Do readers here prefer longer written chapters or shorter?

[xanedis]

That said, I have had the time and motivation to keep writing scripts for two upcoming webcomics, so it's not all doom and gloom. Just figured I needed to clarify on this point, lest someone think that I wallow in self-pity. XD

[daniellekoste]

Everyone's situation is different and we're all doing the best we can. Mental and physical health is so much more important and I certainly haven't always been posting once a week for similar reasons to yours.

Also, speaking from experience, those true fans are worth it. They made it possible for me to self publish my first novel and not dig myself into a hole of debt. I've had fans that have followed my work for years. The good ones will stick with you through anything, and 20 dedicated readers beat out thousands of occasionals any day just keep doing what feels right for you and the right people will find ya

[xanedis]

Aye, that's what I've found to be the best strategy. I used to have a relatively nice following back in my fanfiction days, but that's just easy attention. Only a handful(I can count them with five fingers) of people continued on to read my original stories; however, to their credit, I took a three-year break from writing... So I guess the people who read my stuff now are EXTRA amazing people, then.

[daniellekoste]

I also have a history in fanfiction lol. I'm pretty sure black magic and selling your soul to the devil are the only ways to get fanfiction readers to read your original fiction lmao

[xanedis]

Close, but not quite.

Nah, I kid. You just need them to become fans of your writing, as opposed to the fanwork. I'd imagine this also requires one to have their own interpretation of the said fandom universe, and yet not be derivative of the original work. But then again, out of 600 readers and 170 or so followers, I suspect that only 20 or so would've followed me to my original original fiction had I started immediately after I quit writing fanfiction. That said, I wasn't as good at writing as I am now, so this was the better choice.

Honestly, who knew that by not writing for three years, one could become that much better? Me neither. Actually, it might have stem from the change in my diet, now that I think about it...

Anyhow, it's all weird and wonky and wonderful how one CAN actually capitalize on one's fanbase, if they're the kind to post reviews/comment on every single chapter. One such fan transferred over to my original fiction, and they've made all the difference.

EDIT: The numbers are not here for me to boast about them. I just wanted to provide some subjective statistics to people.

[daniellekoste]

I'm also being a little facetious lol. I have some pervious fans that are now close friends who started with reading my fanfiction and went over to reading my original fiction, so I'm #blessed. It just sometimes seems like you really gotta beg people, while the readers come to you with minimal effort with fanfiction as long as you're writing a popular ship, ya know?

that being said, places like tapas that specialize in original content, really help with finding the right kind of people, obviously. I guess when you think about it, advertising original fiction to people looking for fanfiction is probably not the most effective way to gain new readers.

You're definitely right though about getting those fans of your writing. The ones that will read whatever you put out there just cus it's you, those are the jems.

[xanedis]

I have to make a confession, though - my story WAS about the most popular ship, although I managed to cloak it in a grand epic fantasy narrative(that was easy due to the nature of the story).

[daniellekoste]

i was the fanfiction writer that got popular off writing the most popular ship and then I tried to throw some trash in there and people were just not having it lmao

Excuse me for liking me some angst and drama, you can stay over there with your happy endings for all I care :')

[spicy_sweets]

I'm surprised this thread blew up so much :o

[VibrantFox]

it's a relevant question that could use some answers from the perspective of writers and readers, it's just a matter of gathering those responses

[NovaSapien]

For my novel I usually try to go for 500-600 (mostly because I write episodes for it every day). I found it to be a comfortable length for me because I get easily distracted and It takes me a few hours to write my episodes.

If you want to check it out you cat read it here:

The Linguist in a Lost Land | Tapas

[Penni]

From what my subscribers have told me they refer the longer episodes, I typically end up with 1200-1500 words. But that's just what I've gotten back from my readers

[MariMontoya]

Yeah it depends a lot on the type of story and how much you update it. I go for around 2-6k words and I update Monday, wed, and Fri. Whereas I think someone previously said they update every day and would have 500-600 words, which is efficient and better for the author and readers. But it's rly all about the content I make sure that every one of my chapters has a proper scene and some development in the story, I either give a nice ending or a cliffhanger which keeps them wanting to read more​

[YaoiParadise]

I've found that readers prefer longer episodes, even if it means a slightly longer wait time. Every time I've brought it up I've gotten that typical response (besides one person who was very aggressive about wanting short chapters, maybe they had a short attention span). But Tapas wants shorter chapters. So if you're hoping to miraculously make your way into the daily snack (it seems to be mostly for premium novels), their guidelines strongly suggest keeping between 500-1k words per episode.

I've changed the flow of my writing a little bit because of that, nothing that will interrupt chapters for publishing later but there's definitely good places to stop now when I post to Tapas (took some adjusting, because I came from wattpad and you were skewered for short chapters!) and I haven't gotten any complaints about the new, shorter episode lengths.
I think it's actually good for building suspense, too, since I'm in a pivotal part of the story which is very tense and a bit more fast paced, but I did start out with passing the stupid character limit for quite a few of my chapters and having to awkwardly chunk them up (which is why I started planning for shorter episodes). I aim for 600-800 but often end up cutting at around 1k.

[violin]

Just for the record, I'm going to go against everybody as a writer and say shorter chapters but really whatever works for you.

The reason I say that is because without Tapas recommending 500-700 words, given my busy schedule, I don't think I would ever have gotten started writing and would have a grand total of zero words. Maybe readers like it longer but for me it's a big achievement to have even a dozen chapters out like this and it would be sad if the concept of a chapter limit caused someone just to end up not being able to write at all

As a reader I've found success both with reading longer chapters (1,500 words or so) once a week and shorter chapters multiple times a week. I do think that if you're clocking in around 500 words it has to be more than once a week or I'll lose interest

[sei_gogone]

To answer your question: I can sway either way, personally, and I know a lot of other readers usually do.

Though, I think it all depends on the story you're trying to tell and the capacity to which you're trying to tell it. If you want to do phone novels, then up to 1k is best. But if you're honestly trying to tell a story with detail, I wouldn't shoot for less than 5k.

People can get their voices heard under 5k, as other authors here in the thread prove, but it all depends on how you yourself approach the story.

If you're telling something with heavy detail, usually going a bit longer is better, but if it's short, it has to be gripping because word count plays a massive part in narrative execution. It's not that you really how long you do it, but how it's done in general.

[AllynCrowe]

I have this exact same issue with people wanting more details about the world, but short chapters only allow for the core interactions.
Now maybe I'm too wordy, and maybe my trusty thesaurus bible is always beside me... but it's hard to fill in detail when you are stuck having to do 500 word 'snacks'. That's not a snack, that's a tiny bite.

Hence why usually my chapters end up being 2000 words and 14500 characters

[BlackRoses_RedRavens]

I think that around 1000 to 2000 is a good amount for most people but I'd be done for reading something bigger. Anything much shorter than 1000 I think is much too small and if you make something a lot longer you might lose attention. It really depends on what your writing and how often you update.

[minerrale]

I write around 500 words per update, but update every two days, and it seems to be what my readers prefer. This story doesn't ask for much details so I can say pretty much all I need to say in less than 700 words (which was my longest episode).
Then again, it's a slice-of-life talking about mental health issues, so short updates makes it less emotion heavy and easier to read.
And besides, I have a life outside out writing, and found that I generally write 500 words in about half an hour, which allows me to update consistently and so make my readers happy!

[Pan]

Personally, I really like the small chapters. The whole theme of Tapas is that these chapters are like appetizers, bite-sized. I know most prefer the longer chapters, but I used to write exclusively in chapters that were - get this - one to three paragraphs long. It usually ended up being around, oh, 200 words?

They're called drabbles, if anyone else is familiar with the term.

What I like about small chapters is that you can write them really fast, and it isn't a difficult chore to proofread, either. Reading them does go by pretty fast, it's true, but especially if you don't have time to just sit down and really hunker down with reading, the small chapter format is perfect. You can bite it off a bit at a time.

My chapters for Tapas are probably hovering pretty consistently in the 700-900 word range, depending. Longer, more impactful scenes, I'll do more. There are definite downsides to the tiny format, but definite upsides, as well.