Halving Chapters for Word Count

[Queenfisher]

Hi!

The question is -- how do I split the already published chapters for easier reading experience?
(The thread about the reader's preference towards shorter chapters inspired me to ponder this).

Because my average chapter length leans toward long, I looked into the possibility of halving every long chapter that I already published. (Without sacrificing or adding content, of course). I realized that I can do that easily since my old methods of writing chapters have turning points around the middle of the chapter already -- so if I split the chapter in half exactly at those points, that's a free cliffhanger right there, and I don't need to add or change anything. Which is great on its own ^^.

But --

I have no idea how to manage this editorial shift without confusing those readers I already have. If I just split all the long chapters that already exist -- wouldn't it push the chapter numbers forward? (Like, if I split chapter 4 into new chapter 4 and chapter 5, then the previous chapter 5 will now become chapter 6 and so on. And if there are many long chapters that would need splitting, suddenly I'll have a ton of seemingly "new" chapter numbers coming out of nowhere even though the only thing that would have changed is the numbers, not the content or plot progression. Same with calling split chapter 4 -- chapter 4 part 1 and chapter 4 part 2 because that would only add to the overall confusion).

Is there a decent way to do this without it seeming too jarring or frustrating to people?

Has anyone done this before? I understand a lot of people add prologues or interludes or extras in between already-existing chapters and some notes as well, but what about shifting actual story content like this?

Is it better to do it all at once when suddenly I'll have twice the number of chapters? Or is it better to do a little bit (splitting one already existing chapter per day) while warning the readers that it is going to be a gradual shift?

What are your views of writers doing such editorial jobs? If it benefits the story flow and reading experience in the bigger picture, it seems worth doing, but as a reader, I know I don't like feeling confused by non-story-related stuff like editing... so I don't really know how to approach this.

=(

 

[YuriDoggo]

If you post 1 large chapters a day, then I guess just split and post both in a row, and then slowly start splitting them up in upload time.

 

[Goswick]

I mean, what I did when I split my chapters up was I just started splitting the new ones I put out, and left the old ones as they were. I didn't want to change the old ones, because that would have messed with the story - creating unnecessary chapter breaks in the middle of scenes n stuff. I'd say just change the ones from here on out, you don't have to retcon previous chapters if you don't want to.

 

[Queenfisher]

@TypeAxiom,

I meant splitting those that are already published. I don't have a problem with splitting the future chapters -).

What I want to know -- if that's bad behavior on the author's side, and how to make it less confusing to the readers. The book would benefit from shorter beginning chapters since now almost every one of them is 4-5k in length, but once I split them, they will be 2-2,5k each, which is perfect!

I mean, what I did when I split my chapters up was I just started splitting the new ones I put out, and left the old ones as they were. I didn't want to change the old ones, because that would have messed with the story - creating unnecessary chapter breaks in the middle of scenes n stuff. I'd say just change the ones from here on out, you don't have to retcon previous chapters if you don't want to.

But I do want to. I feel like the story will benefit from shorter chapters at the beginning. In general, my chapters are ~4-5k words. That is a LOT, and since they already have natural plot-related split in the middle (that was how I was taught to write before -- to have a turning point in the middle of chapters), it won't really seem arbitrary to split them there.

Though I dunno X_X. I'm very confused. In general, I just don't want it to appear jarring to a reader. You think it will?

 

[TRNRLogan]

@TypeAxiom,

I meant splitting those that are already published. I don't have a problem with splitting the future chapters -).

What I want to know -- if that's bad behavior on the author's side, and how to make it less confusing to the readers. The book would benefit from shorter beginning chapters since now almost every one of them is 4-5k in length, but once I split them, they will be 2-2,5k each, which is perfect!



But I do want to. I feel like the story will benefit from shorter chapters at the beginning. In general, my chapters are ~4-5k words. That is a LOT, and since they already have natural plot-related split in the middle (that was how I was taught to write before -- to have a turning point in the middle of chapters), it won't really seem arbitrary to split them there.

Though I dunno X_X. I'm very confused. In general, I just don't want it to appear jarring to a reader. You think it will?

Then you should just make a post saying you're going to do so and wait a day before doing it. Most of your readers will see the post and therefore won't be confused.

 

[Queenfisher]

@TRNRLogan,

Sorry for the noob question -- Make a post where? In a new update chapter? In author profile? Or in a new chapter that is just a note to the readers?

 

[Amarathia]

agree with Logan. You can either do an 'announcement' chapter (found on editing bar) where you have a single page that explains you're splitting, or click author's notes and add the note at the bottom of a chapter. I would do the later since I don't think splitting the chapters is a big deal to readers you already have. They aren't gonna freak out. Don't do it on author profile since not all your readers are following you.

It's better to just get it done now while your story just started, and could be helpful in getting new readers in the long run.

 

[kira]

You could split by having chapter 1- part 1 chapter 1- part 2 if that makes sense then you don't need to redo chapter # s. And make an announcement to alert your readers to the change as was mentioned above.. ( oh you said you didn't want to do that haha..but I think it makes the most sense )

 

[Darkwood]

The luxury of large word counts. I am happy getting 1k-1.5k words in a chapter. I just find it hard to write more.

 

[Queenfisher]

@Darkwood,

??? Ohhh, I would wish to exchange tips with you then! I would gladly stop writing such intense long-ass word counts! I always had this problem, and before, in my previous writing workshop when I came over with my chapter lengths of 30k words, people were like... "Dude. NO." I was so proud when I finally learned to write 5k words chapters, and then later when they became 4-5k words chapters -)). Now I am slowly adapting to an even shorter length...

In case you need pointers for long chapter lengths, what always made it so hard for me to write shorter was adherence to themes. I am a sucker for thematic storytelling and when a chapter corresponds to a full exploration of a given theme rather than plot or character. That way, I kind of stop only when I feel I have nothing else to add to a discussion that the chapter "promises".

For example, one such 30k chapter from a novel of several years ago was about a revolution in a very tight, gradually constricting city (its walls were literally squeezing narrower and narrower around my characters as they tried to escape to the outside while the city was burning and fights and police violence were erupting everywhere). So I just wrote several fight scenes and several horror-scenes and the plans these characters made on how to escape it all -- and I never stopped writing that "chapter" until the entirety of this whole episode was over.

Later I realized that I can call it an "arc" instead and artificially divide every fight scene into its own small chapter. But it took me a lot of time to learn to separate those. I had no idea about what arcs even were before I started reading manga. So I feel like many people who write longer chapters don't know well what constitutes a good cutting point to a scene or an episode. And we don't want the chapter to feel like a filler, so we write and write and write until it feels truly complete. But by that point, it's a word monster -- not a chapter +_+.

Just to share how frustrating this can be for us, long-chapter-writing people -). Even my posts are long-winded. See? It's a diseeease.

 

[XianPiete]

Write the way you are comfortable writing. If you aren't comfortable writing much smaller chapters, continue to write the way you have been. If you change your style to appeal to potential readers it won't feel right to you. That kills your inspiration to write.

If you really feel like your message just wasn't coming across because of your chapter length, I would say do a rewrite from the beginning. You can take your existing chapters and cut them in half, or you can make a few changes to the shorter chapters so that they feel right for the pace you want to show in your story.

When I first started writing and releasing stories on this site, a few angry authors accused me of releasing chapters below two thousand words in order to cheat and keep my story on the trending page. I polled my readers who asked for longer chapters, so I tried to just start writing longer chapters. I didn't naturally write that way and as a result, I became incredibly unhappy writing. I was so frustrated I ended my popular story and barely had the inspiration to start a new one. I made a few attempts but nothing clicked for me. It took me almost a year before writing longer chapters became comfortable for me and that inspiration to write came back.

 

[Nakakure]

if it past chapter can you just put part 1/2 in the title ?

 

[Discount_Blade]

Idk, personally I write anything from 4k to 8k chapters and NEVER anything lower than 3k. I must be a different kind of writer than most because anything lower than 3k to me is extremely lazy and I'll automatically drop anything with chapters shorter than 2k even if I was enjoying beforehand. 2k to me seems too short, but I've accepted that its something of a norm. But I'm very critical of 2k chapter stories even so and will spend a longer time judging whether to continue them. But longer chapters are always a plus to me.

There are people who complain saying g they like shorter chapters because it's a quick read or something to do while on break or something. I dont sympathize with these people because if that is all the time they can invest in reading, they shouldn't be here reading in the first place and they SHOULD NOT be what you base your reading demographic on. That's just stupid. Extremely so.

 

[Queenfisher]

Thanks for replies, everyone!

@XianPiete,

I guess I'm lucky that I am a pretty flexible writer. I can write 30k chapters like no big deal +_+, and easily scale down to 4k chapters. My short story lengths also ran anywhere from 500 words for flash to full 17k novellas, and I feel pretty comfortable in those lengths. The only one I haven't really tried/succeeded before is 2-4k length, so here, on SH, I feel is my chance to try -). I don't mind changing or adapting to something new -- I view it as a chance to find out where my comfort limits are and what I like/dislike as an author. But -- and this is important -- it's always something that happens on my terms. I would never allow someone else to dictate me how to write. So when I choose to try a new approach to writing, that's exactly what I'll do, whether it ends in failure or not ^^.

Now, in regards to what happened to you -- that is terrible! Did people actually do that? I have met my share of mean critiques, but to blame someone else for how they write would be extremely depressing to me. I totally understand what you went through (I am also prone to writerly depression at times). Did they write to you on your novel or in your profile? Did they talk behind your back? In any case, these are all very cruel behaviors toward fellow writers and doesn't reflect well on whatever they are doing themselves (accusing someone of foul "play" is also a sort of a cheating the system because it attracts attention with something that isn't pure writing, no? That would be quite hypocritical of them to say, then).

 

[Queenfisher]

@Nakakure,

Mmm, I thought about this before of course. And I decided that it would a bit cluttery in the table of contents, no? Plus, it would still have the same issue of making it feel confusing overall, as though they are mini-arcs, which they are not... I dunno, but thanks for suggesting.


@Discount_Blade,

I guess what you say would make sense to many people. But myself, I am pretty flexible. As long as I get to tell my story on my terms (content and theme-wise), I don't care how I break it down into manageable chunks. What matters to me most is the heart of the story and my characters. If I can keep that, nothing else is a big issue to me. I have written full character arcs in 700 words for flash story submissions, so I know that some methods of storytelling work in super-short lengths well enough .

And again, as I said in that other thread about preferred chapter lengths, I myself like chapters that run a bit longer when they are ongoing -- but only because I don't like to get my information by trickle. I want it all at once ^^. But when a story is already completed, then even if the chapters are 500 words -- it doesn't bother me in the slightest. The flow of narrative will work fine because of stacking short chapters on top of one another. I might not even notice there were chapter breaks.

Oh, by the way -- check out "Doctor Zhivago" -- a Nobel Laureate for Literature by B. Pasternak. It has chapters of 500 words sometimes. And they work fine as long as the story keeps its narrative momentum, and that book manages that well enough. A lot of serious, classic literature actually use bizarre chapter sizes, and nobody accuses them of doing something wrong as long as it benefits the story! Which should be the most important rule of all the writing, I believe -).

What it boils down to -- does the story work, regardless of chapter length? Does the story fill someone's heart with positive feelings, or does it manage to say something the author deems important? If it manages that, then it's exactly what the story should be doing.

Though I agree with you in regards to yielding and catering to the wishes of others simply to appease them (and not because you want it yourself). That would look more like being bullied into submission, and it would definitely be toxic. Nobody should do that. That will drain a person's energy and will to write as XianPiete shares above.

But thank you all for giving such kind advice and warning me about this. It's nice that this is such a caring community. Thanks again -).

P.S.

Also, I might just have a bit of a literary M inside me ^^. But I swear I know what I'm doing! I am an M willingly and with open and curious mind regarding it all

 

[binarysoap]

Now, in regards to what happened to you -- that is terrible! Did people actually do that? I have met my share of mean critiques, but to blame someone else for how they write would be extremely depressing to me. I totally understand what you went through (I am also prone to writerly depression at times). Did they write to you on your novel or in your profile? Did they talk behind your back? In any case, these are all very cruel behaviors toward fellow writers and doesn't reflect well on whatever they are doing themselves (accusing someone of foul "play" is also a sort of a cheating the system because it attracts attention with something that isn't pure writing, no? That would be quite hypocritical of them to say, then).

Implemented - Fairer sorting of lists

Currently, the trending lists, tag rankings and series finder—indeed, pretty much everything on this site—are by default sorted by total views. Total views is a pretty meaningless stat, and using it as the primary means to sort series is, to be frank, screwing over a lot of series posted here...

forum.scribblehub.com

To get an unbiased view on what happened, I suggest reading the thread in where it happened yourself.

 

[XianPiete]

Implemented - Fairer sorting of lists

Currently, the trending lists, tag rankings and series finder—indeed, pretty much everything on this site—are by default sorted by total views. Total views is a pretty meaningless stat, and using it as the primary means to sort series is, to be frank, screwing over a lot of series posted here...

forum.scribblehub.com

To get an unbiased view on what happened, I suggest reading the thread in where it happened yourself.

Yeah, that was one of the threads. The constant barrage of negative ratings went on well after I ended the story and it was no longer in the trending section too. I'm sure bringing that thread up again will invite those people into another round of one star and negative reviews on my stories.

 

[AkalE]

Delete the book and start from scratch...

Spoiler

Don't listen to my advice!

 

[Bugi]

Wait... Do you mean, readers here prefers shorter chapters than long ones?
(´⊙ω⊙`)！

 

[binarysoap]

Wait... Do you mean, readers here prefers shorter chapters than long ones?
(´⊙ω⊙`)！

I mean too short also isn't good either.

Preferred Chapter Length

I want to see what the reader’s preferred chapter lengths are and why. Mostly for research to understand the reader base of the SH community.

forum.scribblehub.com

The poll in this forum says most prefer between 1000 and 3000