Restructuring and Resubmitting a story

[FortySixtyFour]

Have any of you taken down a multi-part story that you posted up piece by piece over a period of time, so that you could resubmit it as a single part, or in larger portions?

I've been getting unhappy with my format, as my early chapters average about 5k words, which is what, a lit page and a half? And looking at how much more of my project I have to go, it's going to wind up being some thirty chapters in total submitted over the next two years or so... I don't really want to be trying to track thirty tiny little pieces.

With what I know now, 5k words is too short for one sitting, and I'm thinking 15k - 25k is more appropriate for a portion to read. So I was thinking about taking down the individual chapters and putting them back up as larger parts. Have others done this, or seen this done? I know doing this would wreck all of my statistics and knock my one chapter out of the toplist, but it seems like an issue that'd be smarter to tackle sooner rather than later.

 

[ElectricBlue]

How many early/short chapters have you got?

If you plan to keep going for the next two years, why don't you just submit longer chapters from here on in and leave the early ones as they are? Why waste everybody's time, including your own?

 

[sr71plt]

You're posting about lengths, not content. I don't see obsessing over previously posted stories and taking up the Web site's time and effort (and denying other authors who aren't fussing over already-posted stories the Web site's time and effort) for anything but big changes in content. Just go on to writing the next story.

 

[8letters]

I've only written in Incest / Taboo and YMMV in other categories.

A lot of my stories are in the 20-28K range and they do fine. I'm not sure how big one of my stories would have to be for me to split it into chapters.

The closest thing I've seen to this being done is I recently noticed someone had Chapters 1-6 in one story and then continued the chapters from there:
https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=442854&page=submissions

I'm going to be taking down "Heather and Michael" chapters 1-3 in the near future. Chapters 1 & 2 are a complete story and each chapter is very short. It was the first story I've posted on LitE. I've since learned that it's better to post everything as a complete story if at all possible - many incest readers (including me) prefer complete stories to chapter stories. I don't like to get into a series and then have it not finish.

Chapter 3 was to be the first of a four-chapter sequel. My goal is to finish the sequel, post the revised "Heather and Michael" chapters 1&2 under a new name (as the old one sucked), and post the sequel the next day.

 

[Hypoxia]

Unless it's dreadfully flawed, consider what you've posted as PAST and what you have yet to write as FUTURE. Fuck the past. The future awaits you.

 

[FortySixtyFour]

How many early/short chapters have you got?

If you plan to keep going for the next two years, why don't you just submit longer chapters from here on in and leave the early ones as they are? Why waste everybody's time, including your own?

I don't feel like it's wasting anyone's time if it can significantly improve reading for the readers and rating for the overall story. The early chapters were short and readers had commented about their length; I feel that consolidating them into larger pieces would address their concerns and keep new readers reading through more of the story without breaking immersion via chapter breaks.

My first chapter was something of a prologue introducing the overall story. It's very brief (2k words) and doesn't contain any sex, kissing, or even flirting, really. I think it's highly rated (considering those factors) at 4.34, but at the same time I feel like a lot of would-be readers will pass on it when seeing that rating. If the prologue was lumped into the following chapters, I definitely think my project wouldn't be leading with a first chapter that had such a low score.

You're posting about lengths, not content. I don't see obsessing over previously posted stories and taking up the Web site's time and effort (and denying other authors who aren't fussing over already-posted stories the Web site's time and effort) for anything but big changes in content. Just go on to writing the next story.

Is there a lot of time and effort involved in managing submissions? I assumed a good deal of the process was automated. I don't mean to be holding up anyone else, I'm just concerned with ensuring the work I have posted is as good as I can make it.

I've only written in Incest / Taboo and YMMV in other categories.

A lot of my stories are in the 20-28K range and they do fine. I'm not sure how big one of my stories would have to be for me to split it into chapters.

The closest thing I've seen to this being done is I recently noticed someone had Chapters 1-6 in one story and then continued the chapters from there:
https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=442854&page=submissions

I'm going to be taking down "Heather and Michael" chapters 1-3 in the near future. Chapters 1 & 2 are a complete story and each chapter is very short. It was the first story I've posted on LitE. I've since learned that it's better to post everything as a complete story if at all possible - many incest readers (including me) prefer complete stories to chapter stories. I don't like to get into a series and then have it not finish.

Chapter 3 was to be the first of a four-chapter sequel. My goal is to finish the sequel, post the revised "Heather and Michael" chapters 1&2 under a new name (as the old one sucked), and post the sequel the next day.

That's a lot like what I had in mind! I'm in a similar situation in a position to look back on my first writing attempts, and also having my continuation of that same story potentially hobbled by the way I structured things back then.

Unless it's dreadfully flawed, consider what you've posted as PAST and what you have yet to write as FUTURE. Fuck the past. The future awaits you.

That's in line with one of my favorite movie quotes--"Never look back, Lawrence. The past is a wilderness of horrors." Anthony Hopkins, The Wolfman.

But while I'm writing new chapters, they're still in the same story. New readers are still going to have to press themselves through the earlier chapters to get to what I'm writing now, I just want to make getting through those early chapters less of a trial for them.

My inexperience several years ago is to blame for their poor formatting, I don't want my indifference now to be to blame for them remaining in poor format, you know?

 

[sr71plt]

Is there a lot of time and effort involved in managing submissions? I assumed a good deal of the process was automated. I don't mean to be holding up anyone else, I'm just concerned with ensuring the work I have posted is as good as I can make it.

There's some time and effort, yes, more than for a new story as it has to register that this is a redo and what was already there has to be jettisoned. And it's time and effort you are gobbling up because you either didn't do it as carefully as you could have to begin with or you're real persnickety about an already published work and thus intruding on the submissions of others, many of whom have done it right for a one-time submission and/or aren't anal retentive about "done deals." So, to some extent, you are stealing attention from your fellow authors. You should give serious thought to just how much you need to change a work that now has already gotten its ten days of reading highlight from a greater portion of the readership.

 

[FortySixtyFour]

There's some time and effort, yes, more than for a new story as it has to register that this is a redo and what was already there has to be jettisoned. And it's time and effort you are gobbling up because you either didn't do it as carefully as you could have to begin with or you're real persnickety about an already published work and thus intruding on the submissions of others, many of whom have done it right for a one-time submission and/or aren't anal retentive about "done deals." So, to some extent, you are stealing attention from your fellow authors. You should give serious thought to just how much you need to change a work that now has already gotten its ten days of reading highlight from a greater portion of the readership.

Should I assume you've been affected in some way by someone resubmitting works, and have some sort of related anecdote to share? Or are you just being a jerk to someone just dropping in to ask a question?

I don't see how I'd be stealing attention or intruding upon fellow authors. After thinking about it today, I wouldn't even be re-appearing in the recent additions lists--ten days of reading highlight wouldn't outweigh the benefit of me already having a chapter in the toplist.

I'd just submit an edit to some of my existing files to consolidate chapters, while asking them to then remove the redundant files. I think that dropping my changes into the queue would have a pretty negligible effect on fellow authors, or am I missing something?

 

[sr71plt]

Should I assume you've been affected in some way by someone resubmitting works, and have some sort of related anecdote to share? Or are you just being a jerk to someone just dropping in to ask a question?

I don't see how I'd be stealing attention or intruding upon fellow authors. After thinking about it today, I wouldn't even be re-appearing in the recent additions lists--ten days of reading highlight wouldn't outweigh the benefit of me already having a chapter in the toplist.

I'd just submit an edit to some of my existing files to consolidate chapters, while asking them to then remove the redundant files. I think that dropping my changes into the queue would have a pretty negligible effect on fellow authors, or am I missing something?

So I'm not the one who's being "it's all about me" and I'm the jerk here. Interesting perspective you have.

Obviously you're "it's all about me," so no reason to continue this.

 

[FortySixtyFour]

The fuck?