Forcing Page Breaks

[usable001]

For a story that is too short to be divided into proper chapters, is there a way for the author or volunteer editor to manually set where the page breaks occur?

 

[BeechLeaf]

I believe there is not. The page break occurs at the end of a paragraph after 20 000 characters (which is typically around 3700 words). I've seen some discussion of where precisely it does this, and the exact numbers, but it is roughly this.

Lines connected by <br> form part of the same paragraph, so someone could perhaps game it a bit by building paragraphs this way. But that sounds risky and unreliable and time-consuming to me.

 

[If_Only_]

For a story that is too short to be divided into proper chapters

8 pages is definitely not too short.

A chapter here should be about three pages at most.

 

[Bamagan]

For a story that is too short to be divided into proper chapters, is there a way for the author or volunteer editor to manually set where the page breaks occur?
View attachment 2639265

I think the answer is no.
You could perhaps accomplish the goal by publishing as a 'story game' though. Since it's built for interactivity, if you're keen on having a 'break' between scenes, you can simply require the reader to click in order to reveal the next segment of the story. I'm not advocating you make the attempt, but it's the closest thing to a workaround I can think of.

 

[usable001]

8 pages is definitely not too short.

A chapter here should be about three pages at most.

The image in the OP was from a random story I opened specifically to show the page breaks I am talking about, not my own story. That's why the username in the image is chopped off. My story, which I attempted to chop into three proper chapters before it was sent back, is much, much shorter.

 

[usable001]

Lines connected by <br> form part of the same paragraph, so someone could perhaps game it a bit by building paragraphs this way. But that sounds risky and unreliable and time-consuming to me.

And ugly and annoying, should you force readers to scroll past large sections of blank page just to reach the stuff at the bottom.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

As discussed elsewhere, currently story games do not appear in search results or (I believe) category listings. This means a lot fewer eyes on them.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

As discussed elsewhere, currently story games do not appear in search results or (I believe) category listings. This means a lot fewer eyes on them.

What's the connection between this thread and the story games bug?

 

[BobbyBrandt]

For a story that is too short to be divided into proper chapters, is there a way for the author or volunteer editor to manually set where the page breaks occur?
View attachment 2639265

Maybe if you could explain the purpose for your question we could offer suggestions.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

What's the connection between this thread and the story games bug?

@Bamagan suggested using a Story Game to have shorter pages, because in that format you do in fact decide how much text goes on each page.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

@Bamagan suggested using a Story Game to have shorter pages, because in that format you do in fact decide how much text goes on each page.

Ah, I seem to have missed that. Thanks.

 

[Voboy]

Maybe if you could explain the purpose for your question we could offer suggestions.

This same question arises periodically. The answer is always the same.

It's irritating when you get to the bottom of pg 7 of an 8-page story, then click on the 8 and find literally one line of text before... fin. That happened to me recently while reading. If that was my story (and it has been, lol), I would want the last "page" (at just one line) folded into the prior pages somehow, just for the sake of non-clunkiness.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

This same question arises periodically. The answer is always the same.

It's irritating when you get to the bottom of pg 7 of an 8-page story, then click on the 8 and find literally one line of text before... fin. That happened to me recently while reading. If that was my story (and it has been, lol), I would want the last "page" (at just one line) folded into the prior pages somehow, just for the sake of non-clunkiness.

I've got one that ended up like that. And yeah, having a minimum amount over overflow that gets automatically pulled into a previous page would be nice. That, or at least, like... show us on the pre-publish preview where the breaks are going to be so we can try to pare stuff down a little to make them more agreeable or whatever.

 

[IWroteThis]

Lines connected by <br> form part of the same paragraph, so someone could perhaps game it a bit by building paragraphs this way. But that sounds risky and unreliable and time-consuming to me.

There was a story that used a bunch of those discussed in this forum some time back. They did it to prevent page breaks rather than create them, but the concept is the same. They forced about six Lit pages worth of words into three Lit pages.

 

[usable001]

Maybe if you could explain the purpose for your question we could offer suggestions.

My short story takes place in three parts and has three locations. On another site, I submitted the story as three chapters, but I'm getting some push-back against doing that here.

In terms of word length, the first section is the shortest and the third is the longest, however each section is still less than one page each. Divided the way I want to, between scenes, the story would be three pages long. Smooshed together, the breaks would occur at some random location which makes no narrative sense.

 

[If_Only_]

If each section is over 1,000 words or so, submit them as chapters. They should post one on each successive day.

Or you could just define them with a horizontal line, or even just a sub header. Something like 'Part 2' or 'The next day'.

 

[NuclearFairy]

My short story takes place in three parts and has three locations. On another site, I submitted the story as three chapters, but I'm getting some push-back against doing that here.

In terms of word length, the first section is the shortest and the third is the longest, however each section is still less than one page each. Divided the way I want to, between scenes, the story would be three pages long. Smooshed together, the breaks would occur at some random location which makes no narrative sense.

Yeah, I had a similar problem. I had a story that on another site I separated it into three chapters so to speak, here I combined them into one story entry. The first two parts, and the very beginning of the third are on page one. I think it would've looked better if it'd been split into three pages, one page per part, or if I could've gotten that third part split completely to the second page. But, the thing to remember, is that lit readers are used to occasional awkward page breaks, and to just not think about it too much and post.

 

[Voboy]

If each section is over 1,000 words or so, submit them as chapters. They should post one on each successive day.

For many readers, a thousand words isn't worth the click; it's woefully short, just a bit longer than the shortest allowable story here.

If I opened a chaptered piece and saw that each chapter was less than 3-4 Lit pages, I would never click on that writer again.

I don't post this to be argumentative; I post it to remind others that rules of thumb are always going to leave massive swaths of people behind.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This same question arises periodically. The answer is always the same.

It's irritating when you get to the bottom of pg 7 of an 8-page story, then click on the 8 and find literally one line of text before... fin. That happened to me recently while reading. If that was my story (and it has been, lol), I would want the last "page" (at just one line) folded into the prior pages somehow, just for the sake of non-clunkiness.

I've got two or three like that. With the first it gave me the shits, so I submitted an edit to prune fifty words from the text, which should have brought the last sentence onto the previous page. Nope. I assumed, therefore, that once the databox was there, it had to stay.

It took me a couple more times before genius me said, duh, increment the length using 3750 words per, and make sure the whole story is at least 500 words longer than X x 3750. Since I generally write long rather than short, problem solved.

More recently, I've found a lot of pleasure writing around 1000 words (stand-alone vignettes, not chapters), but that's nowhere near a Lit page, so still, no problem.

 

[usable001]

make sure the whole story is at least 500 words longer than X x 3750

I don't understand what that extra 500 is for

 

[ElectricBlue]

I don't understand what that extra 500 is for

To make sure there are several paragraphs on the last page, rather than just a single sentence.

 

[IWroteThis]

If each section is over 1,000 words or so, submit them as chapters. They should post one on each successive day.

That's a good way to drive away readers.

I've never seen anybody complain about awkward page breaks, except for a few when the last page is one short sentence. However, I've seen a lot of complaints about posting extremely short "chapters" separately. Even people who enjoy 750-word stories tend to not appreciate longer stories being broken down into 750-word segments.

 

[Voboy]

That's a good way to drive away readers.

I've never seen anybody complain about awkward page breaks, except for a few when the last page is one short sentence. However, I've seen a lot of complaints about posting extremely short "chapters" separately. Even people who enjoy 750-word stories tend to not appreciate longer stories being broken down into 750-word segments.

I think of it this way: someone posting 12 chapters of about 1k words apiece has merely written about four Lit pages, maybe five. 5 Lit pages ain't that long at all.

And... to post it over a 12-day period? You're making your readers wait two weeks to read five Lit pages? Ughh.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

That's a good way to drive away readers.

I've never seen anybody complain about awkward page breaks, except for a few when the last page is one short sentence. However, I've seen a lot of complaints about posting extremely short "chapters" separately. Even people who enjoy 750-word stories tend to not appreciate longer stories being broken down into 750-word segments.

Does that apply even when each of those chapters is its own, self-contained sex scene? I have a WIP that I've been debating whether to drop as separate chapters (because of the distinct nature of each sex scene) or just one long story. I have a while before I need to decide, since only about half of the 15 or so scenes have so far been written, but it's been in the back of my mind.

I don't know. For me personally as a reader, I think I'd prefer it as chapters, so long as I know I can expect 'the good stuff' in each. I often find with long works that I have to take a break from reading in the middle for whatever reason, and have no good way to bookmark where I'm up to, and then I just end up never coming back to it. With separate chapters, I can move each one from my "to read" list to my "have read" list as I finish (if you know what I mean ), and then I have an easy way to track where I'm up to, with logical breaks. Just my opinion, anyway.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Does that apply even when each of those chapters is its own, self-contained sex scene? I have a WIP that I've been debating whether to drop as separate chapters (because of the distinct nature of each sex scene) or just one long story. I have a while before I need to decide, since only about half of the 15 or so scenes have so far been written, but it's been in the back of my mind.

Depends on the length of the individual scenes, I reckon. Questions like this without word counts are impossible to answer sensibly. You might be thinking 500 words, I might be thinking 5000.

In my latest piece, with two long chapters (10k and 15k) and a very short interlude (1k), about half of the two longer chapters is scene setting, followed by a series of sex scenes.

As @liliput1 commented:

We don't often see the tease appear this late in the action, but it definitely works here.