Break up stories into shorter bites?

scintilla

scintilla

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I posted a short story for review, and I don't have any readers. I'm not complaining or soliciting, just wondering about your experience.

Is it better to post longer works in pieces? What seems to be the optimal length for getting reviews? Does it hurt you to not post all at once, or is that better/less intimidating?

Scintilla 🎇
 
I just checked it out and yeah, almost 10K is a lot. The sweet spot is around 2-3K. Anything more than that and members will be unlikely to read it. I can delete it if you like and you can repost an excerpt? Let me know.
 
Homer Potvin said:
I just checked it out and yeah, almost 10K is a lot. The sweet spot is around 2-3K. Anything more than that and members will be unlikely to read it. I can delete it if you like and you can repost an excerpt? Let me know.
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Do it. I'll break it up into parts, maybe it'll be easier to digest
 
There was a response, so I locked it instead. Feel free to repost in a new thread at your leisure.
 
I personally do not mind long stories posted. If they interest me and draw me in, I will read and critique. But time is also a factor. Thinking about a long text and all of its components in one go is more difficult than a shorter text, and takes more time, something not everyone has an abundant amount of.

I may also post a long story in the future, maybe.
 
You may have better luck asking for a beta reader for longer works. In my experience, the shorter stories usually get the most crituqes.
 
I'm facing a similar dilemma. (Figured I'd just piggyback off of this thread instead of posting a new one on the same subject.)

I've got a piece that I'm looking for some feedback on, but it's a good 6300 words. I could post the whole thing, knowing full-well that I will likely not get any critiques, and if I do they're probably just going to read the first 2K words and review just that.
Overall I'm fine with that; sure I want critiques of the whole thing, but I have accepted the reality of this.

So then I thought, what if I split it into two parts, and post two 3K selections? (No good stopping points for three selections.)
But I'm not really sure how well that would go over on this site. I've been coming by for a long time (counting the old site) but I've never been a "regular." Would that really work out well? How many people would skip the second part? How many people would read the second part without reading the first?
And how does this really work out in this community, considering the rule that people must offer a critique for their posts? It feels like I'm fudging the economics of the site by making two posts for just one story.

Has anyone else here tried breaking up a story into multiple parts? Have you found any sort of "best practices" for such a move?
 
Marscaleb said:
I'm facing a similar dilemma. (Figured I'd just piggyback off of this thread instead of posting a new one on the same subject.)

I've got a piece that I'm looking for some feedback on, but it's a good 6300 words. I could post the whole thing, knowing full-well that I will likely not get any critiques, and if I do they're probably just going to read the first 2K words and review just that.
Overall I'm fine with that; sure I want critiques of the whole thing, but I have accepted the reality of this.

So then I thought, what if I split it into two parts, and post two 3K selections? (No good stopping points for three selections.)
But I'm not really sure how well that would go over on this site. I've been coming by for a long time (counting the old site) but I've never been a "regular." Would that really work out well? How many people would skip the second part? How many people would read the second part without reading the first?
And how does this really work out in this community, considering the rule that people must offer a critique for their posts? It feels like I'm fudging the economics of the site by making two posts for just one story.

Has anyone else here tried breaking up a story into multiple parts? Have you found any sort of "best practices" for such a move?
Click to expand...

I did it for one of my workshop stories. I split it up into two chunks of around 3500 each. The issue was that some people read the first part and not the second, or the second part, and not the first. So it sort of works, and sort of doesn't. On the other hand, I posted a 5300 word story in one part, and I doubt anyone has even opened it.

It kind of depends on what kind of feedback you're looking for. If it's very specific, such as something specific to a part of the story, it's probably better to post that specific part of the story.

On the other hand, getting people who don't continue on to the second part, even if you ask them to, may tell you something as well, that the story didn't necessarily drive people towards reading to the end. It's a matter of judgement if that's a valid takeaway.

Regarding the rule, you get one critique piece "for free", in that, you don't have to post a critique in return for your first story. Any more pieces after that, require you to provide one critique per piece. The most you critique, the more people will be inclined to provide a reciprocal critique, but it's not required that they do so.
 
If you workshop an excerpt then you are probably after an easier kind of critique to provide: Do my words look big in this? How is the dialogue in this section? Is it clear where this is going? Have I set up my character well? Etc.

Workshopping a whole story on the other hand, especially one long enough (say 10k) to have multiple strands, does suggest at wanting a 'full' critique, plot and the lot, how it all ties together. That's a more intimidating prospect.

In actual in person workshops its pretty common to do a chapter per meeting.
 
I might not hurt to canvas the members for beta readers, but be specific. Tell us what you're looking for: overall thoughts, structural, plot, pacing, etc. I don't have any issue reading people's stuff but it's time for me. Most of us are busy and when I get on the forum, I rarely look for people's writings. We've got to figure out a better way to get people beta-readers.
 
Marscaleb said:
I second that. Is there any process in place already?
Click to expand...
I was thinking about this too after the NWT. We have the collaboration forum already, but traffic is non-existent and was at the OG for the most part. Maybe we could rename it to Beta Readers and Collaboration so it's more obvious? It's kind of a necessity is the mother of invention thing. I feel like in a forum full of writers there would be a steady stream of beta-reader requests, but maybe not?

I changed the name and will make an announcement... I'm curious as to what the level of interest is. History suggests there isn't much, but I find that difficult to believe.
 
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