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Publishing chapters in an ongoing/unfinished story?

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miniwritessmut

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Is that generally OK? I've been working on a story off and on for awhile now and, while it's not finished, I have at least the first two chapters ready to post, but I'm not sure what the etiquette is for putting something up that may never actually be completed. I mean, I intend to, but, y'know, life happens...
 
of course it is alright to post an ongoing serial. i've got several going at once and the readers are very engaged. post what you have an see what the feedback is. i've got one serial going that NOBODY liked originally but it is also the one i receive the most feedback on. throw your preconceptions out the window and just do what you want.
 
I'm not really a "known" author at this point so I don't get much feedback, but I do appreciate what I do get. Not to be presumptuous that I will be more well known in the future, of course - I'm happy to take what I get. :p

Anyhoo, thanks! I'll probably submit it this evening, then.
 
There are no rules for this, and for many I don't think waiting until everything is finished is an option, but if you choose to begin publishing chapters before the final chapters are done, with the possibility that their completion may take a long time or may not happen at all, be aware of the following:

1. Some readers will be angry. Some readers get very wrapped up in stories and get upset if the stories are not completed or if their completion takes too long.

2. If you wait a long time to finish and publish the next chapter, be prepared to see the next chapter get far fewer views than previous chapters. This is what happened to me.

3. It can start to feel like you've got an albatross around your neck if you feel the compulsion to finish a long series and you've got readers wondering what's going on and you want to finish it despite finding it difficult to do.

I'm working on chapter 8 of an 8 chapter series. I started it in mid-April last year and published 5 chapters before the end of May. But it took until October to publish chapter 6, and until December to publish chapter 7. There was a big drop off in readers from chapter 5 to chapter 6 and an even bigger drop off from chapter 6 to chapter 7. I've enjoyed working on the story but I don't enjoy it quite as much feeling like I have an obligation to get it done.
 
miniwritessmut said:
Is that generally OK? I've been working on a story off and on for awhile now and, while it's not finished, I have at least the first two chapters ready to post, but I'm not sure what the etiquette is for putting something up that may never actually be completed. I mean, I intend to, but, y'know, life happens...
Click to expand...

Two chapters of how many planned?

As Simon notes, a BIG source of reader discontent is the great unfinished serial.

Two chapters ain't much content, and you're actually announcing you might never finish. So why would I even start reading?

Patience, grasshopper. Finish the damn thing, and then publish, is my advice (he says, righteously, being 80,000 words into something that won't go up until it's all written).
 
Finish it, if you can keep your motivation flowing.

What's been said about it being an albatross around your neck is absolutely true. It can drag down everything else you're working on along with it. It got bad enough for me that I didn't finish anything for a year not so long ago. I'm only now getting my mojo back.
 
miniwritessmut said:
Is that generally OK? I've been working on a story off and on for awhile now and, while it's not finished, I have at least the first two chapters ready to post, but I'm not sure what the etiquette is for putting something up that may never actually be completed. I mean, I intend to, but, y'know, life happens...
Click to expand...
In general...

... finish before publishing/posting.

... post chapters on a regular schedule; don't dump five or six chapters, wait an indeterminate time and then dump another bunch. Lit will default to one chapter a day if you submit in bunches, but a longer interval may suit your story/situation better.

... If you're writing a never-ending "soap opera" write a significant cushion of chapters before posting; preferably a complete sub-plot or story arc so you can quit writing when you've worn the premise out.


Every writer has different needs and wants from posting here. Posting chapters of an unfinished story might work for your needs and wants and it might not. The fact that you're asking the question probably means you shouldn't post chapters until you're finished or have a significant cushion.

One thing to consider: If you post chapters before finishing, you will inevitably create continuity problems and write yourself into a corner you can't get out of. It is much easier to rewrite chapters that aren't already published/posted.
 
These days I don't dare publishing things until it's all finished. I want to be able to go back and change things in earlier chapters to avoid inconsistencies. The first story I published turned into multiple chapers that I didn't have a clear ending in mind for. Sadly, I may never finish the series.
 
miniwritessmut said:
Is that generally OK? I've been working on a story off and on for awhile now and, while it's not finished, I have at least the first two chapters ready to post, but I'm not sure what the etiquette is for putting something up that may never actually be completed. I mean, I intend to, but, y'know, life happens...
Click to expand...

I have finished one thirteen chapter work that I posted chapter by chapter. I managed to keep to a very tight schedule, and finished the whole thing in a little more than three months.

I am currently two chapters in on a second long narrative, with chapter three about ready to be submitted this weekend. The writing on this one has gone much slower, and I admit feeling a fair amount of pressure to get it posted, but the holidays and a family vacation has slowed my production.

All the objections that have been stated in this thread to publishing chapter by chapter have some validity, but for me, this is the way I work. It may be for you as well. But be aware, it comes at a price. You will shed readers as you go along. You may, as Harold pointed out, box yourself into continuity problems. But only you know what work best for your creative process.

Good luck!
 
tomlitilia said:
These days I don't dare publishing things until it's all finished. I want to be able to go back and change things in earlier chapters to avoid inconsistencies. The first story I published turned into multiple chapers that I didn't have a clear ending in mind for. Sadly, I may never finish the series.
Click to expand...

I plot like I'm on a Sunday drive. I write the beginning, I write the end, then I try to find the most interesting route between them.
 
SimonDoom said:
There are no rules for this, and for many I don't think waiting until everything is finished is an option, but if you choose to begin publishing chapters before the final chapters are done, with the possibility that their completion may take a long time or may not happen at all, be aware of the following:

1. Some readers will be angry. Some readers get very wrapped up in stories and get upset if the stories are not completed or if their completion takes too long.

2. If you wait a long time to finish and publish the next chapter, be prepared to see the next chapter get far fewer views than previous chapters. This is what happened to me.

3. It can start to feel like you've got an albatross around your neck if you feel the compulsion to finish a long series and you've got readers wondering what's going on and you want to finish it despite finding it difficult to do.
Click to expand...

All very true but...
I've also had very angry reactions like "Post the whole damn thing if you have it finished", although some of that was probably caused by the chapter length (somewhere around 1 lit-page, aka 3500-3750 words).
What I'm trying to say is that you're likely to get angry reactions no matter what you do. Don't let it discourage you.

Also the sheer number of unfinished series is a clear indication that you can post whatever you want and whenever you want.
 
MelissaBaby said:
I plot like I'm on a Sunday drive. I write the beginning, I write the end, then I try to find the most interesting route between them.
Click to expand...

I like this. This is the way I write, too. I've been working on an 8 chapter series since last April, and I've had the last half page written for at least six months (I tinker with it but I'm sure it will conclude the story more or less in its present form). The rest of it is what's taking me so long.
 
Well, I submitted the first chapter for publication. So, uh, here's hoping it's received well. I'll settle for not terribly, though. Thanks for the advice, y'all! :)
 
MelissaBaby said:
I plot like I'm on a Sunday drive. I write the beginning, I write the end, then I try to find the most interesting route between them.
Click to expand...

End? What's this about writing an end first?!

I might have a vague idea in my mind's eye, but I'd never write the words; for me that would stifle everything, right there and then. Every one of my stories has been written sequentially, plot turns announced unexpectantly in a single sentence, sometimes. I never know who is going to show up in the next paragraph, let alone know what they're going to do.

I can't (consciously) plot to save my life. What my subconscious gets up to is another thing entirely, but I don't find that out until I write. That's why I write, to find out what the hell is going on inside my head.

I've also learned patience. My big work-in-progress is 80k and counting. I'd be slaughtered alive if I put the first part up before the last part was written. So I've started putting out little pieces of something else, just to keep the idea of me ticking over in reader's minds.
 
electricblue66 said:
End? What's this about writing an end first?!

I might have a vague idea in my mind's eye, but I'd never write the words; for me that would stifle everything, right there and then. Every one of my stories has been written sequentially, plot turns announced unexpectantly in a single sentence, sometimes. I never know who is going to show up in the next paragraph, let alone know what they're going to do.

I can't (consciously) plot to save my life. What my subconscious gets up to is another thing entirely, but I don't find that out until I write. That's why I write, to find out what the hell is going on inside my head.

I've also learned patience. My big work-in-progress is 80k and counting. I'd be slaughtered alive if I put the first part up before the last part was written. So I've started putting out little pieces of something else, just to keep the idea of me ticking over in reader's minds.
Click to expand...

This is part of what's fun about the creative process. It's different for everyone. For me, it's as it is for MelissaBaby. Before I'm too far into the story I know what I want the end to be. I have to put it down in words. After that, the task is to figure out how to get there as artfully as I can.
 
electricblue66 said:
End? What's this about writing an end first?!

I might have a vague idea in my mind's eye, but I'd never write the words; for me that would stifle everything, right there and then. Every one of my stories has been written sequentially, plot turns announced unexpectantly in a single sentence, sometimes. I never know who is going to show up in the next paragraph, let alone know what they're going to do.

I can't (consciously) plot to save my life. What my subconscious gets up to is another thing entirely, but I don't find that out until I write. That's why I write, to find out what the hell is going on inside my head.

I've also learned patience. My big work-in-progress is 80k and counting. I'd be slaughtered alive if I put the first part up before the last part was written. So I've started putting out little pieces of something else, just to keep the idea of me ticking over in reader's minds.
Click to expand...

Since my first novel was basically a memoir, I knew how it ended before it began.

When I had finished the first chapter of Mary and Alvin, I immediately wrote most of the last chapter, even though it will be at least a year, maybe two, before I get to it. There's no plant doing things that way, it's just where my creativity took me.

I like the ending to reflect back to the beginning. It makes the story feel completed to me.

This is the first paragraph of My Fall and Rise:

Would it have been better if the sky were blue and the trees were green and the wild flowers blossomed along the roadside? Or would the end of so much color in my life have made it harder to bear?
Click to expand...

And this is the last, about 60,000 words later:

I could hear the day's first birdsong, and from up the stairs, the soft sleeping sounds of a man who loved me. I sat for a long time and watched, as the sun sparkled through the trees and then rose to illuminate the houses and the cars, the lawns and the flowerbeds, and the world filled with color.
Click to expand...
 
SimonDoom said:
This is part of what's fun about the creative process. It's different for everyone. For me, it's as it is for MelissaBaby. Before I'm too far into the story I know what I want the end to be. I have to put it down in words. After that, the task is to figure out how to get there as artfully as I can.
Click to expand...

ElectricBlue is a fine writer. Obviously his process works well for him. It may well be that, as I make my way through another long narrative, I find myself more in agreement with it, but my experience so far takes me down a different path.
 
MelissaBaby said:
ElectricBlue is a fine writer. Obviously his process works well for him. It may well be that, as I make my way through another long narrative, I find myself more in agreement with it, but my experience so far takes me down a different path.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

And yes, it's a never ending source of fascination to me how different minds work completely differently. I've just sent a list of my current "ideas for future things" to my two Beta readers, and observed in passing that my subconscious must be multi-tasking like Deep Blue. I've written just about zero words on any of them, but when I start writing any one of those ideas, the first stream of consciousness draft will be 98% what gets published. I can't imagine my mind working any other way, nor could I ever change how I write (and would never want to).
 
electricblue66 said:
I can't (consciously) plot to save my life. What my subconscious gets up to is another thing entirely, but I don't find that out until I write. That's why I write, to find out what the hell is going on inside my head.
Click to expand...
You're honestly only the second or third writer I've actually heard/read that from. I kind of thought I was a little ... creepy in that aspect.

I tried to write a chapter-by-chapter layout for some stories and after every chapter I wrote I had to redo the entire layout. Same goes for character bio's.
At some point in a short story I ended up writing the story of the antogonist despite me starting off writing him as the hero ... it worked out for the better because it turned out a lot more interesting, but how the hell did that happen?

It does make reading back what you've written a lot more interesting though ;)
 
miniwritessmut said:
Is that generally OK? I've been working on a story off and on for awhile now and, while it's not finished, I have at least the first two chapters ready to post, but I'm not sure what the etiquette is for putting something up that may never actually be completed. I mean, I intend to, but, y'know, life happens...
Click to expand...

I do this all the time...
My biggest mistake was to post the first chapter of my first story before chapter 2 was ready. It was mostly all there in my head, but it takes time to write (and then edit, spell check, correct punctuation and grammar etc. then it has to get past the moderators). I ended my first episode with a cliff-hanger, and people were like...
"What? You left it there? Really?"

Have something ready to follow it up, if it needs it.
If you don't, it's just too cruel ;)
 
Gentleman_G said:
You're honestly only the second or third writer I've actually heard/read that from. I kind of thought I was a little ... creepy in that aspect.

I tried to write a chapter-by-chapter layout for some stories and after every chapter I wrote I had to redo the entire layout. Same goes for character bio's.

At some point in a short story I ended up writing the story of the antogonist despite me starting off writing him as the hero ... it worked out for the better because it turned out a lot more interesting, but how the hell did that happen?

It does make reading back what you've written a lot more interesting though ;)
Click to expand...

One of my best stories here (and best because of where it went in its second half) had the key plot element pop into my mind literally between the first sentence of a paragraph and the last - completely out of the blue. Those that have read it will agree - Amelia without her rope would now be unimaginable, but it was never consciously plotted.

And 'character bios.' What are they? :) My characters write themselves, my job is to keep up. The notion that I could ever predetermine a character is, for me absurd - the laughter inside my head would be ridiculous.
 
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