Long story vs. multi-chapter

[JrByrdmann]

New to the forum, but long-time reader of Literotica.

I've finally gotten the bug and had a story idea that hit me right after Christmas. I'm going to be writing on it for at least another month or so (I do have a "real" job that needs to get done). In any case, I'm at 6000 words and I think it will likely end up north of 20,000 before I'm done. I'm hoping to enter this in the Nude Day contest.

So my question is: For a longer story are you better off cutting it into multiple posts with chapter numbers or just let it be one long post with multiple pages?

 

[RejectReality]

If you're going to enter it in the Nude Day contest, the answer is simple. Multiple chapters aren't allowed in themed contest, so go with a single submission.

20k words honestly isn't even an overly long submission in the contests.

 

[ElectricBlue]

New to the forum, but long-time reader of Literotica.

I've finally gotten the bug and had a story idea that hit me right after Christmas. I'm going to be writing on it for at least another month or so (I do have a "real" job that needs to get done). In any case, I'm at 6000 words and I think it will likely end up north of 20,000 before I'm done. I'm hoping to enter this in the Nude Day contest.

So my question is: For a longer story are you better off cutting it into multiple posts with chapter numbers or just let it be one long post with multiple pages?

If it's self-contained story, I'd post it as a single piece. 20k words is around 5-6 Lit pages. Besides, if you want it for a contest, it must be a single submission (the site no longer allows multi-part stories in contests).

20k isn't that long - I've seen 240,000 in a single submission...

FYI, one Lit page is around 3,750 words.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

It depends for me.

One-shot stories will be one long chapter. Because I can't write a short story to save my life, even my one-shots tend to be about 20k words.

With me, it is predicated on the nature of the tale. I think my largest one-shot was 30k words.

My only relevant advice is to just parse out of there are natural breaks in the story that make for chapters. Otherwise, just segue the story within the chapter.

 

[Handley_Page]

New to the forum, but long-time reader of Literotica.

I've finally gotten the bug and had a story idea that hit me right after Christmas. I'm going to be writing on it for at least another month or so (I do have a "real" job that needs to get done). In any case, I'm at 6000 words and I think it will likely end up north of 20,000 before I'm done. I'm hoping to enter this in the Nude Day contest.

So my question is: For a longer story are you better off cutting it into multiple posts with chapter numbers or just let it be one long post with multiple pages?

20,000 words is not quite 6 Lit pages, so I doubt you need to cut it up.
You might want to have a think at about 35000 words, I reckon.

Good Luck

 

[Gentleman_G]

I read stories which go up to 9 pages in a chapter, but I generally don't see longer ones out there. Well, aside from things like Threads - The Island, which was 47 pages.

20.000 words is a pretty decent storylength imho. I don't think I actually read stories with a lesser wordcount

 

[KenNicottii]

I’m currently struggling with this issue. My first story was a manageable 10K words on 3 Lit pages; but by my fourth (Trailing Along), I was over 20K words. It was for a contest, so I didn’t fret too much about the length. I was shocked when my most recent story ballooned to 40K words; but again it was a perfect fit for the 2017 Nude Day contest, so it had to go in as a single story. However, I have others completed that I will probably submit as 2 chapters.

One was originally a 20K word story structured as a flashback that’s bookended by a brief present day prologue and epilogue. The bulk of the story (in flashback) has the male main character reminiscing about a woman he was obsessed with in his youth. While making some final revisions, my muse laid her hand on my shoulder and had me add a 13K word present day second part with the MMC and his wife. Even though I was able to briefly bring the old characters indirectly into the present day story, I’m OK with the 2 chapter split even if it produces a readership and voting pattern different from a 33K standalone story. After all, the FMC's in each chapter are very dissimilar, and the chapters represent distinctly different times in the MMC's life.

My other story (30K words) is exactly at the halfway point when the female main character starts to tell about various unpleasant events from her past. I warn readers upfront in the author’s notes that the story ultimately gets very dark, and I plan to break it into 2 chapters so that anyone who’s not up for this challenging content can exit the story at the end of Chapter 1. Of course I realize that this warning could perversely encourage readers to continue on to the 2nd chapter who might otherwise be uninterested in lengthy and/or multi-chapter stories.

 

[John Blackhawk]

Honestly i'd try to stick with multi chapters of no more than 3-5 lit pages a piece. Because well i'd argue a story has to be good to keep people interested past 5 lit pages.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Honestly i'd try to stick with multi chapters of no more than 3-5 lit pages a piece. Because well i'd argue a story has to be good to keep people interested past 5 lit pages.

Every time this comes up (which it does, regularly), there's plenty of evidence offered that people do and will read much longer stories - 10, 20, 30 Lit pages. More.

I do agree though, that if you are going to break a story up into chapters, 3-5 Lit pages seems to be a good break.

But there's no rule that says, "must use chapters." There are many writers who don't, and their stories get read.

 

[John Blackhawk]

Every time this comes up (which it does, regularly), there's plenty of evidence offered that people do and will read much longer stories - 10, 20, 30 Lit pages. More.

I do agree though, that if you are going to break a story up into chapters, 3-5 Lit pages seems to be a good break.

But there's no rule that says, "must use chapters." There are many writers who don't, and their stories get read.

Yea i agree that's why i said a story has to be good to keep people interested much past 5 lit pages. Take the story "Three square meals" by telfer. The last few years he's been writing it he's been averaging 9 lit pages and around 100+ comments on each chapter. His story to me is what i would call among the "good" stories and i think the fact he writes an average of 9 pages a chapter and gets over 100+ comments would back it up.

 

[SimonDoom]

Honestly i'd try to stick with multi chapters of no more than 3-5 lit pages a piece. Because well i'd argue a story has to be good to keep people interested past 5 lit pages.

I tend to read stories that are no more than 3-6 pages, but I think this strategy mostly works only if each of the chapters, standing alone, offers the reader what the reader expects in the story category. If you have a 10 page story you want to post in a particular fetish or kink category and in the first five pages the kink doesn't show up at all, it would be foolish to post a two chapter story in that kink category. You'll lose too many frustrated readers after the first chapter. Better to post it as one story.

 

[JGittes]

Just my two cents here. I wrote a roughly 35K story about a couple modeling for a three hour life drawing class. The sexual ebb-flow-climax and the time structure fit well into a six chapter story, each about two to three Lit pages, which is how I posted it last year. While it was very well received the total readership dropped off precipitously through the fourth and fifth installment, although recovered a bit for the finale. Were I granted a re-do I would post it all in one post with internal chapter headings to aid the reader who might have found satisfaction after a chapter or two and wished to return later.

Of course your mileage may vary.

Regards

 

[Hypoxia]

I don't think of chapters but of "standalone units". Some of those units may consist of several distinct chapters, like mini-acts within a single stage act. Those who write 3-act-play or 4-part-drama structures might combine everything within one unit (submitted piece) or give each its own chapter. Or the 20 chapters of a long piece may be so tightly connected as to require a single posting.

And stories can escape control. I started to write a 3-act-play piece but the 1st act took 2 chapters, the original 2nd chapter (now the 3rd) broke into 3 separate chapters, and I had to add a 4th -- and spinoffs did and will occur. That could NOT have been shoehorned into a single long read, not with any grace. Each chunk was its own standalone unit.

Authors get to present stories however they wish. Use that power wisely.

 

[KenNicottii]

... all in one post with internal chapter headings to aid the reader who might have found satisfaction after a chapter or two and wished to return later ...

Yep, internal chapter headings were used in my novella-length story (The Flume at Falcon Rock), both to help the reader feel less intimidated by the story length as well as giving me the ability to easily navigate back and forth through a 74 page Word document. I set up each internal chapter title as a 'bookmark', which allowed me to use 'Go To' (F5 key, for Windows users) to jump to whatever chapter I was looking for. It was very handy and also gives the reader a little hint as to the content of each chapter.

(Tip: even if you don't number your internal chapters in the story, you should add them to the beginning of your bookmark names so they'll be in the right order when you pull up the bookmark list. The list will be alphabetized so the bookmarks will be out of their natural sequence if you don't use numbers to force them into their proper order.)