Whats your pleasure?

[kromen]

I'm currently workin on a story and it's running much longer than I anticipated. Most of my stories run two pages, but I've read some that go seven to ten pages. I guess I'm asking those who read, do you prefer a long story from start to finish or a story broken up in chapters, leaving u wanting more?
Excuse typos, im using a smartphone with no spellcheck. lol

 

[CWatson]

Well, speaking from a purely authorial standpoint, multiple chapters encourage more reader response--at the very least because, in a long work, details or comments about the middle get forgotten by the time of the end, so past a certain length you will almost never GET comments about the middle. (At least until someone re-reads.) You also may get better scores. At StoriesOnline, it's always the multi-part tales that get the highest ratings for each voting period. And while I don't have any concrete details on Lit, I think that's true here too.

 

[kromen]

Great point. The only problem now is breaking it up in sections. I might get an editor on this go round.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm currently workin on a story and it's running much longer than I anticipated. Most of my stories run two pages, but I've read some that go seven to ten pages. I guess I'm asking those who read, do you prefer a long story from start to finish or a story broken up in chapters, leaving u wanting more?
...

It depends what you mean by pages. Do you mean Lit pages which equate to about 7 A4 pages?

If you do mean Lit pages then feedback and voting drops dramatically after page 2 and is virtually non-existent after page 7.

If you mean A4 pages then 7 A4 pages is NOT long.

It depends what you want. Do you want to write a long coherent story or one that is broken into chapters in appropriate places?

Some stories can be split up easily. Some can't. It is better to think about where the breaks will be when planning/plotting the story rather than trying to break the story up when it is complete.

Og

 

[kromen]

I am referring to lit pages.

 

[epiphany65]

I enjoy a long, well-written story. The problem with trying to break up one like this is that readers expect sex. If you end a chapter (or part) without sex they'll cut you down for it. I've found that with long stories readership dwindles but those who make it to the end are appreciative and give higher votes. The trick is to tease them and keep them interested till the climax.

 

[kromen]

I enjoy a long, well-written story. The problem with trying to break up one like this is that readers expect sex. If you end a chapter (or part) without sex they'll cut you down for it. I've found that with long stories readership dwindles but those who make it to the end are appreciative and give higher votes. The trick is to tease them and keep them interested till the climax.

Exactly. Most of my tales run six to seven thousand words. I think i could put a few more scenes in to keep the reader interested but I just dont want to write sex for the sake of sex. It should mean something to the character and the story. Thanks for the advice, though. I should have made this a poll. LOL

 

[CWatson]

If you do mean Lit pages then feedback and voting drops dramatically after page 2 and is virtually non-existent after page 7.

Ooh, good point! That's another thing I forgot to mention.

There is such thing as "too long" for a story on Lit. Past about 4 Lit-pages, the reader starts feeling extremely daunted, and may not even try to get through the whole thing. So at that point it's in your best interest to break the story up into multiple chapters, and (since you've got the option) release them sequentially to bolster your feedback and scores. (This kind of showmanship / advertising / score inflation is pretty much par for the course nowadays; keep up with the Joneses--or not--at your own discretion, as well as your own peril. )

(This is, of course, even worse when you write phone books like I do. I think my current tale is somewhere around 170,000 words right now, which would make about a 600-page store-shelf novel. There's no way I could submit this as one chunk even if I wanted to; Laurel & Manu would kill me! )

 

[Stella_Omega]

I've always had a hard time knowing where to break up a long smut story, and I just recently learned one way that I think is very satisfying; Start with the sex scene, and end with the buildup for the next one. I got completely hooked on one person's work, and realised that was why-- all the teasing made an excellent cliff to hang the next chapter from.

 

[rgraham666]

I've found my longer stories are among my most popular. I've had a couple that were six pages in length and I got scads of votes and comments. Both are now e-books.