How long before I split the story into parts?

[Rob_Royale]

So I wrote and submitted my very first story only for it to be rejected for some easy correctable stuff. But I was reading some other work and realized that my writing was lacking in comparison, so I was happy it was rejected. I deleted it while I work on another draft.
I'm in the middle of a second story that I think is written much better. My stories will be a bit more romantic and seductive in nature and require more lead up, before getting into the sexy parts. I'm sure I'll get to some classic, "My wife brought home her sexy coworker" stories at some point, but for now romantic and seductive is what I'm into.

My current story is already seven pages in MS Word using normal line spacing. It's about 3800 words right now.
I'm not close to done yet. But I'm at a good break point. So I figure I'll break it here and begin a part two. Is 3800 too much for one part of the story?

 

[Bazzle]

All I will say is write the whole thing before publishing. As you can't easily change plot holes once it's published.

As for the correct length. How long is a piece of string?

 

[KeithD]

3,800 words is barely onto the second Literotica page. Not at all too long.

 

[ElectricBlue]

3800 words is short, by Lit standards. Generally speaking (whenever this gets asked), 2 - 3 Lit pages (7 - 12 thousand words) seems to be a sweet spot for chaptered stories.

There are pros and cons for writing it all first versus publish as you go. Both can work quite effectively, although you can get yourself on a hamster wheel if you publish each chapter as you write it.

The downside of writing a long thing completely, before you publish, is losing visibility to readers while you do it.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Hi Robroy and welcome.

For reference, one page on Lit is around 3700 words, give or take a few. Many discussions have been held about the story length sweet spot, and 2-3 Lit pages is probably it. Just write your story the way you want. Much longer stories do well.

As Bazzle said, write the whole story before you decide. Readers can be reluctant to start a chaptered series if there's no guarantee it will be finished.

Good luck

 

[Rob_Royale]

Incredibly helpful. Thank you all.

 

[Voboy]

My second posted story was written in multiple parts, because back then I was under the misapprehension that readers wouldn't like things beyond three Lit pages or so.

Noooooooooope.

Nowadays, I'd never bat an eye at posting an 8- or 9-page story. That's 08-9 LIT pages, not Word pages. My current story is on Word page 37 and it's not too close to being done, but I'm not at all concerned about it finding an audience.

 

[AllenWoody]

Split it where you feel there is a natural, compelling break. I just published a story of seven Lit pages, probably the longest single story so far. I had intended to break it into two chapters, but there just wasn't a natural place to split the story in two. I'm glad I didn't break it up.

Remember that when you break a story into pieces readers may need some 'reminders' at the beginning of the next chapter. What just happened, where the characters are, what the current struggle is, etc. So you can't just write a story then slice it into pieces without some risk that you'll lose readers.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

My very first story on Literotica was 27 pages and continues to do well in the ratings and comments. My longest story here is 31 pages.

I have several stories that have been broken into either chapters or parts (multiple chapters posted together). With those, I targeted between 2 and 4 pages, but all of the stories were complete before any part or chapter was posted and I think this helped with the ratings and feedback from readers.

I think you should consider whether you are writing a chaptered story or a series. Readers will be more patient waiting on the next installment of a series than they are waiting for the next chapter of a story.

 

[lc69hunter]

good info to have, as I had no clue

 

[SimonDoom]

8Letters did some helpful analysis of this issue and posted some threads on it about three years ago, and my personal observations agree with his. Given that a "Lit page" is about 3750 words, the optimal chapter/story length for purposes of getting reader reaction is about 3 pages or more. That means over 10,000 words. So if you have a story of over 30,000 words, you would be foolish to break it into 10 separately published chapters. You should publish it either as a single standalone story or as 2 or 3 chapters.

If your story isn't done, and you just want to publish a short chapter, and then think about what you want to publish next, then go ahead and do what you want. But if the whole story is done, it makes absolutely no sense to publish it as a series of very short chapters. You are almost guaranteed to lose readers that way.