I am about to start posting a story in two parts. Each part has several dozen chapters. I see that many other authors have the chapters grouped with "Part 1" having chapters 1-20, say, then "Part 2" having chapters 21 - 40 or so. How do I make that happen? I can't find anything about this in the submission wizard.
-ZM
Us the {t} tag to specify the start of a section.
So if you're submitting the start of the story, have this in the file:
Story title
Author name
{t}Part 1
Chapter 1
etc...
When you post the first chapter of part 2, start that file with:
{t}Part 2
Chapter 21
etc...
Just to confuse the issue, these terms are often confused in the publishing industry, which you'll note when different SOL authors discuss posting their stories.
I refer to "parts" as "Sections" (ex: "sections of a book", or "selected chapters"), which leads to confusion when I subsequently speak of "section breaks" within chapters.
Ernest instead refers to my section breaks (an industry term) as 'sub-chapters', further confusing everyone.
I prefer using the industry terms, even though they produce more confusion, as anyone confused can at least look the terms up. But section breaks, sections and chapters all have specific definitions and guidelines concerning their uses.
Also note that SOL mixes chapter titles and 'parts' until a certain number of chapters (10+?), and then converts all the chapter titles into "chapter #" so the story index doesn't look like crap. So expect any of your story title to disappear (from the index) sooner or later.
That is the problem when there is a lack of standardization.
'Part' is a perfect example. Some authors use the term as a series of events divided into multiple stories. Other authors use the term to mean a single story's chapters grouped as several parts. Both uses of the term are acceptable, but it can be confusing if the term is used without the context of several stories or several chapters.
'Part' is a perfect example.
Doesn't SOL also use "Part" when it breaks up a single story into parts because it's too long? I remember the bottom of the page having "Next Part" where the "Next Chapter" is in a multi-chapter story.
Doesn't SOL also use "Part" when it breaks up a single story into parts because it's too long?
SOL uses the term 'page' for that, which again is separate from a normal typewritten page, or even an html page, but it breaks the story around the 10,000 word mark, forcing you to click 'next' to continue reading the current chapter.
Here's a quick breakdown of the relevant publishing industry terms:
Chapter: An author-defined collection of related events regarding a single principal/event, whether that's a single day, a single encounter, or an initial encounter and all the sundry responses to it.
Section: Groups of chapters, grouped again by a single commonality linking the various chapters. (Also includes front and 'backmatter' pages like Copyright, Dedications and Appendices.
Paragraph: A single focus grouping of sentences either regarding a single though (if there are multiple thoughts by the same speaker), or separate speakers (i.e. a logical collection of observations, comments and descriptions).
Section Break: Something (usually a simple line) which divides chapters into separate groups/sections. These are determined by either a time change, a POV change or a location change, and not for any other reason (these are required to help readers make sense of what they're reading, allowing them to start each new part of the chapter fresh, without carrying over what just happened).
Subchapters: Breaking up or combining book chapters into different elements in a single chapter (whether in print on online usage). These are often used in addition to the normal chapter divides an author chooses, so may combine multiple chapters into 'reasonably-sized' online pages, or split chapters across multiple online pages.
Section Break: Something (usually a simple line) which divides chapters into separate groups/sections. These are determined by either a time change, a POV change or a location change,
That's a scene change.
That's a scene change.
Technically, the section break is how you mark the scene changes, although the resulting pieces are not referred to as chapter "Sections" because of the conflicting meaning.
Other authors use the term to mean a single story's chapters grouped as several parts.
I've read several dead-tree novels where the story was divided into a small number of parts, each of which was divided into a larger number of chapters. The Chapter Number was usually not reset for each subsequent part.
AJ
I've read several dead-tree novels where the story was divided into a small number of parts, each of which was divided into a larger number of chapters. The Chapter Number was usually not reset for each subsequent part.
Generally, chapters numbers, like page numbers, aren't reset, as the story continues unabated, but the grouping of chapters into parts (or Sections) help readers compartmentalize the chapter groupings (ex: these chapters describe this conflict, while these other chapters describe the character's relationships).
That is the problem when there is a lack of standardization
The above is what I said about that. Different authors and publishers use the same terms for different things.
Their use of the term is not necessarily wrong, but it can be confusing when you mean something else by the term.
The above is what I said about that.
It's not something I said - something went wrong with the attribution :(
AJ
Regarding my comment about lack of standardization, I said:
'Part' is a perfect example. Some authors use the term as a series of events divided into multiple stories.
You responded with:
I've read several dead-tree novels where the story was divided into a small number of parts, each of which was divided into a larger number of chapters.
Sorry about the lack of clarity.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow." (Shakespeare)
When I had more hair, I parted it on the left side.
There are tables of contents (TOC, apparently) with chapters labeled 14A, 14B, 14C etc. No matter what anybody says, authors are going to do whatever they want.
There are tables of contents (TOC, apparently) with chapters labeled 14A, 14B, 14C etc. No matter what anybody says, authors are going to do whatever they want.
I've done that in the past ("03: A Long Day in Memphis (Part I)" and "04: A Long Day in Memphis, Part II") and a later variant ("11: Alice's Friends, Part Deux"). However, that most often happens when you write 'a day in the life' chapters, rather than episodic chapters.
Sometimes, a shitloads happens on any one given day, but when you write episodic chapters, you either ship over the non-plot driven side plots, or you name your chapters for each separate event, rather than trying to cram everything into a single chapter.
By the way, my later example with the "Part Duex" was a reference to a similar encounter in an earlier book, rather than my breaking a single overly-long chapter in two, and thus was more a 'tongue in cheek' reference.
