What is your max chapter limit?

How many chapters?

  • <200

    Votes: 16 42.1%
  • 200~500

    Votes: 6 15.8%
  • 500~1000

    Votes: 4 10.5%
  • >1000

    Votes: 12 31.6%

  • Total voters
    38

Jemini

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Paradoxically enough, as I consider all the different stories I have read, it actually is large changes to the formula of your story that help to maintain your through-line. As paradoxical as that sounds, it's completely true.

I think this might be because when you change up the formula, you need to pay even more attention to that 1 element of your through-line which is the 1 thing that remains the same from one phase of the story to the next.

Make it an engaging and relatable through-line, and you can keep the story going for hundreds and hundreds of chapters while still having an engaging story. Loose that through-line, and your story falls flat. Stay too long on one theme, the story will grow stale. Even if you keep your through-line in such a stale 1-note story, you are not forcing the through-line to apply any real work or make itself known if the story doesn't stress it enough by changing up the formula. So, you will also loose it that way by way of it just fading into obscurity like an atrophying unused muscle.
 

TotallyHuman

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If the story is thought through by the author, the plot ready from beginning to end, then I can stomach even very long novels.
If not, then as long as it's in small doses and the story itself is passable, I can go up to probably a lot of chapters still.
Otherwise I'll just feel that it's not worth reading and be done.
 

Lorelliad

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I can name a novel that has kept me interested, to the point that I actually wait for the chapters every week. It has over 600 chapters, too.

As long as it can keep the readers interested, then all is good.
 
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More like, every male and female MC of every single one of his works was literally just the same person in different incarnations.
he gets validation from thousands of people so I doubt he's gonna change any time soon. it's just a bit odd to try self-insert yourself as the MC this many times. by now I have a clear picture of him in my head. I can almost guarantee he's been cucked at least once
 

Discount_Blade

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he gets validation from thousands of people so I doubt he's gonna change any time soon. it's just a bit odd to try self-insert yourself as the MC this many times. by now I have a clear picture of him in my head. I can almost guarantee he's been cucked at least once
Sadly, I concur.
 

vaurwyn

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I don't think there is a hard limit, and it depends heavily on the novel.
One of my favorite light novels is Super Gene, which is ~3500 chapters long. I would also gladly binge read some 1000+ chapter novels I consider great, like Carefree Path of Dreams, Lord of mysteries, A World of Cultivation or Mystical Journey. At the end of these books, I would always feel chagrined that they were not longer.
That would put me firmly in the >1000 chapters category, but that is not always the case. There are many more books that I found tedious before the 200 chapters mark.

I think that as long as the Author strikes the perfect balance of change and consistency, I could read a book forever.
There needs to be a certain consistency, and as some other commenters have said, an element that ties all of the different elements in the novel together.
In light novels this is almost always the MC. He can have dozens of very different adventures, with nothing that ties them together, because we are about him, and not so much about the plot. In published novels, it is instead the plot. They get to more deeply develop multiple characters, and have a lot more chapters where the MC is not present, or even mentioned, because those stories are held together by the plot.

A novel needs a consistent through-line, something that gives all of the laborious progress during its meaning. However, it also needs an element of change and growth. I can only enjoy the MC doing the same thing over and over again so many times. Of course, this means there is a soft cap to the number of chapters you can have, because it gets progressively harder to bring something new to the story, but it is not a hard limit.

In light novels, one of my favorite ways to maintain that balance is to have multiple realms. Actually, except for Lord of mysteries, all of the novels I have cited have multiple realms. The MC travels different worlds, and each world is very different from each other, often with an entire new magic system to explore. It becomes more like reading a sequel than the continuation of the same book. We keep the main character personality, and maybe one or two constant elements, but everything is a reboot. Often even the MC's power is lost, and we get to see him use his increasingly large experience and knowledge to climb his way back up the food chain, reaching unprecedented heights.

In conclusion, I would say the max number of chapters I can stomach is dependent on the quality of the story. It might also be dependent on the style and atmosphere. It is easier to read 100 chapters of dumb comedy that to read the same amount of tragedy.
 

Discount_Blade

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Reminds me, my 2 favorite webnovels, both of them by the same author named Misty South, are over 1,000 chapters. I guess both would be Xuanhuan since they both have a western-style vibe to them.
 

SailusGebel

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I have no qualms reading a 2000 chapters long novel. But, I usually drop a lot of the said novels after reading a hundred or so chapters.
 

AryaX

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While I tend to lose at least some interest in most novels sooner or later... I don't think there is any such length limit...

Its good so long as its good... Even if it goes on for 100 000 chapters...

But... Individual chapters can certainly be too damn long...

Although the opposite is far more common...
 

Bartun

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I would rather read a story with a good ending than a story that never ends. I'm currently writing my own story and I have anticipated it would end around chapters 25-30, although my chapters are kinda long, around +5000 words each. Still, I don't want to drag it for too long.
 

whitesculptor

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I can't help it, I switch off my brain all the time. Maybe that is why I can enjoy shitty xianxia works and giggle to baby talks.

I miss the good old dumb days. Not even rereading Dawn of the Silver Dragon (fuck the fucking stupid ending fuck fuck FUCK!) can make me happy anymore. At least the new kid Asakai Mocchinu is trying.

Ps. Who the fuck is voting more than 1000????
me, I believe good works can go infinite chapters!
 

T.K._Paradox

Was Divided By Zero: Looking for Glovebox Jesus
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This is one of the main reasons I decide my story to naturally be slower steadied paced, it feels like web novel authors get wonky with pacing in the really long stories and it can make readers feel uncomfortable during later chapters with how fast or slow things seem to progress.

When it suddenly becomes super slow it feels like the author no longer knows what they want to write and on the other hand stories that suddenly become really fast paced in later chapters can make it feel like the author is trying to rush things by.
 

ConansWitchBaby

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I dropped Shirtaloon's at around ch.73. It seemed a bit obvious what was going to happen when someone of a higher position didn't drop kick him across the river after one of his rants. Mind it was a guy with anger issues so how and why he didn't punt him is beyond me.

The only novel I've read that goes near 1000 chapters has several filler chapters that at times annoy and amuse me. Annoy because it rehashes a concept that has already been done. Amuse because it opens up the world building in a way that writing as a normal chapter wouldn't be possible. So I'll stick with below 1000 for now.
 

Paul_Tromba

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Not gonna lie. My main story is only halfway finished and even on the first draft, it's over 1200 pages. I just want to get to that perfect ending where there are no loose ends. Sadly, It's taking a good while so I'm taking a break to work on the next draft and hopefully self-publish the first installment.
 

AliceShiki

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For a single story, I usually don't touch anything with 500+ chapters, and I absolutely avoid anything with 1000+ chapters.

For a single arc though? I think you shouldn't be taking more than 50ish chapters in a single arc. Like... If we assume 2000 words/chapter, that's 100,000 words for a single arc... It's basically a whole volume of a published novel. You really should be able to wrap up an arc in this much.
 

Gryphon

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I can read alot and I can write a lot. I read 200 chapters of One Piece in a day if that gives you an example of my reading speed. I can also write a lot. My current story I'm aiming for nearly 300 chapters, maybe more. I got two stories in my head that can last for around 1000 chapters as well. That may just be me or not.
 
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