How long is too long?

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Arecee

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I'm curious as to when a posting becomes too long? I'm using my Assassin series as an example. Most of the posts have been around twenty thousand words, but the last was thirty thousand and there was a dramatic fall off of readers. Part two is has the most clues as to where this story is headed and I wonder if readers are turned off by the length? Part three is ready to post and it too is over thirty thousand words and I wonder if I should be posting as chapters rather than parts? Personally I like longer stories, but how long is too long? Arecee

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20K words

It's not the first time I've heard about the 20,000 word number. In my latest, I've been doing 40K Chapters, figuring that people would be astute enough to save their place or what ever. I've got a piece of tape on the side of my monitor and mark it when I have to stop. I know that is an inelligent solution but it is easy and I like it.

I am just getting ready to publish Ch 3 of my latest story and now that you mention it, perhaps it should be Ch 3 and 4 a week later? I intend to put it to bed in Ch 5 so that would be less work for me.

It is worth thinking about.

Much peace

Khadijah

Story Length

Myself, I prefer 100K to 150K. With a series, I normally paste the new chapter onto the end of the older chapters.

I have to work hard to put a whole bunch of 5K and 10K parts together so that I can read them easily

Using the title page to add chapters together

If you use the Printer Friendly link in the upper right corner of the title page of a series, it will link all the chapters into one long file you can download as HTML or PDF. However, stories longer than about 200,000 words will take a LONG time and please don't try this with Bike or other stories longer than 500,000 words. It will time out rather than damage the system but it will slow things down for everyone while the code figures out that this is too long.

It's also best to do this at 10 or 40 minutes after the hour, since the database resets at 5 and 35 after.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

I like the longer ones, myself.

They develop more as they go without the break in continuity that waiting for more, shorter chapters to come out. I loved the last chapter of Assassin, by they way. I departed from the long chapter approach one time, with A Walk in the Dark, which is working and still working, by the way, another story kind of caught my muse there for a while, but I much prefer the longer posts. Even when I'm writing them.

Maggie

I don't know why your readership would be down.

The story is fascinating and continues to drag me in! Whatever you decide for the length, I'll read it!

Wren

Length is okay

Really long postings are cool. I have no idea why your story has received a fall off in readership. I am not following it myself due to issues I had with the first two chapters about the sniper boy and the transsexual woman.

You write well but I have been unable to get past the issues I have with the basis for the story, it just is *shrug*.

Kim

too long?

my Phoenix story was over 30K , and more than one person told me it would been better to put it out in bits rather than all at once.

Dorothycolleen

I did some checking...

I did some checking - on word count - in books by some of my favorite authors... And, the average chapter size seemed to be in the 5,500-7,500 word range more often than not. A few chapters were as many as 10,000 words and a few were as short as 4,000 words - but both extremes were rare. (It was VERY tedious figuring this out, I assure you!!!) I did 3-4 books by each of 3-4 authors... All books published in dead tree format & purchase at Barnes & Noble in the past decade.

Using that ruler, your 20k word post like should have been 3-4 chapters - and the 30k word post 5-6 chapters.

But, I think your question was more about post size - not chapter length. And, that's a much tougher question. I've read a few works posted in the 20-40k length, here, but not many. Important to recognize that 20-30k words classifies as a NOVELLA... Personally - I like to read BCTS posts in a single sitting. Longer bits can get awkward since I don't download and bookmark.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that for me, I'd actually prefer more frequent smaller posts.

Anne

I'm just curious, that's all

The parts I'm posting are almost novel length and the story is almost three hundred thousand words long so far but thank God, it's winding down to the finish. Part Seven was eighty thousand words by it self and I'm sure Part eight will be at least that long. There's still a lot of ground to cover for our girl, Arecee

Longer Chapters

Are fine by me, I'm still reading the first part of the current chapter and will get to the 2nd part as I can...but I love the story :)

Hugs

Frank

Well, let's see ...

I edited 2/3 of part 2, that's about 20K/ then the ;ast 10K plus the first 10K of part 3, another 20KJ, and finally, the last 2/3, another 20K.

But that was editing. I did not lose interest at 20k, just time.

To be honest, I prefer to read most novels from start to finish, be they 70K or 200K.

Something like James Michner's stuff, however, usually about 20 pages at a time to let me digest everything.

Itâ€™s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets weâ€™ll have,
David Weber â€“ In Fury Born

Holly

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

Holly

I Think It Comes Down to Available Time

I really like longer postings, but I would rather see more frequent postings that take 1/2 hour to read each rather than infrequent postings that take a couple of hours to read. For me, it's about managing my time and following several series as they are posted.

Too LONG?

No such thing for me. The only question for me is how long between segments posted.

It depends on my memory... if I've forgotten what you posted in the last 20k word post then 30k post that is months old... means I have to go back and read the last part again to remind myself of the characters and plot then yeah 30k can seem intimidating.

on the other hand... if you post often enough with large enough posts that the reader doesn't feel she's being spoon fed the story... then you should be okay.

For me I think nothing of reading the professors stories... mostly because they are complete.

If the story isn't complete then posting as much as you can write in a week or two should be your guide for posting chapters.

If you write 30k words and break it into 3 10k segments... and post it once, twice or 3 times in a week... your readers should be happier than having one 30k chunk every few months.

Dayna.

ps. either way I'll probably wait til the final chapter or 30k chunk is posted so I can read at my own pace and get a completed story as a bonus. Oh and nothing gets my hackles up faster than being fed a story scene by scene as if I'm a child hearing only as much of the story as the babysitter deigns to read to me. Specially if there are days/weeks between sessions.

I agree.

Dayna sums up my feeling exactly.

I like/prefer longer stories provided, of course, that they are both well-written and interest me. Assassin is both. I've had a quick glance at some of the Comic Retcon stories but they only satisfy my first criterion and not the second so it's not the length that puts me off reading them; they're just not my cup of tea (actually, I don't drink tea ;) )

I think the main thing that I find difficult is long gaps with no updates rather than length but that's something up with which I have to put ;)

Robi

Chapter length?

For chapters, 5 to 10K is good. I remember a lot of comments on some Harry Potter fanfic sites indicating that people are less likely to read chapters over about 15K words.

A lot of novels seem to fit in this category 5 to 10K range too.

Of course longer chapters are good for loading onto my kindle and taking with me to somewhere where I don't have inet access :)