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What's the perfect chapter length?
I think, since this site's unlike watt pad, you don't notice how short your chapters really are. I posted two of my stories up, and was surprised that majority of the chapters were less than a page. So, that sucks. BUT with longer chapters readers don't always expect you to update every single day. Some writers on here take a week to write a long, lengthy chapters, and subscribers become accustomed to it. Longer chapters are better, in my opinion. More to read, and less of a short cliffhanger. It builds the intensity of the story. When i pre write chapters (for example one of my stories (that i post uber long chapters for) take up about ten pages, and five to six thousand words. BUT remember only write within the boundaries you are comfortable with.
@TheKat
I don't think there is one. If you get everything across that you need to in 500 words or 17k words, all that matters is that you're happy with the work you've just produced.
I personally, like short - punchy chapters that leave me going 'WTF DID I JUST READ!' Long chapters are fantastic if they're descriptive and grammatically romantically well written and picturesque for me but when they just go on and on and on and the writers hasn't achieved anything I tend to zone out.
@dontjockmystyles
I was so happy you posted first! I just knew you would haha! Great minds think alike.
Haha! I was scrolling through forum posts, and i was like Oooh...this one. Some people don't even answer, and it could be a serious question unlike other forum posts. It was a must.!
@pippalove @dontjockmystyles
I am just glad that someone answered.
It seems that every site is different though, like on wattpad people literally complain about how long my chapters are while on 1DFF.com people won't read your story if you have less than 2k per chapter.
I think it has to suit the story, I couldn't just write short chapters with mine, but I tend to get into describing things a lot, so a scene is longer than it normally would me.
@TheKat
Nothing at all wrong with that. As I mentioned before, you're the judge of your own work. I've noticed readers around here aren't as picky. All they really want is solid updates which are fairly common and frequent.
@pippalove
Yeah, that's what I am going for. I used to have a pretty solid readerbase but I took my story down to rewrite it and now I am starting over again and it just seems as if it's harder to gain readers.
It takes a bit of time to gain a huge fan base of readers, and followers, but as soon as they read your work, and they like it. They usually stick through the long chapters and updates. Every story has to start off small! So it's just baby steps for now! I've read your work before, and subscribed! No doubt many more will too.
I just wanted to know what length your prefer when writing/reading fanfiction.
I, for one, tend to go for at least 6k, when I write a chapter and I prefer reading long chapters too because that's what I am used to from other fandoms (and 1DFF.com) but I don't know what readers/writers on this side prefer...
3/23/14