Story length Question - Long or Short?

[Zanzibar]

As a new writer to Lit, I've read a number of stories of different lengths, and now I've submitted some of my own.

As a new writer I'm waiting between 5-6 days after submittal till they are released, and I had originally been submitting my stories in sections about 5 pages long (text pages, not lit pages). Since they are building up suspense in each section, I thought this would work, but now I'm a little worried the readers won't really tie the stories together because of the time delay between sections, especially since they are relatively short compared to many Lit submissions.

I'm trying to gear my writing submissions so they will be more effective stories, and more enjoyable to my readers.

(On my own boards, I found the readers were usually willing to wait 2-3 days between short sections, but its a much smaller audience, and a lot smaller selection of choices.)

My question is...

Would you rather see a series of shorter sections (1-2 Lit pages) spread with a short period of time between them, or longer ones (3-5 Lit Pages) told less frequently.

Whats been your experience been as an author from feedback from your readers?

Anyone share with the new kid on the block?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Short is usually good, especially for a new author without an established group of faithful readers. Don't forget that the span of attention of your aver

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Short is usually good, especially for a new author without an established group of faithful readers. Don't forget that the span of attention of your aver

What she said.

~A~

 

[Boxlicker101]

Hi, Z and welcome to Lit. and to AH. A nice bunch of peole hang out here, including me, I like to think.

As Lauren said before she lost track and wandered away, many Lit readers have rather short attention spans. A wait of five days between chapters might turn them off, unless you are a really good, suspenseful writer. Even then, they might resent having to wait.

It might be a good idea to finish a story and then submit all the chapters one right after the other. You would have to title them "Dick and Jane, Chap. 1", "Dick and Jane, Chapter 2", etc. or whatever other way worked best. In the notes portion of the submission form, mention that a section is part x of y, so they will not be posted out of order. That way, they would all be posted at the same time, or at least in order, and your readers would be less likely to lose interest.

Five text pages is about 3,000 words, which is not very long. Unless you have a lot of chapters, you might also be better off completing the story and submitting it as a unit.

One way or another, good luck.

 

[Zanzibar]

Short is usually good, especially for a new author without an established group of faithful readers. Don't forget that the span of attention of your aver

Very effective way to get your point across.

Thanks for your input so far. I'm watching feedback and the votes I'm recieving as well to see what the folks that are reading my stories think as well.

Right now, I'm open to all inputs Well, almost all!

 

[Lauren Hynde]

That way, they would all be posted at the same time, or at least in order, and your readers would be less likely to lose interest.

That's not exactly true. Laurel doesn't post more than one chapter of a series at a time, so, even if he posts them all at the same time without any indication other than the chapter number in the title, they will only be posted at the rate of one per day. Which I think might be a good idea, for stories with that length.

 

[Guest]

 

[Zanzibar]

My problem was I was waiting until one chapter got published efore I submitted the next, even if I had them ready.

Just from what I have read so far, that was part of my mistake, and I should have submitted them a day or two apart.

I combined Chapters 1-3 together into a new Part 1 of a story, to add depth and create a bigger hook.

Thats part of learning in going from a smaller, much more focused board (3-400 hits a day with 250 contributors and 1000 story posts after a year) to this one.

Totally different expectations and scope.

But I learn fast!

 

[Weird Harold]

It might be a good idea to finish a story and then submit all the chapters one right after the other. You would have to title them "Dick and Jane, Chap. 1", "Dick and Jane, Chapter 2", etc. or whatever other way worked best. In the notes portion of the submission form, mention that a section is part x of y, so they will not be posted out of order. That way, they would all be posted at the same time, or at least in order, and your readers would be less likely to lose interest.

I think may readers would be content with one chapter a week -- Saturday Matinee Serial used to be an art form unto themselves and serialized stories were the mainstay of "pulp magazines" at the rate of one episode per month.

As long as the readers know roughly when to expect the next installment and your writing is worth folowing to the next chapter, whatever schedule an author is comfortble with will work.

If a story is written to a "Soap Opera" schedule, posting delays become a problem and using the comments section of the submission form to co-ordinate with Laurel to get a one episode per day posting schedule is almost a necessity. Todo that, youneed to get at least one story ahead of theposting schedule and stay there -- submiting all of the chapters at once or in blocks of two or three over a week or so.

Five text pages is about 3,000 words, which is not very long. Unless you have a lot of chapters, you might also be better off completing the story and submitting it as a unit.

A typical Lit page is 3,500-4,000 words -- about half of what a print publisher considers a Short Story instead of a Short-Short Story and about one-third to one quarter the length of an average print novel's chapters length.

Online, shorter is usually better but a single Lit page is about the minimum for an "online chapter," IMHO. It's long enough to be worth downloading on a dial-up connection and short enough for the typical reader to maintain an interest in.

 

[Guest]

My two cents...

If you are writing a multi chaptered piece have all the pieces or a good portion of them done and submit them all at the same time... this gives Laurel and the others pieces to post while you are continuing the story.

I am unfortunately the queen of leaving people hanging... however I truly got stuck because I wrote something that got so much feedback that I was trying to write the stories for fans and ended up short changing my original story.

 

[Guest]

 

[rgraham666]

It looks like I'm in trouble then.

I just finished my first story for Lit. I'm now waiting for an editor to reply. I'm sure it needs some work.

But it's thirty nine text pages. I suppose I could divide it up into chapters, but I think it would really break up the story's flow.

Oh well, I'll see what the editor has to say.

 

[Guest]