writing short chapters

[bushyTrail]

I believe that the difference between the view:vote ratio of different chapters stems from the fact that some chapters are more alluring to new readers than others, because
1) have a better vote
2) for some statistical fluctuation stay in the new stories section for longer
3) have more popular tags
This is a superficial assessment, though. So alluring chapters may have a greater chance of a hit and run, where the viewer does not read and vote. In my case, for the 12 chapters that my story has so far, this ratio varies wildly, with no apparent correlation to anything.
It is, though, between 80 and 120. But again, until we know for sure that views by search engines are not counted, I'm afraid we are talking about jack shit.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

You have to aggregate data. My ratios are more compressed than yours. They range from 52:1 to 180:1, but the mean is 91:1, and that appears not to be far off from what others experience. If the overall mean is within 80:1 and 120:1, it's close enough to allow you to do some very rough number crunching.

Maybe, Simon, maybe. I'm certainly not sufficiently skilled in math or stats to do that. I just get this feeling that there are too many assumptions being used.

On the other hand, nobody's going to lose money on this and it might be interesting, so why not?

 

[SimonDoom]

M

On the other hand, nobody's going to lose money on this and it might be interesting, so why not?

That's as good a slogan for Literotica as any!

 

[EnglishTeacher]

Hi fellow writers!

I just wanted to get some others' thoughts and feedback.

I'm in the midst of releasing my second story on here, one chapter at a time. I've been generally doing well so far as comments/ratings, but the chief complaint I get (perhaps really the only one, lucky me) is that my chapters are too short.

Most of my chapters tend to be a single scene, word count in the range of 1200-2500 words. Sometimes, multiple scenes have a certain amount of logical relation, in which case they get lumped together into a ~4K chapter.

While I do like to think that my chapters have logical, sometimes dramatic stopping points, that seems very short for what I see submitted here typically.
At the same time, sometimes I go back and look at what I've written, and it's hard for me to see how I could have made the chapter longer.

Of course the solution is very simple... release multiple chapters at once.

BUT I don't like to do this -- the reason being that most of my stories are crafted with some buildup/slow burn, and I've always felt that by giving a little space between chapter releases, the effect is maintained, or perhaps even enhanced (this is based on the presumptuousness that I actually have readers who follow my work closely enough to anticipate/await the next release).

I guess I liken it to the old days of pulp serial releases, though I'm quite sure even those works were longer in length than my chapters.

Since posting on Lit, I've begun to reflect a little bit. What does it say about my writing if reading the whole story in one go robs it of its intended impact? Is it just a cheap gimmick? After all, once the story's been completed, it's out there for anyone to read all in one sitting if they so choose or half at a time, or three chapters at a time. Who am I to attempt to control the pace of actual readership consumption?

Maybe I should just write the whole story and put it out there and save Laurel and myself the extra work of a dozen mini-chapters.

What do others do? What does it mean about me as a writer that my chapters are consistently so short? Are there other mini-chapter makers out there?

Thanks for reading!

-riki

If you have a idea in your head of how you want to lay out your chapters for the reader, go for it. You won't make every single reader happy no matter what you do. Since you're not getting paid, and this is a 'hobby', do what makes you happy because there is no point in creating something you hate, for zero pay, in the hopes of making an unknown figure take note and would probably reject.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'm not sure if this was mentioned TL/DR but a contest submission must be a one-shot, or maybe a standalone intro to a series. Submit only for contests and all your chapter problems go away. VERY long contest entries can and do gain many views and votes. Just be interesting.