Multipart stories

[RichardWark]

I just submitted the first part of a three (actually, it could be four if one of them takes a left turn) part story. The first part sets the stage and is a nice little stroker in itself, the second part elaborates on some of the characterizations in the first part, and, of course, the final part has a resolution. Not a problem there - we all know classic story structure.

Here's my question: I know that we can write what we write, when we write it, but is there an expectation that a contributor follow up with a subsequent part right after the first when he or she has acknowledged that it is a "first of three(or four")? I have a couple of others nearing completion that would probably be submitted before the next part of this story.

I seriously doubt that's an issue, but I wanted to put the question out there anyway for feedback.

Richard Wark
Wark2002
https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5430653&page=submissions

 

[LAHomedog]

I just submitted the first part of a three (actually, it could be four if one of them takes a left turn) part story. The first part sets the stage and is a nice little stroker in itself, the second part elaborates on some of the characterizations in the first part, and, of course, the final part has a resolution. Not a problem there - we all know classic story structure.

Here's my question: I know that we can write what we write, when we write it, but is there an expectation that a contributor follow up with a subsequent part right after the first when he or she has acknowledged that it is a "first of three(or four")? I have a couple of others nearing completion that would probably be submitted before the next part of this story.

I seriously doubt that's an issue, but I wanted to put the question out there anyway for feedback.

Richard Wark
Wark2000https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5430653&page=submissions

This has been discussed many, many times before the answer is: Everybody does it differently and what is right for them.

Some have all of the parts completed prior to submission. Some write each part as they go. Some are more hit and miss.

I have done it all three ways. I have a tendency to jump back and forth between two or three stories at a time. That's how my mind works. I have a couple that I have been bad on and should have gone back to sometime ago, buy my muse fell in lust with another story and I had to go that way.

Right now, I'm jumping between four stories. Two are the next parts to published stories, one is with a co-writer, and one is by request.

Hey! Different strokes for different folks.

 

[KeithD]

I have sometimes, but not often, submitted an unrelated story while I had a series running, but what I've always done with a series is submit the next chapter the day the previous chapter has posted, so it's up to the system if the chapters aren't coming out on a regular schedule even if I'm posting other stories as well.

 

[SimonDoom]

You should do what you want and what fits your artistic purposes.


But it's been pretty well observed that if you wait too long to publish the next chapter, you will lose readers. I'm not sure the impact is as great as some have said, but there is some impact.

I agree with KeithD that the optimal strategy (we can't always be optimal, but if we can this is the prudent way to do it) is publish your stories about 4-7 days apart by submitting on the day the previous story publishes.

Why is it good to do it this way?

1. Making readers wait a week is not too much. Few readers will get mad at that and desert you.

2. By spreading it out at least that much, you give the first story more time to be seen and work its way down the new story hubs before the next one is published.

3. By stretching out the publication time of the entire series, you maximize the amount of time that the stories will be on whatever short term lists they are on, like the new story hub lists.

 

[RichardWark]

I eliminated any issues by revising it and taking "part 1" off the title. That way the follow-ups become sequels and there's no pressure to get it out right away. (My output is basically 1 story every 6 months. LOL)

 

[gordo12]

I eliminated any issues by revising it and taking "part 1" off the title. That way the follow-ups become sequels and there's no pressure to get it out right away. (My output is basically 1 story every 6 months. LOL)

Two things: I hate when an author leaves a story looking like it will continue but says nothing. At least TBC at the end respects the reader's misery.

I want to see chapters ASAP. A week? I've already forgotten half the story with the amount I read. A month? Forget it. I'd have to go back and reread. ch1 and unless it's a hell of a story I'm not doing that.

I'm fussy, I know. Don't hate me.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm fussy, I know. Don't hate me.

Feel the love, Gordo .

 

[gordo12]

Feel the love, Gordo .

As long as that love doesn't come with Vegemite, Ok!

 

[Panty Wrangler]

You should do what you want and what fits your artistic purposes.


But it's been pretty well observed that if you wait too long to publish the next chapter, you will lose readers. I'm not sure the impact is as great as some have said, but there is some impact.

I agree with KeithD that the optimal strategy (we can't always be optimal, but if we can this is the prudent way to do it) is publish your stories about 4-7 days apart by submitting on the day the previous story publishes.

Why is it good to do it this way?

1. Making readers wait a week is not too much. Few readers will get mad at that and desert you.

2. By spreading it out at least that much, you give the first story more time to be seen and work its way down the new story hubs before the next one is published.

3. By stretching out the publication time of the entire series, you maximize the amount of time that the stories will be on whatever short term lists they are on, like the new story hub lists.

This makes sense, and boy am I screwed...

My editor is even slower than I am. There is no way I can hit that mark without writing them all and sitting on them just to be able to release them in stages. No thanks.

Oh well!

 

[SimonDoom]

This makes sense, and boy am I screwed...

My editor is even slower than I am. There is no way I can hit that mark without writing them all and sitting on them just to be able to release them in stages. No thanks.

Oh well!

You don't have to. This is the ideal, IF you want maximum reader response (I think this is true, but keep in mind I'm just basing this on my observations, and as recently demonstrated in the discussion of author/non-author members, sometimes my observations are way off).

I have never followed this principle with chaptered stories, and the did just fine.

 

[Panty Wrangler]

You don't have to. This is the ideal, IF you want maximum reader response (I think this is true, but keep in mind I'm just basing this on my observations, and as recently demonstrated in the discussion of author/non-author members, sometimes my observations are way off).

I have never followed this principle with chaptered stories, and the did just fine.

Well, we'll see then! I've got about 6 parts sketched out for my fetish series, and Chapter 2 is closing in on done - nearly a month after ch1 (but including a burst of effort for a Halloween story...).

I guess I've modeled what I think of as acceptable based on the authors I've followed on Lit. They release chapters when they will, and generally not within a week.

It will be what it will be!

 

[Bramblethorn]

This makes sense, and boy am I screwed...

My editor is even slower than I am. There is no way I can hit that mark without writing them all and sitting on them just to be able to release them in stages. No thanks.

Oh well!

I've gone a year between chapters. Not ideal, but people still kept on reading.

 

[SimonDoom]

Well, we'll see then! I've got about 6 parts sketched out for my fetish series, and Chapter 2 is closing in on done - nearly a month after ch1 (but including a burst of effort for a Halloween story...).

I guess I've modeled what I think of as acceptable based on the authors I've followed on Lit. They release chapters when they will, and generally not within a week.

It will be what it will be!

This is a really important point to consider, and for the OP, too.

Whenever you ask a question like this, and you get a bunch of opinions from Literotica authors about what's the "best" way to do something, you should never take it as gospel and never feel that's the way you have to do it. The only rules are the Site's rules. The Site gives you broad leeway on this issue. The authors are simply providing information and opinions that may or may not suit your artistic goals. Do with it whatever you will.

 

[ElectricBlue]

As long as that love doesn't come with Vegemite, Ok!

You'd just smear it everywhere, you dirty bastard .

 

[PennameWombat]

Well, we'll see then! I've got about 6 parts sketched out for my fetish series, and Chapter 2 is closing in on done - nearly a month after ch1 (but including a burst of effort for a Halloween story...).

I guess I've modeled what I think of as acceptable based on the authors I've followed on Lit. They release chapters when they will, and generally not within a week.

It will be what it will be!

I've gone a year between chapters. Not ideal, but people still kept on reading.

I'll echo Bramblethorn... I have one series stuck on Chapter 05 for... a while. But when I'd published Chapter 05, after a long delay, people did read it. And it gets high scores. People like it. I have received feedback "when?!?"

So, when you ask how do we all do things? For every one of us, you'll get different answers. As a note, I fully recognize that if I were doing this commercially, my pacing would have to be different.

Instead, I go where the muses take me. Not that I'm ignoring my series, it's just that I have very limited time in which to write and too many stories to want to write. I have about half of Chapter 06 of that series done, but I'm currently interleaving it with some stand-alones.

 

[gordo12]

You'd just smear it everywhere, you dirty bastard .

Ideas. ideas!https://media.apnarm.net.au/img/media/images/2015/07/06/inm_vegemite_face_kyrgios-vlun49jf5t9adm0ogk2_ct460x345.jpg

 

[ElectricBlue]

Ideas. ideas!https://media.apnarm.net.au/img/media/images/2015/07/06/inm_vegemite_face_kyrgios-vlun49jf5t9adm0ogk2_ct460x345.jpg

Jesus wept, you go to the worst places. So fucking wrong, Gordo .

ps: still laughing.

 

[gordo12]

Weird Australians

And before anybody gets their shirt in a knot it was a tennis fan reaching out to a tennis star and offering to smear himself in vegemite if the star responded. He did. A whole lot of fans started doing it.

But in the land of the perpetually offended these days...

https://www.buzzfeed.com/robstott/nick-kyrgioss-fans-are-smearing-vegemite-on-their-faces-and

 

[Bramblethorn]

The chapter before the break ends at a turning point in the story. After the break is a major climax point in the story.

Part of me is wondering if I'm pissing people off with the natural breaks in the story or if it's creating the tension I want it to. (Honestly, I keep waiting for the "You teasing bitch, just post the whole story!" comment.)

Nothing wrong with ending on a cliffhanger to keep people excited for the next chapter, although if you do it every single chapter it starts to get too predictable.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Nothing wrong with ending on a cliffhanger to keep people excited for the next chapter, although if you do it every single chapter it starts to get too predictable.

Agree, but don't wait too long between instalments, because it can be tricky to recover from a long break, audience-wise.