 3k mentioned — I seem to do okay.
As Pelwrath says: as a rule, readership drops with each new chapter, though I have known exceptions to that rule, depending on with category a chapter ends up in.
I don't post smut on Wattpad but it has a great feature that allows you to see in graph form where readership drops off within any given chapter. It lets you see where in the text readers begin to fall away, where you might be getting it wrong.
