Should I finish my novel before posting or write while posting

[Cass_bored]

Ive been writing my first full novel to post and was just curious what people recommend on this whether to finish the volume or just get a back log of say 20 chapters and start to post, thanks so much :3

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

There's no right answer. Depends on how often you plan to post episodes, how long it takes to make a new episode, whether you worry about being off-line due to work, vacations, illness, etc. The more finished episodes, the "safer" you are but you delay the gratification of getting the story out there. I've done posting while writing & also finishing before posting. Posting while writing does tend to put a hotter fire under you to keep working.

[jwabeasley]

I do a comic - I waited until I had a year's worth of updates before I started posting. That way you can get the discipline of creating regularly without worrying about views or advertising or anything else.

I think if I was doing a novel instead of a comic, I would finish it before posting, because I would almost certainly want to make some changes to the beginning in the light of my ending.

[kyupol]

Make at least 5 chapters buffer zone then do a weekly update schedule

[Cass_bored]

would you have any tips for how often to post episodes? i've been writing a draft oof one a day and planned a good bit ahead thanks so much

[tiff524]

I always type into an MS Word file. That way grammar and spelling is checked by the program. That helps a lot. Plus, I have a back-up in case the platform closes or doesn't save right. You want to keep a copy of everything you write. That's very important. And back up the copy. It saves you from a laptop crash.

My current serial novel was written on two other platforms, Vella and Radish Fiction. All of the episodes were written in Word and then cut and pasted. I basically have different editions now. Each one improves the next. But I have copies of each one. You can even back-up a copy by emailing it to yourself. I've seen so many stories of authors being upset when their laptop crashes and they lose all their writing. So, important to do back-ups of your laptop too.

As far as posting, on Vella, I had the whole manuscript done as a draft. I had an editor look it over, and as I did the rewrites, I posted them as an episode. I didn't get to finish before Vella closed beginning of this year. I was about 3/4 of the way through. SO, when I switched to Radish Fiction, I could polish the episodes up to where I left off on Vella. Then, for the last 1/4 of the book, I did the rewrites from the editor to finish the novel. While I was doing the rewrites on Vella too, I worked with an serial editor per episode as well, which is why it was taking longer. But Vella just didn't last long enough to finish my Kpop romance.

For reference, here it is. Since it's done, I'm releasing daily eps in November. December will have eps 3 times a week. I'm adding at least one extra episode, maybe another, to this Tapas edition. I have ideas for a sequel with maybe other band members. Hoping to get support here to continue on. It has been over an eight year journey so far.

Read Love Over Kpop | Tapas Web Community

Good luck with your writing!