do you pace things to align with the page breaks on the website?

[joy_of_cooking]

I just read a couple of stories where a significant twist started to unfold right around the bottom of a page. I guess the page breaks are predictable: I've heard either 20k characters or 3.5k words. Is it a known technique around here to pace stories so that each page has a mini-cliffhanger?

Like anything else, I imagine it would get old if done too consistently. But when it works, it works so well!

E.g., see Everything We've Been Told Are Lies by @oneagainst .

 

[Djmac1031]

Lol. That kinda math and planning sounds way too complicated for me.

 

[PennameWombat]

I just read a couple of stories where a significant twist started to unfold right around the bottom of a page. I guess the page breaks are predictable: I've heard either 20k characters or 3.5k words. Is it a known technique around here to pace stories so that each page has a mini-cliffhanger?

Like anything else, I imagine it would get old if done too consistently. But when it works, it works so well!

E.g., see Everything We've Been Told Are Lies by @oneagainst .

The generally-accepted number is 3,750 words. But the algorithm does take into account the flow of text to a slight degree, seems to be some widow and orphans management. That includes any preface or note you might have at the front, headers, etc.

So, yeah, it’s possible to plan reasonably for this, but it’s not quite to the level of being able to format a printed book exactly the way you want. So there’s no guarantee, if you’re working to a precise word, that you’ll get away with it.

I haven’t generally done this, except when it comes to the ending. I try to avoid spilling the last paragraph or few lines onto a last page (based on total word count) and will either cut out enough text to safely fInish on the current page or if I have sufficient material to get at least of a third of an additional page, do that.

 

[Bramblethorn]

No. Trying to control that would require me to write the whole story, then go back and either add unwanted padding or prune wanted content to meet the page breaks. If it happens, it happens, but I don't sweat it.

 

[Altissimus]

The most recent story I published (for the Ogg Memorial) came in at 13.8k words. This meant the last 41 words dropped on to page 5, which was a bit irritating as it probably detracted from what little impact my not-very punchy finish would've otherwise provided - I'd have much preferred a tidy end-of-page-4 finish.

13.8k words over 4 pages means an average of 3,450 a page and not the 3,750 mentioned by @PennameWombat above; it occurs to me that this may be affected by the frequency of line breaks (directly affecting length) and, if so, is a product of paragraph sizes, frequency of dialogue etc. In other words, YMMV based on your writing style, and could differ by story too. This is a presumption on my part and I may be wrong. If it is affected by frequency of line breaks, aiming plot mechanics for a page-end would still be possible but probably more fuss than I would care for.

 

[Seadog777]

There is NO set number of words on a page.
It seems to average around the 3,500-ish mark.

I personally, do not "pace" things for the page breaks.
I write as it comes to me. I don't give a fuck, where it occurs on the page or on what page.

If some authors do, more power to them.
That's just not my style.

 

[Rustyoznail]

The most recent story I published (for the Ogg Memorial) came in at 13.8k words. This meant the last 41 words dropped on to page 5, which was a bit irritating as it probably detracted from what little impact my not-very punchy finish would've otherwise provided - I'd have much preferred a tidy end-of-page-4 finish.

13.8k words over 4 pages means an average of 3,450 a page and not the 3,750 mentioned by @PennameWombat above; it occurs to me that this may be affected by the frequency of line breaks (directly affecting length) and, if so, is a product of paragraph sizes, frequency of dialogue etc. In other words, YMMV based on your writing style, and could differ by story too. This is a presumption on my part and I may be wrong. If it is affected by frequency of line breaks, aiming plot mechanics for a page-end would still be possible but probably more fuss than I would care for.

This... Unless we know exactly what the word/number of lines/effect of blank lines has on the page, it's just a guessing game.

 

[oneagainst]

Like anything else, I imagine it would get old if done too consistently. But when it works, it works so well!

E.g., see Everything We've Been Told Are Lies by @oneagainst .

Blind luck that the page broke there. But yeah, the romance stops right there on the page break and then the mayhem cuts loose.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Me, trying to figure out where the page break is gonna be:




Short answer? No. I don't even bother to try.

 

[oneagainst]

Me, trying to figure out where the page break is gonna be:

View attachment 2250844


Short answer? No. I don't even bother to try.

M: it's SOH, CAH, TOA, unless the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the root of minus one.

 

[NotWise]

With "Escape from Cimmaron" I wanted page breaks to come at transitions in the story, and that's how it worked out. I didn't have to change much, and I was only able to guess the breaks within a paragraph or two.

I use 20,000 words as the length of a page, but there are quite a few different ways to count characters.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

M: it's SOH, CAH, TOA, unless the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the root of minus one.

I got an English degree in college, and as such I only had to take a few math classes. Numbers are still a mystery to me.

"What do the numbers mean?"

"I don't know."
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W̵̧̛͍̯͍̹̾̀̽͑̽̚H̴̢̜̦̙̜̹͈̤̬̓͊̓̆͛̉͘͘͝A̸̤̗̖̞̮̚Ṫ̷̢̛͎͉̱͆̅̑̋̚ͅ ̵̧̛̟͕͕͉̙̩͗̇̄̈̚D̶̹̯̘͎̬̻̺̔Ỏ̷̡̢͎͓̳͜͝ ̶̡̛̣͈̃̀̈́̓͐͘T̴̡̝̜͇̰̣̯͍̗̋̈́̇̒̆͂́̋̀̉̎́͑͜͝͠Ḩ̴̟̺̠͚͙̤̻͇̦̪̯̄̉̐͌̓̆̈́̔͗͆̈̍̉͜E̵̡̡̪̻̮͙͛͑̾̄̉̕͝͠͝ ̷̧̨̹͍̙̥̞̠̊̈͑̍N̷̻͑̾̓́̇̚Ù̶̡̳̙͔̮̄͜͝Ṃ̸̛̱̼̙̪͚̎̀͐̎͒̒̉̃̆̉̈́͝B̷̧̨̛̛̦̪͓͔̬͙͈͔̔̓̄̎͆͂̄́̄͗̕͘Ę̸̧̧͉̞̠̥̭͉̟͔̱͍̱̄̍̑̆̀̆̉͛͂͂͆͜Ŕ̷̭̯͎̭̰̩̦̦͚S̶͎̲͉̮͒̒͠ ̸̠̙͕͖͈͍̈́͠ͅM̷͙͒̋̇͌̿͆̔͊͘Ḛ̷̹͈͎̞̗̹̗͈͔͋͐̈́̉̀̋̆͝ͅͅͅA̶͔̫̙͕̣͖̘͕͚̼̍̉̅̌̓̂̄̃͂͘N̷̢̡̢̠̹̹͓̤͎̗̟̲̫̩̐͋͗̚?̶̫̖͇̜͕͙̲̳̘̳̦̻̺̝́ͅ
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"I DON'T KNOW!!!!" *Flips the table*

(⁠╯⁠°⁠□⁠°⁠）⁠╯⁠︵⁠ ⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Blind luck that the page broke there. But yeah, the romance stops right there on the page break and then the mayhem cuts loose.

I read it. Quite a fortune occurrence. Very dramatic

 

[MrPixel]

M: it's SOH, CAH, TOA, unless the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the root of minus one.

Pretty much.

I was on the software team writing/maintaining a large-scale page layout system back in the '70s (yes, I'm old), and one of the most vexing problems we faced was controlling page breaks that made sense. Managing paragraph widows and orphans was a piece of cake relative to how to tell the system "this is a preferred breakpoint" without getting into a never-ending iterative loop. It is doable within certain constraints; once it exceeded X iterations or increased the page count the break management would bail and you'd get whatever you got. Users were never happy with any of the automated methods. In the end it became "interactive" in the sense that when the page(s) emerged from the typesetter, somebody would have the job of inserting manual page breaks based on actually reading content and the pages would be re-run.

That said, it may be possible with some manner of AI, but I don't see that happening here. WYSIWYG.

 

[KeithD]

I have no control over how pages break here. I let them sort themselves out. This is dealing in minutia, I think.