a question of timing

[voluptuary_manque]

My latest story is the highest rated I've ever had . . . so far! Now, since the next chapter is all written, do I post it as soon as this one drops off the 'new' in hopes that my 'fans' will jump to this one, too? Or does it really matter?

 

[litfan10]

Hey voluptuary_manque. I am a fairly new newbie here, but I am on my eighth chapter of a series which I am posting weekly (as a stupid writer's challenge to myself) I find Chapter one has the most views by a tremendous difference but each chapter gets love and hate mail and totally different ratings. My seventh chapter has the highest rating of all. So I think it all depends on how strong the piece is not the timing. Hope I help and congrats on the success. What story is it so I can read it? Good luck.

 

[jomar]

I try to time it so chapters come out weekly...I try to hit Friday for no good reason.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I try to time it so chapters come out weekly...I try to hit Friday for no good reason.

You guys are more ambitious than I am. I'm lucky to post a chapter a month!

 

[sr71plt]

When I'm submitting chapters I submit the next one as soon as the chapter before it has posted. I don't seen any reason to make a reader wait a long time for a work to be completed--but I like to know that the order isn't getting screwed up.

 

[TE999]

My latest story is the highest rated I've ever had . . . so far! Now, since the next chapter is all written, do I post it as soon as this one drops off the 'new' in hopes that my 'fans' will jump to this one, too? Or does it really matter?

Sure. No point in leaving your 'fans' quivering in anticipation.

Several of the 'great' writers such as Dickens, Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Poe, London, etc. often serialized their novels in the newspapers of the day; one chapter every few days or once a week. Readers are notoriously fickle and the longer you can hold their attention the better off you are.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Okay, Chap 3 is submitted. Now I have to go to work on 4!

 

[sr71plt]

Okay, Chap 3 is submitted. Now I have to go to work on 4!

That's one thing I don't do. I don't begin submitting stories until the whole thing is written. You can easily trap yourself in deadends and sloppy plotting and limit your creative choices badly by committing the first part of the work to concrete before you actually have a complete story written.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That's one thing I don't do. I don't begin submitting stories until the whole thing is written. You can easily trap yourself in deadends and sloppy plotting and limit your creative choices badly by committing the first part of the work to concrete before you actually have a complete story written.

Oh, I'm not that well organized. I never know what's going to happen in a chapter until I've written it.

 

[sr71plt]

I never know what's going to happen in a chapter until I've written it.

I don't know of all that's going to happen in a chapter before writing it either. That's not really what I was talking about, though.

 

[jomar]

You guys are more ambitious than I am. I'm lucky to post a chapter a month!

Well, when I'm in the mood to write it flows, but there can be a looong time between stories. Having said that, it was a year between the first two and last two chapters of my White Trash crudefest - I joined in an AH contest on revenge and wrote the last two for it, fortunately I had dropped the seeds to set it up in the first two chapters.

With the longer ones I'm with sr, it's pretty much done before I start submitting chapters, but even so, mine aren't all that intricate with a bunch of subplots and side characters and stuff.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

That's one thing I don't do. I don't begin submitting stories until the whole thing is written. You can easily trap yourself in deadends and sloppy plotting and limit your creative choices badly by committing the first part of the work to concrete before you actually have a complete story written.

I know exactly how the story is going to flow, where it's really going and how it will end before I even start typing. If I need to break it up into chapter because of length, no problem submitting them as I write.

The only problem is that I might just get tired of the story before I finish...and leave the readers hanging. Which has happened on several occasions.

 

[sr71plt]

I know exactly how the story is going to flow, where it's really going and how it will end before I even start typing. If I need to break it up into chapter because of length, no problem submitting them as I write.

Guess my writing is just more exciting for me. If I knew it all before I started, I wouldn't bother to start.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Guess my writing is just more exciting for me. If I knew it all before I started, I wouldn't bother to start.

The muse comes and she goes, I have no control over what she whispers in my ear or when.

*by the way...it didn't say I knew everything, it's a long way from the beginning to the end and anything can happen. I just happen to know how I want it to end, even before I start writing.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

My characters tend to change as I get to know them. That makes figuring out the plot sort of tough. But why not? Living people do, why not fictional ones?

 

[sr71plt]

The muse comes and she goes, I have no control over what she whispers in my ear or when.

*by the way...it didn't say I knew everything, it's a long way from the beginning to the end and anything can happen. I just happen to know how I want it to end, even before I start writing.

Sounds good. I usually have the ending (although it might change) in mind before I start too. It's much of the middle I leave open for developing possibilities.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Now that I can identify with! The challenge then becomes how to get to the desired ending given the situation of the story at the moment.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

eggzakly! The beginning and the ending are the "easy" parts, it's all that middle stuff, character development, plot, putting the words in the right order type of thing that get a little tough.

I have three stories hanging right now...I have the ending to each mostly written, but the middle still needs completion...and my muse decided I work on something else!

 

[TxRad]

eggzakly! The beginning and the ending are the "easy" parts, it's all that middle stuff, character development, plot, putting the words in the right order type of thing that get a little tough.

I have three stories hanging right now...I have the ending to each mostly written, but the middle still needs completion...and my muse decided I work on something else!

Mine is in butterfly mode right now. She's flitting from one story to the other like it's a flower garden.