TopShelf TG Fiction in the BigCloset!
Are there any particular criteria you go by when posting the parts of your story for how long between each post?
Why do you wait [X] number of days?
Is there a general consensus as to how often you should put up a new part to a story?
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Comments
I can't speak for anyone else...
I can't speak for anyone else, but for mine the delay in between parts is due to how long it can take to get them edited. The entire book gets drafted first, then each 'part' is edited for phrasing clean-up or even scene rewrite as needed to better fit the whole then posted. This usually takes 1 to 3 weeks per part depending on how much time I have free to work on it. My 'parts' are ~20k words each (4-6 chapters worth) to get 6 parts per book, but many folks post chapter by chapter too. I think even if I had two parts complete and ready I'd still wait a week in between though.
Finish it first.
The consensus appears to be to write a part, post it, and then write the next part. So that if one gets stalled, or runs out of interest, one can leave the unfinished story there for all to read. One also has to hope and pray that later parts are consistent with earlier parts. The general reason for waiting five days to five years, is that that's how long it takes to finish the next part.
My preference is to complete the story, including revision, before posting it. So nothing gets posted if I'm stalled on it.
-- Daphne Xu
Shelf life
In my opinion, when the story segments are all written and edited so that production is not a factor, shelf life is the most important factor. I feel that shelf life is determined by a number of factors, that is how long does it take for the readership on the story to reach the maximum exposure for the story. In my opinion, BCTS policy is that once a multipart story has a new chapter posted, the previous chapter is depromoted, that is taken off the front page of the site. I feel that just by new stories being posted, any chapter has a maximum shelf life on the front page, in that the front page always has a finite amount of stories on it and older stories eventually roll off the front page.
In my opinion, even though previous chapters are easily gone back to when they are linked together on the side index, the most exposure a story can get is while it is on the front page. I feel that once the last chapter of a story goes off the front page, it is like being taken off the featured space where readers can easily see it and must be searched for just like the bulk of the stories in the BCTS archive.
In my opinion, sometimes a story does not get comments or Kudos so the only way an author has to judge a stories worth is to see how many hits it has. I feel for those reasons, authors with less popular stories will wait a week between postings in hopes that the longer a chapter stays up on the front page, the more likely that someone will come across it and kudos and comment.
All my hopes,
Sasha Zarya Nexus
All my hopes
Ariel Montine Strickland
Every Author is different
For me, every story that is posted here is complete apart from some final editing before the first part appears.
I post once a week on average.
Real life has this trick of stopping you from writing. This week has been no exception. Today is the Christmas Market at Loseley Park. Tomorrow is the Rugby at Twickenham etc etc. Luckily, I have a load of work for publication here that will take me up to the end of February 2020 IF I can find the time to write one piece that is the 'missing gap' that is needed to link two stories together.
We shall see eh?
Samantha
All methods work
The beauty of this site is that it allows a wide variety of writers to post all types of story from serious to fantasy.
I had never written before writing my first story almost 10 years ago and I've posted multi chapter and single chapters.
I write for pleasure and relaxation and am flattered when I get hits,comments and kudos.
Posting regularly is important for multi chapter and personally I don't write the whole story at the outset because I find that comments are refreshing and interesting that influences the story line sometimes.
Those who don't write are then more involved on the site and I get the benefit of their opinions that might make an average story better.
Life does get in the way sometimes so not to worry if you get lulls.
Good luck.
"HATE" unfinished serials
Agree with Daphne, have a story told. Then if it's length is too much to drop on BCTS in one download, or if one wants to stretch the drama out, download chapters. How often is up to the author. I noticed almost everyone posts once every week except those posting as they write the story. Then it may stretch out to posting once a month or more.
I'm not going to mention the number of stories, nor name the authors where I looked at a dozen or more chapters listed. I always check the date the last chapter was posted. Safe to believe it is completed if the last posted dates were 2015 or earlier such as 2006. To my utter disgust, no. I run into those incomplete stories and feel I wasted my life reading them. There is no positive reading an incomplete story, only negatives. No matter how good that writer may be, I won't touch any other story they may have posted.
My first story posted on BCTS after moving here (other stories of mine were posted with my permission earlier) wasn't finished when the first few chapters were posted. My angel of an editor, Cathy, was receiving rewrites all hours of the night. One at three AM. It was a fun story to write but I decided finished stories were only going to escape my dungeons after that.
My last story, I dropped chapters on BCTS every other day. BCTS automatically only allows listing of one chapter per week. The other earlier chapters are still there, just scrubbed from listing. My purpose was two fold. I was through with the story, had others waiting for my attention, and I wanted to dump it so I didn't have to look at it any longer.
Your choice of timing when to post chapters is totally up to you.
always,
Barb
Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it's worn out.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Huh?
Where did "one chapter a week" come from? BC lists a chapter on the front page until another one in the same story is posted, whether it's five minutes later or five days, or until it falls off the front page because later stories have supplanted it.
You only get one chapter of a given story on the front page, any others there are removed from it. Eolwaen and Ricky, to name two, are currently posting new story chapters every day.
When the admins see that a new chapter is posted, they demote the previous one from the front page. (From what I've read here, it's done manually, so for a very brief period there may be two of them showing.)
If an author wants people to see two new chapters at once, they can post them as one entry: "Chapters 3 & 4". Otherwise, #3 will leave the front when #4 is posted, and readers will have to fend for themselves in finding it. (Even checking in every day, I missed one of Ricky's chapters and had to go to his page to retrieve it.) Unless readers have been following the numbers closely, they'll very likely be unaware they missed anything until they start reading the posted chapter and notice the discontinuity.
Eric (no, I'm not an admin or anything...)
Eric, we both said the same thing
If you will reread my comment, I believe you will see I didn't write an author is limited to only one posting per week. What was implied was the earlier chapter of the same story was scrubbed from the current listing of stories. A later comment I wrote I was posting chapters every couple days. A contradiction in my data? Nope, only how the reader interpreted the sentences just as two readers can read the same story and come away with different conclusions when one's English teacher asked for interpretations
hugs,
always,
Barb
Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it's worn out..
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Look for the Completed Tag
There are 2 ways that completed stories can be flagged as complete. One I know is searchable. Go to the categories tab on the front page search. Scroll down to filter by publication. Select the second option: Complete. You will get a listing of all stories (some are chapters of stories) completed with the tag set.
The other way is to look on the bottom of the trimmed story box before you click through to read the full text. The last item in the lower right hand corner says either ongoing for incomplete stories and completed for complete stories.
All my hopes,
Sasha Zarya Nexus
All my hopes
Ariel Montine Strickland
Complete but not complete
Sasha thanks for the data and the links. While clipping through the links, I found even a complete listing does not mean the story is complete and on the opposite end of the spectrum many authors, including myself didn't know there was an option to mark the story as complete.This was at the top of the search page giving a bit more advice.
Complete, but not Complete
There are a lot of readers like me who only read completed stories, so I have always been surprised that so ... few authors of completed stories use the "Complete" tag, as it would make finding their ... you have to press CNTRL as you click on it so you mark the story length and Complete tags at the same.
Thanks for the heads up
always,
Barb
If one thinks life is tough, look at those around you. Maybe that guy with the Lear Jet owes his life to the company.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Authors will do
Pretty much what they want to do. We may all have a style or system we prefer, But there is no way we can compel writers to do things any certain way. Wish in one hand and s*** in the other, as the old saying goes. So we must take what is given, it is our choice to read or not. There are several writers here that I would be tickled pink if their works were suddenly gone. However, there are others here that would heartily bemoan their loss. Take what you get, however it is offered.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Like a good wine, a chapter
Like a good wine, a chapter is not ready before it's time.
I don't publish a new chapter until I feel that it's ready. What makes it ready? It's when I feel in my heart that it's what I'd like to read.
I've had people ask me to write faster, longer chapters. I write at one speed, mine. And a chapter is as long as it needs to be.
Teddies comment
And like any of Teddies stories i jump on the as soon as it's released
As a reader
who's gotten to read some awesome stories here, I've noticed that there tends to be two posting patterns here that appear to be quite successful. These two patterns are most likely to attract and keep my attention. This, of course, refers to stories that are already written or are that being written fast enough that the writing process is not part of the delay.
Some of my favorite authors here post longer chapters one a week, preferably on a specific day of the week. This is frequent enough that us readers are not likely to start forgetting the story and loose interest. Other authors like to publish every few days but the size of their posts are usually smaller. I strongly recommend that you don't post two chapters of the same story in the same day because readers may not realize that there was a second post that day.
Statistics
When I see a long, old serial story, I open the last chapter, move rapidly to the end, and see what is written there. If it say "The end", then I go back to the first chapter and start reading. If it says "To be continued", I skip it.
I have been making a file containing information about BCTS authors I do not recognize. Over a hundred of them have nothing but incomplete stories. (About thirty either have nothing or only an author page. Those I really don't understand.)
Sometimes
Sometimes people ask for their stories to be removed, but I don't remove author pages.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I can see...
I can see why one would post a part a week, or thereabouts. You would like to keep your story on the front page as long as possible. Too far apart, the previous part goes off the page on its own. Too close together, each part spends less time on the front page, so your story as a whole spends less time on the front page.
Another way to keep the story longer on the front page is to have shorter parts, so that you have more parts. I can imagine: one paragraph per part, one sentence per part, or even one word per part.
-- Daphne Xu
True
True
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
That
That
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Stories with too many parts
turn me off from reading.
If I see part 48 or 200 or whatever, I don't even think of going back to part 1 and starting from there.
None of my stories have gone above 20 parts and some of my work has over 50,000 words.
I can remember being cheesed off when reading Black Beauty as a child. Some of the chapters in that book are less than two pages long.
That's just me I guess.
Samantha.
PS
My posting of once a week has nothing to do with keeping a story on the front page.
Samantha has a valid point
Seeing chapter #200 of a story posted, makes it sound quite intimidating for someone to go back and begin reading at the beginning. Although as so many here tend to label a single scene of barely 1000 words as a chapter, which are more akin to that two page chapter in Black Beauty you spoke about and not the 3500-5000 average word length of a chapter in a paper novel, Which make those 200 parts only around 25000 words, something easily read in one sitting.
As for my postings, I post when I have something ready for others to read. 5-6 years ago that meant I was posting 7000 to 15000 word posts on a weekly basis. Not that I couldn't have posted multiple posts throughout the week back then, it was that I would not stop to edit anything until the end of the week.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
My current story is now over
My current story is now over 200 chapters. It didn't start out that way, but just grew as I liked where it was going and my readers continued to encourage me. It probably should have been broken into books. But it is what it is.
Teddie, your current story...
Teddie, your current story, "Tommy:The trials and tribulation of a girl," is a prime example of why someone who hasn't began reading it, SHOULD go back and read it from the beginning. It's a wonderful story that I along with so many others, eagerly await each new chapter.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
But...
if 'Teddie' was in dead tree format, we could see/guess by how far through the book we were how much and how long it would take to finish the story.
It isn't and every 4-5 days another episode is posted and still no end in sight.
For me, I am far too busy in real life to spend time reading all the back episodes of it. I suspect that I'm not alone in that.
Not knowing where the end is in a story is a huge turn off. Sorry about that but that is the reality.
Samantha
Using that logic
would mean that you also don't watch any television series until after it has been canceled :)
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Not Necessarily
We know that the show will continue the following week, if the show is weekly. They tend to produce episodes several weeks in advance. Also, rather than skip a week if they are stalled, some writer will write a fluff side filler episode. Television shows have multiple writers.
-- Daphne Xu
ROFL
I rarely watch any TV as it is broadcast. I record everything (mainly so I can skip over the Adverts). That way I can watch it when I want and not when theTV scheduers want. Most of it is old stuff anyway.
There are some TV series where it is known beforehand how many episodes there are.
If I record the whole series then I can watch it like a 'Box Set'.
Samantha
Unless they are "Soaps" they usually tie off that week
Very seldom do evening TV series not give a finished feeling with each event. The bad guys were brought to justice or killed. The main actors and actresses are the only continued to do the same plot, different story the next week. If one is watching Murder She Wrote, or NCIS the catch is the actors and actresses one wishes to see solve the next who done it, or the next killer get his come uppence.
Can you see where this is leading? In continued story writing each chapter feeds into the next and is never completed tale by itself. If it were, we readers could drop in on chapter thirty, read it and feel we had read a complete story without the first twenty nine chapters filling in the tale and setting up the plot. We wouldn't need the next thirty chapters to finish out the story and find out who did it.
Comparing TV series to story chapters is not even close enough to be a non starter.
always,
Barb
Life is complicated enough without Murphy adding to the mix.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Only true for US series
With british (and also other commonwealth or scandinavian) series you often have a complex story that gets told over a series of 6 to 10 episodes - and they are often based on novels and try to tell that whole novel's story over that series' story arc. Take a look at series like "Broadchurch", "Broen" (remade as "The Tunnel" and "The Bridge"), "Black Widows" (finnish), "The Bletchley Circle", "Cardinal" (canadian), "The Five", "Forbrydelsen" (danish), "The Frankenstein Chronicles", "Line of Duty", "Midnight Sun", "No Offence" or right now "His Dark Materials" (8 episodes).
With series like that, each episode is comparable to one or more chapters in a novel.
Of course, in those countries the episodic format with (e.g. "Code 37" (belgian), "Top of the Lake" (australian)) or without overlying story arc are also common. But there is a significant number of series that are IMHO best seen in a single sitting.
Those familiar with my stories may understand
why I'm feeling somewhat distanced from the topic ;)
Oh?
Oh? Does that mean you're not going to write that "deeply tragic 78 installment story" after all? Okay, I can understand from the writer's perspective. But what about your perspective, of reading a multipart story?
Those who view me as Bru's twin (Hi Barb!) might not realize that this subject is quite close to me. The only reason that I haven't posted a multipart story since "Vengeance and Beyond" (Thanks Rasufelle!) is that none are remotely close to being finished. I have quite a few in my Big Hopper, some more appropriate for https://www.asstr.org/~Daphne_Xu/ than here. (I think that even some of my TG stories wouldn't be welcome here.)
-- Daphne Xu
Bru and Daphne were NOT seperated at birth
The two girls try and make the rest of us believe they aren't related. I want to see a DNA test from both of them. Provided the aren't Chimera it would be a perfect match.
I wouldn't be telling off on them except I'm still pissed Daphne reminded Bru I still had her pink micro mini in my closet. That's the last time I invite her over for milk and cookies.
always
Barb
Have fun with life, it's too short to take seriously
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
A DNA Sample
... from a disembodied identity? How does one get that? Such a thing doesn't even exist!
-- Daphne Xu
I post at daily intervals
My stories are always complete before I publish, and I then make the decision of whether to post in one part or several.
Posting as a multi part does give a story more exposure, but the downside is that it may lose readers like me who simply look down the home page for solo entries.
I always title multi parts as Chapter x of y, so that readers know the story is complete and exactly how many episodes there are.
Finally, I’ll tell readers at the start that I’m posting at approximately daily intervals.
One other thing is that I normally turn off comments, which dates back to when I had readers trying (and sometimes succeeding) to outguess the mystery I was building in the story. A bit like telling people about to go to a play what the ending is.
The question was "what do you do?"
I don't know why the question was asked. Maybe Leona is thinking about posting a multi-part story and wondered what other people do. Clearly the answer is that people do what they like, or what works for them.
I've read a few stories that were never finished, but I haven't been sorry. Here are two:
There's nothing wrong with either one as they stand, unfinished as they are. You won't lose anything by reading them.
When I joined BCTS, there was a VERY popular story, Being Christina Chase, that sat untouched for five years. Every so often someone would ask "Will it ever be finished?" Eventually it was, but I'm pretty sure that everyone who loved that story loved it all the way through the posted chapters, through the gap, and after it was wrapped up.
There was something wonderful and happy, waiting and wishing for the next chapter, wondering if it would EVER come. And there were human stories behind the delays.
If someone only wants to read completed stories, there are a ton of them here. If, on the other hand, you want to be present throughout the (possibly) protracted birth, you can have that too. Personally, I like the latter a whole lot more.
Kaleigh Way
I started only publishing short stories
But then I started writing a story that needed more than a few thousand words so I started publishing it in chapters thinking that the feedback I got in comments would help shape the next chapter. Unfortunately real life got complicated and it takes me months between chapters so no one comments any more. I've learnt my lesson and I will complete or nearly complete other longer works before posting so I can carry an audience with me, I hope.
No hard, and fast rules
You can post an entire novel in a single post, possibly even an entire series. I've not seen any indication that there's an actual size limit.
It's likely there is a maximum post size limit, but you're only likely to run foul of it, if your post includes lots of high quality images.
Text takes up little bandwidth in comparison to images, and I've seen some large novels in single posts, some with a "book cover" image.
Not many works on BCTS have multiple images in a post
Most authors will post a single chapter, every 4 to 7 days, even when they have the entire novel written.
That's for the front page exposure reasons mentioned in several other posts.
This is written by site admin Piper, and explains the sites actual front page system, if maximum front page exposure is what you desire.
We Aint Got No, algorithm.... | BigCloset TopShelf
I think the front page exposure is rather overrated myself, but I will only read completed works, and I never read them as they are posted.
When I do find a good new author, I will go to their Author Page, and see what else they have written.
I'm likely not a typical user though.
Dark Elven Sissy Slut – Uhuru N’Uru
It has been quite a while for me
So please understand my memory is rather hazy at best.
If I recall correctly you cannot post more then 2 submissions a day, the additionals will be removed.
I do know there is a key thingy for it you have to add that instigates a 'passing to next chapter' thingy i dunno it has been quite a while
Hope I have been helpful
With Love and Light, and Smiles so Bright!
Erin Amelia Fletcher