I just wanted to know what other people prefer when reading a fanfiction story. I prefer mid length chapters lets say 4,000-5,000 words because i can stay focused and i don't read so much that it takes me forever to finish the chapter and by the end i may have to re-read the beginning to understand it. Short chapters that are like 400 words irritate me because usually they are 1. Terrible pre-school style writing and/or random no plot,2.The author updates 13 times in the space of 2 minutes, or 3. they may have really good writing yet they are updated far and few between and the author will probably forget he wrote the story before he gets 50,000 words or even 10,000.


Anyway i just wanted to have a poll.

 

If you can steadily produce 5K per week or more, then posting medium-sized weekly chapters is the right thing to do.

On the other hand, if you CAN'T keep up the update rate, then I'd rather read a gigantic chapter every once in a while. When there's a long pause between updates, I fall out of the rhythm. Meaning that before each new chapter, I need to go over the last few thousand words and bring myself back into the plot flow. And I honestly don't feel like doing that unless there's a hefty payback for my effort.

Of course, the fact that I lately tend to write average 30K per chapter might have something to do with this attitude.

 

It's more about overall fic size to me...a story with many short chapters is just as good as one with one huge one.

What's even more important of course is quality: if I don't like the story then it doesn't matter what type of chapters it has.

When it comes down to it, I prefer big chapters though, because with lots of short chapters that are updated regularly, you only get a small bite of the plot a day, and are not very immersed in the plot, whereas with long chapters that are only rarely updated, when you are reading you are fully immersed in the story due to the continuity.

 

............. i am not critizing but as an example the story Queens of Darknees Ladies of light is one of my favorite storys. But it comes out with epic chapter that ,while good that you can read it very long, The story isn't updated often so you sort of forget about it till the update which by then you forgot the plot and need to re-read 100,000+words before you even read the epic chapter. Again no offense to Thalarion.

 

Epic chapters ftw. I love getting immersed into a story, and not being left high and dry when it just...ends. A 10,000 word chapter is the perfect length for me, I get into the chapter by 2000 words, and by 8000 words, I'm ready for the end to come.

Not that the chapter has bored me and I want it to end, it's that I've fulfilled my quota of excitement from the chapter, and the end won't be a disappointment to me.

 

You don't need to reread the entire chapter; just browse through it, get yourself reacquainted with the plot. But after you do that, there'll be new 10-20K of plot to go over, so I think the short overview is worth the effort.

Imagine if Thalarion posted his third chapter two weeks ago, but it was only 5K long. You'd STILL have to go over the last chapter and refresh your memory, but you'd only get 5K worth of payoff.

That's why I'm usually not very enthusiastic about following the stories that are updated in less then 10,000 words big steps, with more then 2-3 weeks between them.

 

yes that's true but it comes to a point where i can't read a chapter past lets say 8k words because it becomes too tiring and i like the feeling of cliffhangers but if you write to much and updates are rare then cliffhanger get less exiting and more annoying or forgotten with each day. Plus if the chapters so big like 10k+ words i might even forget the beginning of that chapter itself or not understand it, So instead of progressilvy reading for enjoyment it becomes confusing and you only get and enjoy the chapter after you have finish reading and reviewing it.

 

I'm comfortable with 6-9000 word chapters for my two current stories. The story I just started I'm shooting for around 4000 in each chapter. It really falls to your comfort level.

I like a decent read so really short chapters don't do it for me.

Jim

 

I prefer mid-length chapters. Short chapter and annoying since they fail to provide much substance and you really don't get into the story. Epic chapters are a lot more satisfying and the only problem that I have with them is that its sometimes hard to read them at one sitting. I hate having to find my place in a 50k long chapter after I have to close the file. The long gap between updates is another problem.

 

I really don't mind about the lengh of chapters. As long as the content of the story is good, the fic is well written, and it has some semblance of a plot I'm more than happy to read it. I've found that nowadays my chapters tend to come out at around five-thousand words. I used to write up to ten-thousand but since I decided to try and cut out the useless filler I found that my chapters decreased in size a lot.

Overall, I'd say content is better than size.

 

It completely depends on the fic and style for me. If it's going to be a lot of time between updates, then a decent length chapter is nice. Waiting a long arse time for only a 2 or 3 thousand word chapter is more frustrating than waiting twice as long for a chapter twice as long.

But basically, like most, I just want the story completely finished as soon as possible. If it's 500 words a day for sixty days, or 30,000 word chapters every two months makes little difference.

And in finished fics, the point is moot. Unfinished WIP fics are the devil's tools!

 

I love huge chapters, like Thals epic ones. Because of that, he rocks. But I've heard some people are annoyed about it, and thats what I dont' get.

Your mad the author put all that effort in to make a good story? Or that you got more than you asked for?

If large chapter lenghts bother you, then just divide them in wordpad or something, its not hard.


But I detest tiny chapters with all my being, even if they're the awsomeness it pisses me off.

If you want to start a story, then put more time and effort into it. I'd rather wait a few weeks then get tiny chapters every day. It bugs the hell out of me to have turn 60+ chapters for just over 20k.

 

I prefer shorter (mid -length) chapters because I tend to end up closing a fic very often (due to being quite busy) which makes it slightly annoying to have to find my exact place again.

 

My preference is for 10-15 thousand words, less than that if its very frequent updates, but more than that I don't particularly like. For instance, A Brave New World. Its chapters avarage out at about what...24-25K? Thats the length of a childrens book. And when I go to a fic like that, and see its been updated, and look at the scrolling bar, to get a rough idea of how long it is, and see its that length, I get annoyed, because I want to know what happens, but I would much rather read it in increments, split the chapters into two or even 3, and post every couple of days.

 

I gotta throw out an apology about my update problem. Real life issues destroyed my writing ability for a while and when I went back with my beta and reread a lot of it, I cringed. So it's undergoing a fairly decent rewrite.

Personally, I enjoy mid level to epic chapters. The update rate doesn't bother me so long as the author at least gives some inkling that he's still working on it or why he's hit a snag. When I see something such as that I usually try and extend a hand of help, because most every author knows what it's like to be in that position. What nabs me is when an author falls off the face of the planet with no echo of what happened to them.

Short chapters don't bother me at all either. So long as the author progress' the story in some pointed way, then I can't complain. But throwing out a ton of 4-5k filler chapters are personally a waste of time to read and can sometimes irk readers to the point of leaving a story. In that regard, I sometimes think it would be more beenficial for some authors to just clump up those types of chapters, and release a larger one.

A perfect example is one of my favorite authors, Strike Fiss. He's been writing several stories since '98. His Sailor Moon Omoi story is probably one of the largest, most immersive pieces of fanfiction literature ever created. Sometimes his chapters take a few months to get, sometimes a year or more. But when he updates, he updates damn near 100-150k chapters.

On that topic, I guess I should throw this out there now. The next chapter of Queens has just passed the 34k mark. Its redo is almost complete. I can't express how sorry I am.

 

Well, I prefer reading really long chapters, but if there's too much time in between updates, I'll forget what the story's about and then, what's the point?

However, right now I'm currently reading one that's something like 1000-2000 words a chapter; but, there's 164 chapters. and, he updates about once every other day.

 

Both for reading or writing, I prefer mid size chapters between 3-7K words. IT makes it easy to start a chapter with one plot device and see it through to completion. In a long chapter you either see multiple small plot points or one plot device done to death. If you're seeing many small ones, why not break them up in between for more managable updates?

 

From a readers point-of-view I prefer 5k and upwards, anything shorter is usually not enough of a satisfying read.

Writing-wise I have come up against a sequence or a scene that would lose its impact if more of the story line was incorporated in the same chapter. Also sometimes lengthening the chapter for the sake of length you have to introduce another plot device which may overshadow the one you have already introduced or more often than not the 'length' is mostly padding and doesn't move the plot along. In the above cases I'd rather write a short chapter and get my point across than lengthen the chapter.

My current chapter is getting close to 20K and I am trying to break it down because there are way too many things happening and I'd rather not take away the importance of any one of them.