Long Haul Novels

BoredWeaver 2019-10-03 03:57:21 UTC #1

This thought popped into my head and I wanted to see what others had to say. So, who here is working on a novel and planning on it to progress long and slow? I mean like taking a slower pace than your average novel and/or a stretched out plot. These novels are the kind that spends a lot of time building up from one point to the next, sometimes taking weeks or months worth of updates to reach that point.

I'm writing a novel like that and was curious to see how many others are doing something similar. In my case, it's taken months to reach the first big action scene, and that's still a few posts away. Give a link to your novel and maybe someone on here will read it (if we have the time )

Thank you!

Toastbuster 2019-10-03 05:51:32 UTC #2

Mine absolutely falls under this category lol! At 9 chapters in I feel like I’m still just getting started

yansusu 2019-10-03 08:58:42 UTC #3

I feel like my main series is that kind of story. It's supposed to be Romance (with lots of fantasy and comedy) but other than a glimpse of that in the first few chapters, nothing much has happened in that regard until the last third of volume 2 which is about ... 280 chapters

elanor 2019-10-03 09:15:32 UTC #4

Mine is... probably long form? I think of it like a TV series made of novellas which would be the weekly episodes, strung together with a long, overarching plot that will play out over the whole series.

A single novella is roughly 23-25k words. Breaking it into Tapas-sized chunks gives me 15-20 Tapas-episodes per novella. Posting twice a week, one novella will take 7-10 weeks.

That means the meat of the overarching plot may not hit for a very, very long time.

My series is an urban fantasy cozy mystery. Not murder-y mystery so much as "what was that?" kind of mystery. There's action, humor, suspense, and occasionally romance. Also Japanese and British influences...

nostalgicroxas 2019-10-03 09:43:08 UTC #5

I wouldn't say my novel is... was... long form on purpose, but here I am 300k words later, not done, so... ya know...

High fantasy! A kidnapping! Once or twice, or three times! Boys! Boys in love! Girls who aren't all evil! Well some are! A little sociopath! Gods! In parallel worlds! Everything burnsssss!!!! Am I being literal?

KRWright 2019-10-03 11:47:47 UTC #6

Freedom's Pyre has a lot of action but the plot is slow-build. It's currently 160,000 words long as of today's update. I don't think the plot is especially slow (at the end of book 1, the character has their first major magical 'breakthrough', at the end of book 2, the character basically manages to break free of his bonds and finally faces off against the big bad for the first time), but I kept the character arcs realistic and with characters slowly coming to terms with various issues that they face. The romance in particular is a slow burn, and the MC and his love interest have basically only just got together.

Rodimus13 2019-10-03 23:48:42 UTC #7

What started as a fan fiction somehow... grew to over 250 pages in a online doc that myself and my co creators Rach and Rose have kinda had explode and started putting on tapas and editing.

Mary-Evans 2019-10-04 00:07:26 UTC #8

My novel starts pretty slow too. I like taking my time setting up things, though I wonder if it's not too slow.

Maps 2019-10-04 00:44:26 UTC #9

Chapter 94 and only halfway through...

tmunnerlyn 2019-10-05 02:47:40 UTC #10

I'm at 260k words and I'm almost done. It's been a long four years. I've gained a fanbase, lost a fanbase and repeated this a few times as I needed personal space but wasn't posting.

Every Taraskan soldier has the same secret dream: to die and never wake up to the hell that is war. Raiden’s country is not an elite fighting force. As broken as they are, they limp along and salvage what they can. Their best advancements are what they learn from the few allies they can get. As the world around them is engulfed by a darkness known as the Og Nag, Taraska is one of the last cities and therefore must do the unthinkable: be bait.
Raiden is the King’s right hand in the worst way possible by having his intellect and natural fighting skill be used to destroy both their enemies and himself. When it seems Raiden’s wish has finally come true, they wake up to a new kind of hell of watching the same destruction all over again in a country that has never even imagined the agony Taraska was born into.
With a new chance at destruction, comes a new chance for change however. There is a time to fight and a time to talk. Will Raiden finally get his people to break free from King Hurrand’s plagueful greed, or will they be just another story told to children? AS if things weren't bad enough, the Og Nag here are also acting strange, as if being directed by an unseen force.
There is one last battle Raiden must fight in and that's to break away from the endless cycle of abuse. A battle that cannot be fought with a weapon against a creature that never gets tired. It is the one fight Raiden must win before he can save anyone, even himself.

Other tags:
-Complex romantic relationships between two broken individuals
-Psychological thriller problem solving
-Interspecies romance and how real humans would react to it
-Complex characters and villains
-Sinister and ingenius villains
-Vast backstory and worldbuilding
-Detailed infantry tactics and fightscenes
-Enjoyable comedic scenes
-Intense war scenarios
-heartbreaking depictions of torture
-occasional DBZ-like magic combat

hannahlaine 2019-10-21 22:22:09 UTC #11

Lady Death

Strong Female Main Character, Love, Adventure, Fantasy, Action, and Immortal Fae Warriors

taylorlauren 2019-10-22 04:31:16 UTC #12

I definitely feel you! Mine's pretty darn long haul and I can't wait for it to get further into the story. I'm loving it so far and I hope my readers are too c:

ratscout 2019-10-22 05:40:40 UTC #13

Haha, mine is definitely this way. 100-something episodes in and I've barely scratched the surface. XD

xeu 2019-10-22 06:10:18 UTC #14

Yep, mine is definitely a long-haul novel.

WriterLinXiaolong 2019-10-22 10:04:56 UTC #15

This one is definitely a long one... the outlines were estimated to be a minimum of at least 800k words.

Meanwhile, this one's rough draft was about 200k words, in wattpad, a third through the story is already 160k words while here in tapas, 20 chapters is barely the start of the story XD