Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related WIP...Fic Length

Just curious. If I ever stop letting this thing lurk on my hard drive and actually start typing again, how much a time are you guys posting per part in your WIPs here? (i.e. so many pages, KB, paragraphs, whatever)

Note: Not that this implies that I'll be significantly filling pages anytime soon and posting...things usually take up space for about 2 years before I get inspired to write, much less finish anything...and it's only been 10 months since I last wrote anything. But I thought I'd ask this anyway, God forbid I actually fill some pages.

It really depends on the author and their personal preferences, as well as on their buffer as they post. Generally, section-length varies between 7 and 15 pages (normal font like Times New Roman 12 or Comic Sans MS 11). There's no rule though. The only thing is that posting too little leaves no room for many comments, and posting too much can overwhelm readers. So the trick is to find some middle ground.

Oh, and did you know that once you've mentioned that you're writing a story, you'll get nagged and nagged and nagged and even more nagged until you post it?

I agree with Kaethel - between 7 and 15 is usually about right, depending on the circumstances.

I think it sometimes depends on the story too and how it's structured. When I started posting Masques last year, I used posts of 6 pages. But it just didn't suit the story's pacing - it was going so slowly, barely making each post more than one scene. Often not even one scene. It frustrated my readers and it frustrated me. So I switched to 15 page posts and that was much better.

LabRat (who'll start off the nagging early - get that Muse in gear, Jen )

Oh geez. /me runs and hides . Thanks, I'll keep all of that in mind. Part of the problem with posting is people will, like, actually expect you to finish the story LOL, as opposed to the 3-4 pages *a month* that I write. But after reading Elle's story last night, inspiration kicked into gear so who knows what'll happen.

Ciao.

Don't forget the option of finishing the story first, then starting to post it.

Even some of us who have written several stories often find our muses less cooperative than we'd like and don't want to leave people hanging while we figure out what comes next in the story (or find the time to write it up, even if we know what comes next.)

Therefore, I always wait until a story is completely finished before starting to post it here. I've had too many experiences with stories which are 90% finished, then sit that way for weeks, if not months. If I'd been posting, I'd have been in deep doo-doo. <g>

I know many authors post as they are writing -- and I take my hat off to them! -- but it's not the only way to utilitze these boards.

Kathy

Oh yay, thanks, I'll not post anything until I finish writing. (Still assuming I have enough nerve to post it.)

You can put me down in the finish-the-story-and-then-post camp, too.

Kathy, exactly! And you are quite right about the doo-doo. However, you forgot to mention the pangs of guilt a writer feels for leaving a story half-finished! As a reader I hate that so much. As a writer, I'm guilty of it.

I've twice started stories here and have then gone into hiding for long periods of time, and I hereby solemnly vow not to do it again.

In both cases, also, I found that I had to go back to very early parts and edit them in order to make the continuity work throughout the story, which means that posting as I go along just doesn't work for me.

Chris

Which I will definitely do if I ever get around to writing another loooong! story!

So good for your peace of mind! OTOH, posting with a deadline is exhilarating. You're as proud as Punch if you beat it!

It also not just continuity that can suffer as a result of the installment plan. This is something I've learned from being around romance authors online and "listening" to their editing stories. Too much feedback in the middle of writing the initial rough draft of a story can directly affect the writer's "voice" as they listen to and follow through on perfectly good suggestions.

So, sometimes, and especially if you know where the story is going, it's much better to simply, um, let it rip and finish the entire "thought" as it were without outside input and THEN get feedback on the total package. More consistency that way with what YOU wanted the story to be even if you have to do some tweaking after the fact.

Now if you don't know where it's going and are simply playing around with an idea, then it's also possible that installments might be the better way to go. If for no other benefit than the brainstorming it allows. Just depends.

Beverly

Just to offer a differing POV...

My first long fic was written on the installment plan. Those were in the days before I started using a beta, and I was more or less using the message boards readers for that purpose. It worked out beautifully for me, because I was such a tentative newbie at the time that I *needed* the feedback and encouragement. And the details. I hadn't yet seen the ep I was rewriting, which made things a little complicated. The positive responses spurred me on and gave me impetus to continue. Honest feedback *did* cause me to change a few small points in two scenes, but I always had my final destination in mind and wasn't too distracted.

My second long fic, OTOH, took... oh, about nine months or so to complete. :rolleyes: So I do agree that posting-as-you-write doesn't always work. It sure didn't work for poor Lara and Jor, whose Last Adventure of Krypton are still stalled (one day... one day...). But I did want to point out that while many people prefer to have their story complete before posting, you don't need to hesitate if you want to try it the other way. We'll take fic any way we can get it!

Hazel

Oh, absolutely. Couldn't agree more. It's basically a case of finding out which method works best for you really.

For years I didn't write in a linear fashion, but as scenes came to me. They could be anywhere in the final story. I could be working on the penultimate scene before the opening one. So that made it hugely difficult to post as I wrote.

Also I'm very much in the habit still of redrafting and going back and adding to scenes I might have considered finished. And it irritates me to have posted part one and then two weeks later decide there was something I wanted to put in there.

In the last year or so I've switched to writing linear. It was much easier when online brainstorming a story with my betas if we went in a logical progression and they could see how the plot was forming. And I kind of enjoy it now. <g>

LabRat

So, Lab, that means that you know where your nfic story is going, right? Better yet, it's finished. So what's keeping you from posting the rest of it, huh, huh???

Melisma (cracking her whip here under her Rock)

LOL, yes I know where this one is going because it's mostly written - just a few gaps here and there to plug and that will be it.

Said gaps still to be plugged though. Hence the not having posted yet.

LabRat

I'm joining this thread very late ...

Elle as in me?? Hm, if that's the case, then the source of your inspiration demands you write.

Anyway, in regards to posting - WTWWM is more or less finished and, well, it's definitely a lot less stress between installments. STGTTIR, however, is a writing-as-I-go ... and a lot more stress-inducing. Already I wish I could go back and change a couple of things on the already posted section ... but oh, well, you live and you learn. The advantage to posting as you go is that you can tailor the rest of the story based on what the readers seem to enjoy — i.e., Cat was so well-received in the early sections of West Wind, I ended up adding a whole scene involving her and Clark. It's not so much changing your voice within the story, IMO, as making the story enjoyable to the readers.

As far as how long posts should be - length doesn't matter as long as you have a good cliffhanger!!

ROTFL. Actually, I'm blaming a few people here. Still Elle for posting enough fic here to make me get up off my butt and read it and then say to myself, "Hey, when was the last time I wrote anything?", and THEN Alicia for not killing off any of the main characters in Back Home because I had a need for a deathfic for some reason, so guess what I'm writing LOL.