Scheduled Uploading/Long Chapters

[EEdwing]

As a writer I LOVE writing and even reading long winding stories, however after writing on Tapas I realize not all do. I've had to separate my chapters into two parts at one point. Constantly hitting the word limit.

For scheduled uploading, I upload three times a week, I realized after every week people tend to subscribe to my story on weekends. I plan on writing almost 50 or so chapters, and spend those scheduled chapter upload buffer times to write my next story. I've seen a lot of people get discouraged, or even post all of their work in one go.

DON'T POST EVERYTHING IN ONE DAY!!!! I know you guys get trigger happy pressing that submit/publish button but think about your future self. I can't tell you how many times I've read a story and this is not including those with mental problems or problems in real life, that have stated how they couldn't handle the constant uploads. THAT USED TO BE ME! And I've learnt from it, if you come from Wattpad like I have, you tend to write HUMONGOUS chapters that can last for days. Don't be shy to spread out your uploads, and just keep writing from there on.

[Maps]

Lol I dumped like 30 chapters when I first joined tapas. Then I had to post weekly BECAUSE I DIDN’T EVEN GIVE MYSELF A BUFFER AND HAD TO WRITE CHAPTERS. In a way, it helped me learn posting once a week was a good idea.

I’m on hiatus, but I’m planning to get a 10 or so Chapter start before I pull out of it again

Who knew I could be so young and naive only 2 years ago...

[paracosmosfiction]

You seem like you've got a good handle on scheduling uploads, so let me ask you a question. Say hypothetically you have an entire novel already written and ready to go and you're literally just editing and posting as you go. Is there anything wrong with scheduling your posts out to where you have one a day?

I'm not under any pressure to write, because my story is already written. Would it be alright for me to space it out that way. Or do you suggest something else?

[EEdwing]

For me, I plan on making it so that I have enough loyal readers/subscribers to space it out to once a week. Can't have them leaving right away. Maybe even give them a heads up, or if you're feeling daring just go ahead with that idea.

I've been looking around the fresh novels etc. wondering why most of their readers end up going from 1k to 20 or so, and most of it stems from sudden update changes. If they're used to a certain thing, they'll be more resistant to change.

If it were me and I didn't tell them about my plans, I would go from three chapter updates a week, to two, and then go to one. To get them used to the changes, and so on and so forth.

If they truly like your story, theres no need to worry about chapter updates. It means they enjoy it enough to wait, but you should also consider the length of your stories. If the amount you've written isn't enough for the wait, I suggest you upload at least two chapters.

[paracosmosfiction]

Ah wonderful! That brings me to a new question then. How little is too little? Because my episode lengths are a little all over the place. I have episodes that are roughly a thousand words of dialogue between two characters spanning about three pages total. Then I have the big giant action sequences that are so long I have to split them in half just to meet the character count limit.

[EEdwing]

I am the type to write till the character limit, and I'm training my readers to enjoy that the same way I do For action sequences, I think it's fine to split that in half and update it in separate parts, after all the thrill of the action scene, and the immersion it gives the reader might break if you suddenly post the second half the next week.

On a more serious note, If it's dialogue between two characters I think you should break it on parts where it leaves the reader on a cliff-hanger.

I know people are more inclined towards 1.1-1.2k word episodes, I've had parts that I've split in half where one reaches the word limit while the other is about 1.1k words and that part has more views.

In the end, you should worry about cliff hangers, and decided which part is more important to stop on.

[WriterLinXiaolong]

There is actually a way to put your whole chapters up in tapas without splitting them. It is a workaround, but it helps when I put in extras that aren't related to the story and I want it to be in one single episode.

Above is the character count for this episode:

Spoiler due to mature content

https://tapas.io/episode/1964688

I think workaround only works on chrome since you'll be editing the elements of the page with HTML code.

[EEdwing]

Goodness, I've never known about that, but at the same time I find it alright to split chapters up in case readers are unable to finish or get a head-ache from reading, after all they're more accustomed to bite-sized stories. And it gives the author a chance to be chosen by tapas to be featured on their main page if they're lucky.

[paracosmosfiction]

Agreed. I'd rather split it up and give them something to look forward to then overload them all at once. My action sequences can get a little bit lengthy.

[WriterLinXiaolong]

For webnovels, it is indeed better to have shorter chapters. 1-1.5k seems good, 2k-3k is alright but 4k+ would be pushing it. Unless it's cough scenes that are making people very 'invested'.

[EEdwing]

That's true, in the end I've been trained by webnovels/lightnovels/Wattpad novels, and have read up to about thousands of chapters at one point in my life from the same story, with extremely long writing. People can read anything, just update regularly, and we're all fine.

[SilverLugia456]

After coming to understand what the limits on Tapas is for chapters, I have been able to pace myself to be able to have good cut off points between my chapters. If I have this big idea that will go from one chapter to another then I would label the chapters title (part 1), title (part 2), ect sort of like episode for a show. I have a few of those planned in the future but I haven't added anything like that right now.

I'm still trying to get on a weekly schedule, since right now my writing isn't as constant as I would like it I'm trying to post one chapter a week, however I'm posting on different days each week.

[rajillustration]

I also think that, considering most people are reading on their phones as they're taking a break, those chapters which seem reasonable at 10,000K words are freakin tomes on a cell phone. I fully admit going as low as 400-500 words on updates and chapters that are around 8 or 9 updates long. Dunno if that's the best thing, but I'm trying it out to see how it goes.

[therosesword]

I upload and schedule a chapter a day. With one of my novels that was 61 days, a chapter a day.

However, I would always go in the night before and do yet another proof read or a tiny tweak. No matter how many times you edit and proof and your beta readers do their thing, you can always find something.

I won't post anything unless it's done.

[SleepsorMaddi]

I totally agree. It's different on Tapas with the word limit, but smaller chapters are sometimes even better to create the feeling of something long lasting!!