Chapters or Not?

[Darkniciad]

Just to save myself the trouble of talking about what I think concerning chapter stories and toplists, year-end contests, etc. again

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=628840

 

[BONNIEBREA]

If it was feasible for me, I'd want to do that - not least because I get to a certain point and find myself wanting to retcon earlier sections. Unfortunately I have several half-finished works on my hard drive testifying to my inability to work that way :-/


I ran into that sort of thing rather inadvertently.

I wrote a first story that included a brief reference to an experience one of the characters had. So then I wrote a second story to expand that experience into a full story. From there it was on to a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth story - all persuing a similar story premise, but with different themes and an expanding cast of characters. When I finished the sixth story I considered that, because of the continuing premise and how the characters and plots were inter-related, I really had a six-part larger story. So I went back and rewrote all six stories to pull them more tightly together and better create the internal connections between stories that drew them together as a whole. A seventh story followed.

I've also written other stories, but ones which are only tangential to that seven part story arc.

 

[Lien_Geller]

That's a great idea, Dark! I know the site already has the story series option and it'd be cool to be able to just knock every series into one installment on the top lists and open up space for other author's to strut their stuff.

 

[Darkniciad]

Yeah, that's what I ( and a few others ) thought.

Look at the post date.

And the band plays on

 

[carlieplum]

Chapters are not

My first outing on literotica site was on a lark, just to see if I could and if people would hate it. I had no idea what I was doing, but thought I would give it a shot. I wrote a multi-part story that I wrote as I went along, although it's basic outline had been something rattling around in my brain for a long time, so I was just putting the skin on some fleshed-out bones. Those submissions that weren't at least three pages long, I got comments asking for longer chapters, so I adjusted out based on that. I shoot for a word count on my chapters of just around 6k .

I did pretty well at first writing each section as I went and posting them so there was only a break of a day or two. But the last two sections, it was a two week break and then a one month break.

I posted about this recently, and now that I've been on here longer and gotten frustrated in investing in a multi-part story that has months in between postings or that goes on for a few chapters and drops with no conclusion and none in sight (six months later, I'm thinking the story is not going to get finished), I've decided my multi-parters won't start being posted until they are totally written.

I think the chapters are natural. Longer works of fiction or non-fiction have chapters, so there is no reason why erotic fiction online shouldn't be structured the same way.

And I think that another poster had a good point. People are primarily reading this on computers, and it is something you have to put down and shut off if you don't live alone or only with a partner who knows about your reading habits. It's not like a book you can leave on your coffee table where your kids, houseguests, etc. might pick it up.

 

[oggbashan]

I get there, eventually...

I wrote a story for the 2005 Halloween Contest: Birth and Death.

I wrote a sequel early in 2006: Birthed (again).

I wrote another sequel posted a couple of days ago: Caroline's Lamia.

I've just submitted, not yet posted, a further sequel: Caroline's Spider-Woman.

Seven years between 'chapters'? No wonder my readers get tired of waiting.

Edited: I've just checked. I have possible sequels required for a couple of stories posted in 2004; but more seriously I'm missing chapters including conclusions of incomplete stories from October 2004, December 2004, July 2006, January 2007, and January 2010.

This thread has reminded me. I need to get writing those chapters/completing the part-finished drafts.

 

[carlieplum]

Darkniciad, I liked your ideas about dealing with chaptered stories. (And I am a multipart story writer.)

Any hope they will ever be put into effect?

 

[TimothyM]

For what it's worth

I like chapters if each of them actually feels like a chapter in a book, i.e. a complete whole in itself. That's both as a reader and a writer. For me a nice size chapter is 3 pages, but anything from 2-5 pages is fine.

I dislike cliff hangers, though sometimes they are fun, but I don't mind if a chapter points to the next installment. So though I like for a chapter to more or less resolve the main situation or event, I'm fine with open endings or setting up the reader for new developments.

If the story is very good and is either finished or completed within a short time span, I can tolerate shorter, inconclusive chapters, but I'll probably not vote on each of them, only those I like best or the final chapter. Some authors here really misuse the chapter possibility, but then they pay for it with getting angry comments from readers.

One of the first stories I read here was 22 pages, and this was before I had found out how to check the number of pages at the bottom. So I stayed up till 4 in the morning to finish it, and even though I may also have done so if it had been in chapters, I would probably not have started reading it late at night if I had realized.

So I'm for chapters in general, though I agree with some of the points against that I've read here.

PS Dark, I went on to read your 2008 thread and I think your suggestions there were great. Shame they were never used.

 

[Darkniciad]

*shrug* Who knows what's going on behind the scenes. Most of the recent changes weren't even announced when they were implemented.

My trollish shadow with the giant fonts is probably still going on and on somewhere about how I'm "a site toadie against change", but the truth is that expending energy trying to make suggestions ( especially when you put forth the effort to research, so implementation might be a little less painful ) is time better spent writing stories or watching flies fuck, because it ain't gonna happen.

I've got a thread somewhere about pages such as the FAQ that need updating because they're either outdated or flat-out giving bad information. ( The "e-mail Laurel" links are all completely worthless, and they're everywhere ) That thread died a fast death, as virtually nobody wanted to bother.

I've brought up that the infrastructure for a far easier point-n-click submission editing method is already there in the submit page code, but you still have to go through a complicated procedure rife with spots for human error on both sides to do an edit.

Most of my bug reports go unacknowledged. You can turn off voting once you get an "H" and the hot designation remains, when all benefits of score are supposed to vanish when you turn off voting at any time.

Nothing goes anywhere. *Shrug II, Electric Boogaloo*

 

[Blind_Justice]

That's a shame, Dark, your ideas regarding multi-part stories read very thought-out and make a ton of sense. I'm all for it, especially as a multi-part writer.

 

[Euphony]

grumble

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[electric1]

Most people, I imagine, don't read a 50,000-word porn story in one sitting. Most read until either A) they conclude the story is not worth reading; or B) they have an orgasm.

If your story is good, they'll read until they're done masturbating, and then they'll want to continue your story another night. Chapters make it easier for readers to find where they left off.

 

[sugoionna09]

I'm really new to posting here, I've been reading for several years but my first foray into posting was almost literally a week ago. I can tell you that my first posted story is a chapter piece and it is that way for the very reason some have mentioned which is that I wasn't sure anyone would like what I was doing and didn't want to keep going if it didn't appeal. The other piece was wanting to know I was on the right track with my idea which one can't know until the reader gets a hold of it.

I also agree with many of the comments about reader length. I read lit storied online as well as on my phone and I can tell you when it's anything more than 3-7 pages I definitely bolt. I will usually end up coming back and giving it a try but it's hard to tell my brain that what we thought was going to be a less involved read then many of the novels I'm in the middle of is actually going to be longer.

Please take my comments with a grain of salt as I am of course a simple newb

 

[MatthewVett]

If I write chapters, it's typically because I wrote a stand alone story and decided to go back to it. That's how all of my chaptered stories, except Body Comfort Day, began. I could make the sequel its own stand alone story, but I want readers to be easily able to find the connections, so I make them a series.

 

[jon.hayworth]

It has been a long time since I posted. There are some very personal reasons why - not least of which was writers block.

During that time I have tried to write, but I never neared completion. Recently I have got back into the swing of writing. And 15 thousand words of a novella are moving along nicely. This novella "The Carer", poses a problem. In its entirety it is about a relationship between two people of mature years.
However if I were to break it into chapters and post as such, some of those chapters would read as being completely non-consential. The whole being a totally different story, so which do I do rewrite or post the finished story which will probably be 20 to 25 thousand words?
Jon

 

[sr71plt]

25,000 in one chuck would be seven Lit. pages. There are folks posting stories in one piece longer than that. In fact, there is a theory that the only ones who hang on that long are going to vote the story a 5. So, if you don't think it splits well, then post it as one.