Breaking apart novel

[Dskull]

Question re breaking apart novel

I am trying to write my first story and was wondering if there were any guidelines/thoughts for posting it by chapter or trying to post it as once. Since it is my first one, I was going to try and finish the storyline before posting it, but was curious for planning purposes. I tried searching and looking at FAQs but didn’t see anything, so I apologize if this is answered somewhere. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[GinnyPPC]

I am trying to write my first story and was wondering if there were any guidelines/thoughts for posting it by chapter or trying to post it as once. Since it is my first one, I was going to try and finish the storyline before posting it, but was curious for planning purposes. I tried searching and looking at FAQs but didn’t see anything, so I apologize if this is answered somewhere. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Find natural breaks in your story where you have opportunities for the reader to be anxious to want more, but also still giving the reader something substantial to enjoy. Many people plan their chapters around cliffhangers or other significant events to keep readers engaged.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Dig through some old threads here on AH. This question comes up frequently, and the wide range of answers is always the same.

Here's a couple of recent threads:

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1550063

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1548726

 

[KeithD]

You won't find anything in the FAQs, because the Web site doesn't care which way you do it and will support doing it either way. I agree with GinnyPPC's observation that, other considerations aside, if you can't end each separately posted chapter with something propelling the reader into the next chapter, it's best to go the "one go" route over chapterization.

 

[SimonDoom]

Some questions and thoughts:

1. How long is the whole story, or, if unwritten, how long do you expect it to be?

2. If you publish it in chapters, then I recommend if possible you publish all chapters in the same category, otherwise you will have unhappy readers and they will desert your story.

3. If you publish it in chapters, it's better, if possible, to finish the entire story and then publish the chapters fairly close together in time, like a week apart, rather than waiting too long. If you wait you will lose some readers, although not as many as some people worry about.

4. There's nothing wrong with just publishing the whole damn thing as one standalone story. There seems to be an unusual appetite among Literotica readers for very long stories.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Novels are usually written already broken up into chapters, so what you would post if you wanted to do so, would parts of the entire novel. Each part would be comprised of a group of whole chapters.

Where you break it in to parts would be up to you. You might think about ending on a point where there could be a cliffhanger effect in the story. Or not. you could just arbitrarily make the parts, say 10 chapters, each, depending on how many chapter in total you have.

It's really up to your although do keep in mind that a page of Lit text is about 3750 characters and some readers will complain about anything over 5 pages. But if it's hooked them they usually won't complain if it goes 8 - 10 Lit pages.

I'm sure someone will be along to refute my 'opinion' soon.

 

[Gamblnluck]

Find natural breaks in your story where you have opportunities for the reader to be anxious to want more, but also still giving the reader something substantial to enjoy. Many people plan their chapters around cliffhangers or other significant events to keep readers engaged.

I totally agree. I wrote a long, 36 chapter epic called "Slave Camp". I was generally about three chapters ahead of what was submitted but I did that on purpose. I liked to drop 'nuggets' that might or might not be used in later chapters. I also continually go back and re-read my chapters to see if I was following my train of thought or had strayed.

My story had many flaws. To date I still have not gone back to the beginning and read it. But I personally liked the story I presented.