fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2304 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2304 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

[Veronica Mars]

__________________________________________________

03.

[Trailer Park Boys]

__________________________________________________

04.

[Star Ocean: The Second Story]

__________________________________________________

05.

[Katekyo Hitman Reborn!]

__________________________________________________

06.

[Prometheus]

__________________________________________________

07.

[Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, Zettai Karen Children]

__________________________________________________

08.

[Kids in the Hall]

__________________________________________________

09.

[Vividred Operation]

__________________________________________________

10.

[dick & dom]

__________________________________________________

11.

[Game of Thrones]

__________________________________________________

12.

[Spartacus: War of the Damned]

__________________________________________________

13.

[CATS]

__________________________________________________

14.

[Archer]

__________________________________________________

15.

[Doctor Who]

__________________________________________________

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 033 secrets from Secret Submission Post #329.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I mentioned this a few days ago, but now I'm on the last day of a five-day vacation. In the first four days, I wrote 1,862 words and finished the first chapter on what will probably be a three chapter fic.

The first chapter is 7,600 words (the other two will not be as long). To me, it reads like that's an appropriate length and I don't see particularly great spots for breaking it up. So I'm inclined to leave it, but I know there are people who get really fussy over chapter length and won't read things that are too long or too short.

So, informal survey time! Where do you stand on chapter length?

I just write until I need a break. I wrote a 2200-word chapter recently and thought it was a little long, but that was where the scene ended.

It is better to just find natural breaks. Though, I don't enjoy chapters longer than 10k and less than 2k.

A chapter should be as long as it needs to be.

That said I don't like works where the chapters are consistently pretty short (like, <1000 words each). It feels too choppy.

This. I think as long as the story is interesting the length of the chapter doesn't matter too much, but I admit to not liking chapters that short either.

Agreed. I've never been bothered by a chapter being too long in fic. I hate clicking through eleventy million tiny chapters.

For a chapter that long, I usually have to save and read it later. However, I would read two chapters that are that long only because it seems like it's not as much.
I think it's better to have chapters at consistent lengths. Maybe you can see if you can cut the first chapter somewhere in the middle and post both at the same time? Get a beta to read it and get their opinion on a good place to break it up.

I prefer longer chapters. That sounds fine to me.

Keep it natural, but do keep it useful. One of my favorite books has a hunderd word chapter that was nothing beyond a secondary character had a bad dream and went to get some water.

LOL, sounds like Dallas.

Which book is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Stops_for_No_Mouse

Oh, I used to love 'Time Stops for No Mouse'! You've reminded me, I really need to buy it or something because I've been craving a re-read forever.

Someone else knows them! Have you read the sequels?

Haha, that was my reaction. =) I've only the Sands of Time so far - I kind of forgot there were any others until I followed your Wikipedia link. Have you read them?

I have all four - the last two are kind of startlingly dark. I still hope we get a 5th one in the future one day. Sands of Time is my favorite.

Preferably long, but as long as they're consistent I don't really care. For instance, nothing bugs me more than when one chapter is 9k and the next chapter is 2k and the next one is 6k and the next 1k... and so on. It just seriously ruins the flow. Not to say that one chapter can't be shorter or longer than another, but when the word counts vary as much as what I described above... yeah.

Um, like I said, though, I do prefer longer chapters. Especially if I have to wait for updates.

I write until I feel like the chapter is done honestly... it's usually between 1500 and 3000 words but I don't really care if it's over or under. There are so many things to worry about already when writing, I try not to think about the wordcount.

7,600 words wouldn't bother me; in fact, I love ridiculously long chapters, as in ones of at the very least 10,000 words in length, so it might even feel a bit short to me. However, it's still probably longer than the average fanfic chapter, so.

Perhaps you could add a note saying it's not the usual length, and readers should expect different word counts for the next two?

1) Consistent with other chapters
2) Good pacing
3) 1000 words minimum

That is what I require for what I consider a "good" chapter, story aside. It isn't just about length, but length is a pretty good guideline. If your chapter lengths vary wildly across the board, I think you need to work on scene length. If your chapters go from being a scene to being several years told in summary, you need to work on your transistions. If you have a multi-chaptered story with very small chapters, I think you don't know how to craft a story.

For writing, generally 2k-5k. When I do NaNoWriMo stuff, I usually pick either 2k or 4k, usually ending up around 2-3k for the former and 4-5k for the latter (although once I ended up with a 7k chapter which I broke into two).

For reading, anything shorter than 1k feels like a tease, especially if it the latest uploaded chapter of something ongoing, and 15k or longer is getting to the point of being a bit too long. One of my friends has a fic (which is 147 chapters and 650k words long, but that's neither here nor there), and the epilogue is like... 30k, which is just a taaad too long for me.

Thank you for starting this thread! My chapters run anywhere from 10K to 15K (yes, really), but after reading this thread, I think I'm going to make a conscious effort to get them down to 7500 to 10K.

[ SECRET POST #2304 ]

Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference

Re: Chapter length preference