Do You Publish as You Write or Draft Multiple Chapters First?

stella 2025-03-20 10:06:35 UTC #1

Hey fellow writers!

When you have a story idea in mind, how do you approach writing and publishing it?

Do you start by publishing the first chapter and figure out the rest as you go?
Or do you prefer to write multiple chapters in advance before publishing?
Have you ever regretted your approach and wished you did it differently?

This is the new chapter of my novel:

wolflu66 2025-03-20 11:28:09 UTC #2

I complete the entire story outline before I start drawing the manga. So the direction of the ending is determined from the beginning. Of course, some temporarily added plots might be inserted in the middle, but overall, they don't affect the development of the main storyline.

As for the manga's dialogue, I only write the dialogue for the next chapter after completing the current one, at most writing dialogue for two or three chapters at a time.

2DLenzy 2025-03-20 11:28:37 UTC #3

As a to-be Tapas writer, I'm currently drafting as many chapters as I can right now. I'm kinda slow, and I also like to brood over my story a bit before I publish to make sure everything feels right. When I had started a comic on here, it was in production for about two years beforehand, so I had a good idea of everything that was going to happen (and still made things up along the way and changed things, lol) Only thing I somewhat regretted was getting feedback earlier, which would've enabled me to edit my pages for larger font. I know better now.

Hadn't spent as much time on my to-be novel story (about 8 months and 12-ish chapters on and off), but as soon I begin publishing it's gonna be interesting to see how I write and change things up. For now though, it's still in the drafting phase. I'm projecting to release in June, which gives me enough time to really pore over everything and have a large enough buffer so I don't stress over too many projects. We'll see how that goes.

Here's a link to said comic if anyone is interested to take a peek. Sub ain't required. Novel link will appear later June, if I remember to post it here...

KevinReijnders 2025-03-20 12:01:01 UTC #4

If I were to do a novel on tapas, I'd write the whole thing first and then start publishing it.

With my comic, the process of production is too slow to wait for it to be completely finished. That said, I have already written and sketched out the whole thing.

CarltonIsaac 2025-03-20 12:31:43 UTC #5

Complete my Novels (Novel Series), publish them on Amazon and Goodreads, then publish little chapter parts in sequence here on Tapas and also on Fiction press.

Comics are plotted completely, then at least a dozen episodes completed to have a buffer before posting on Tapas, Comiicfury, Globalcomix, Duckweb, Twitter, Instagram.

Leyelle 2025-03-20 13:02:41 UTC #6

I drafted the whole book first, and then write the chapters individually, and release them on a schedule

eternityoz 2025-03-20 13:48:00 UTC #7

As of now, my projected overall storyline is going to take up many thousands of tapas episodes, meaning drafting a considerable amount before posting would be pure agony for me. For the sake of planning, I've divided my story into overarching sections called 'sagas', connected story sections for 'seasons', and then the usual individual 'arcs'.

I usually plan out the general content of an arc / season in advance, but don't actually write them until a week or two before I publish a chapter / episode. Although I sometimes wish I were more prepared and had a backlog of chapters, I like the flexibility my style gives me, since I often end up coming up with ways to improve the plot or characters only as I write on a weekly schedule.

Ninjabunny 2025-03-20 14:59:42 UTC #8

For my comic I don't have multiple stories completed since that takes a long time to draw. I already have the words completed for at least 31 chapters but no drawings yet.

For my novel I wrote the whole thing before publishing, but then again I had it completed for a while, it just took time to edit. I find it easier to have them all completed so you can schedule when the chapters come out so you can work on other projects.

kyupol 2025-03-20 16:19:53 UTC #9

I draft multiple chapters.

ADB has about 10 chapters drafted and more outlined. It's turning epic in my head

plutodreaming 2025-03-20 18:07:26 UTC #10

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

ori-taggart 2025-07-30 13:52:02 UTC #11

More of a drawing drafts kind of the person, especially since I have a lot of stuff in my schedule outside of writing my novel. All events are predetermined. I do leave room for changes in story beats or to flesh out events, lore and characters in a way I didn't think about when doing the rough outline of the story.

Here's the novel I'm currently writing (it is in french, because I wanted to give myself a new challenge and it's my native language)

AizuKin123 2025-07-30 13:55:47 UTC #12

I started publishing my first chapter and then thought I'll figure the rest out, but deadlines got extended, chapters got stretched and delayed, sometimes even considerable low effort, and a hard regret that wish I had buffer chapter. This can lead to burnout so always... I repeat always have buffer chapters for the reasons which yyou all are smart enough to understand.

MelancholicOtaku 2025-07-30 15:56:32 UTC #13

I tend to publish as I write. Before starting every arc I write down the main parts of each chapter. For example when two characters might meet ,when a character might appear or when a fight is going to happen. When I get to writing the week’s chapter I read a couple of previous chapters and brainstorm where I would like to go from there. For the next couple of days I write the chapter and publish.

Here’s a example this is from a previous arc

[ ] Elyn gets her weapon
[ ] Elyn and Coostaark see their first Adrok
[ ] Trio gets separated at the end of the arc
[ ] Mica arc will be at least six chapters plus all the parts
[ ] New characters get introduced
[ ] MK283- robot
[ ] Name-ex guard plays an important part with training Elyn with weapons during the next arc

Sometimes I might brainstorm and think that some stuff might be good for a later arc.

So far I haven’t regretted my writing style. I know what works for me. I still have burnout but I do find it helpful to take a week or two break every few months.

annuskabriar 2025-07-30 17:03:09 UTC #14

I plan out all the broad strokes beforehand, with a detailed (though still incomplete) outline. And for my comic I probably had a third to a half scripted out before I began publishing. I'm definitely more of a planner, rather than a pantser, and I prefer it this way aha. I actually wish I scripted even more before I began, but I didn't want the entire thing scripted because I wanted room to be flexible and change stuff more easily. I do not like figuring it out as I go aha.

TheVoidchildProject 2025-07-30 18:12:07 UTC #15

I could NEVER have been able to make Voidchild if I hadn't drawn upp all the scripts first. I never intended to draw it myself in the first place so it was extra important for me to get the details right in the script.

So yeah, all of Voidchild is already written down and done in script-form. just gotta get it into its artistic true form!

sofiarsdraw 2025-08-02 23:36:03 UTC #16

Draft Multiple Chapters First