It is my brief experience that I get more votes if I post a story one chapter at a time rather than all at once.
What is the experience of others here?
It is my brief experience that I get more votes if I post a story one chapter at a time rather than all at once.
What is the experience of others here?
I've always posted two chapters each week (one on Tuesday, one on Friday) for my longer stories, mainly to keep the story as visible as possible. Reading a 250k+ word story all at once (to me) seems like a bit much for me; it might work for others whose attention span is better than mine.
My shorter stories (a single chapter) are posted piecemeal.
Posting over time seems to work better for me, and all my stories (particularly the multiple chapter ones) are finished before I start posting. (Writing as I go doesn't seem to work for me.)
The Outsider
Posting over time seems to work better for me, and all my stories (particularly the multiple chapter ones) are finished before I start posting. (Writing as I go doesn't seem to work for me.)
Pretty much the same for me though I only have the 1 story posted with many "in progress" lol
SunSeeker
all my stories (particularly the multiple chapter ones) are finished before I start posting.
I would love to be able to do that, however I would post nothing (some may argue that is the best outcome!). Sometimes posting is enough to spur me on to write a bit more of the story.
I think an important question is "Is it better to have a little than none at all?". It sort of feeds into the the similar question of "When should a story end?" because, technically, no story has an end (unless you obliterate the world).
"When should a story end?" because, technically, no story has an end
Every story has an end. There may be more stories if the world isn't obliterated, but each one ends.
I base that on the typical structure of a story. Plot equals conflict and when the conflict is resolved, the story is basically over. New conflict = new story.
Now mini-conflicts are created and resolved throughout the story, but when the overarching conflict is resolved, the story is done.
I base that on the typical structure of a story. Plot equals conflict and when the conflict is resolved, the story is basically over. New conflict = new story.
Now mini-conflicts are created and resolved throughout the story, but when the overarching conflict is resolved, the story is done.
I just see that as a chapter, not a story. If you go to the shops, buy some stuff, return home, you could argue that overarching conflict is resolved, the story done. however, no overarching conflict exists in singularity. There are consequences, there is fallout. What happens to the items you bought?
You can travel to a volcano, throw in a ring, but it doesn't end there. There is going to be consequences. You can ignore those consequences and claim it's the end, but it isn't. It's as The Outsider says, "It's not finished, only abandoned". There is going to be repercussions to throwing that ring in the volcano, it's going to change many lives in perpetuity. Where do you stop telling the story?
The stop point is normally the interest of the author. Some stories continue on far beyond the point that is good for them (case in point 'The lost fleet' by John G. Hemry. An interesting premise that quickly became tedious with repetition. By 'eck, there is a lot of repetition.) Interestingly, I've noticed similar comments from others here with reference to some of the 'greats' on this site, which they argue just recycle the same few ideas repeatedly. Granted, I have never read the works in question, as the length of them puts me off. My personal opinion is that you can't write that amount without repetition of plot.
I would say that the true skill of a writer, is knowing when to stop.
You can travel to a volcano, throw in a ring, but it doesn't end there. There is going to be consequences. You can ignore those consequences and claim it's the end, but it isn't. It's as The Outsider says, "It's not finished, only abandoned". There is going to be repercussions to throwing that ring in the volcano, it's going to change many lives in perpetuity. Where do you stop telling the story?
Why did he throw the ring into the volcano? If the conflict in the plot is about the protagonist's internal struggle with a choice between the desire to be all powerful with the ring or to destroy it to save the world, when he throws the ring into the volcano the conflict is resolved and the story is over. That conflict is "man vs self" (rather than "man vs man" or "man vs nature" or one of the others).
How others are impacted by him destroying the ring is another story. In that story, him throwing the ring into the volcano would be the inciting incident that would set the conflict for that story in motion. That could be a "man vs society" story or a "man vs man" story. Depends on the conflict.
Here's an article from Oregon State University. It's not the best article on the subject, but check out the example with the 15-year-old girl.
https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-conflict
I fail to understand your logic.
If you have only 1 chapter and post it, how can you split it into more than one chapter.
I you split your original chapter before posting it, then you would have a multiple chapter story.
I get more votes if I post a story one chapter at a time rather than all at once
You definitely get more reads so I guess more votes is a natural outcome of more reads.
Whether by design or simply a function of the site, posting chapter by chapter elicits more comments, more conversation, and probably more votes. The ability to ask the author a question publicly definitely generates more interest in my experience. Also, posting chapter by chapter gives space for the reluctant readers to step up and ask or comment.
If you want your readers to engage with you, chapters are a proven method.
That's always been true here, as if you post the whole story in one pass, then it only appears in your feeds or … one day. If you post once a week, then you only pick up the readers checking their feeds on that particular day.
Yet, if you post a couple of days a week, your followers grow, and those views attract other readers. It's a self-fulling fantasy. It's about building interest, feeding the hunger for a story, rather than simply teasing readers only to leave them hanging for more.
Of course, the converse of that it not to give the readers everything they want, instead it's best if you feed them in small installments, feeding the very hunger which drives your readers, making them work for their story fixes.
If every chapter is both a struggle and a victory, what's left? You leave feeling exhausted rather than challenged. In those cases, it's all about pacing, tease, reward, yet keep both the carrot and the stick close at hand to keep them actively reading.
Sadly, there aren't that many stories doing that for me anymore. :( Now I'm down to checking only once every two to three weeks, rather than every day.
And today when I checked, I checked at the usual time (9:30a.m. EST) and nothing posted all day long (they were all dumped at 6AM EST).
Again, making readers eagerly wait for the optimal time is a part of the reward.
The downside to posting by chapter, piecemeal, regularly, is if everyone did it, the front/second page churn would be so great, that people would miss your chapter amongst the plethora of other chapters and quickly lose interest in your story simply because it's not visible.
This could lead to the situation, that some writers become so fixated about front page visibility, that they start submitting shorter and shorter chapters in order to keep their story at the top.
Case in point, look at the current front page for serials. Bob Watergate has a story that is 12KB long and already on it's second chapter. Steven Jay has a 94KB story on 18 chapters. Sci-fyTy1972 has 183KB over 32 chapters spread over two months- I don't believe for a minute that many of those chapters could not have been amalgamated into less.
Seriously, how many pages is 6KB? 1200 words? That's barely a page. That's not a 'chapter' it's basically spam at this point.