9962 réponses à ce sujet

[Drussius]

Seriously though, it happens from time to time. I hope that it passes quickly. I'm sure it will. There are a lot of creative people represented in this thread!

[MacNasty]

I just can't concentrate enough to write, so I've been spending a lot of time catching up on shows and reading... So a writing slump for me. I have no trouble reading though

[PrinceMitch]

Just a quick question, how long do people prefer chapter lengths to be? As in to read yourself, or what length you have found most popular amongst your readers.
Also, do people prefer a higher dialogue to text ratio, or the other way around? Thanks.

[Drussius]

I asked this question a couple of months back when I started writing my story, and the majority of people said they prefer 4,000-8,000 words per chapter, with most people falling in the middle. I myself don't care whether I read short or long chapters if the story is good enough to hold my interest. My chapters have been falling between 8300 and 9500 words, until the last one I wrote, which topped out at 10,400 because I just needed to fit certain things in and didn't feel I could lose anything.

As for text vs. dialogue, I think it just has to fit the story. If your story is heavy on action, then dialogue is naturally going to be a little more scarce overall. If your story is heavy on character interaction, then dialogue should be higher.

That said, I am a fan of using dialogue to explore characters, as my readers no doubt noticed. Rather than to say that John trained at a lunar facility to learn basic combat skills, I like to have another character ask about his training later, and work it into the dialogue. But everyone's style is different, and other people do quite well with the opposite method.

[Seracen]

Sweawm wrote...

 Just finished writing the end to my greatest fic so far; ending on chapter 39, and I couldn't decide on just what ending to give a reader, so I plan to give them bothB)

I havn't gone ahead and published yet, but do you think this is a good idea? Both I believe have significant emotional weight in them, but they each have seperate values in terms of closure and climax. 

Should I offer only one? Do you think readers with feel less about the story if I offer them both?
I'm a bit conflicted here 

I am totally a proponent of the multi-ending fic.  My first ME fic was a multi ender for ME3.

My first published online fic involved two endings.  For drama, I just had the standard "bittersweet" ending.  Then for myself, the "perfect" ending showed up in the 2nd epilogue I wrote.

@ PrinceMitch: I tend to space my chapters out to 10 pages or so, less if it makes sense.  However, if a chapter just needs the volume, and loses something in the splitting, then by all means, take all the space and time you need.  A good story and progression is superior to any other concern, in my opinion.

Modifié par Seracen, 12 août 2012 - 12:05 .

[Spiritwolf1]

PrinceMitch wrote...

Just a quick question, how long do people prefer chapter lengths to be? As in to read yourself, or what length you have found most popular amongst your readers.
Also, do people prefer a higher dialogue to text ratio, or the other way around? Thanks.

I'll be honest that anything over 4000-5000 usually turns me off, only because reading it on the computer hurts my eyes and there is no way to book mark a spot and come back to it later, so I try to read a whole chapter at once. However in saying that, if the story is good enough I will get through it.

[Icyflare]

It probably depends on the story. I find that I prefer dialogue-heavy stories to text-heavy ones, because I also like to find out more about a character through what they say rather than being told about it.

Anything is 2K-9K is fine for me. I find that my own chapter lengths tend to be from 2-4K, mostly because that's all I can manage under the time limit I give myself. I would love to write more, but I find that I get exhausted rather easily when typing. Also, distracted easily. Conversely, it's amazing how much you can write when your internet craps out on you ):

[lillitheris]

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

because reading it on the computer hurts my eyes and there is no way to book mark a spot and come back to it later,

You should use Readability, Instapaper, or something similar. They save the spot you are in. And then there are those fanfic-specific readers that I never remember.

[lillitheris]

Icyflare wrote...

Does anyone else feels like there's another reading slump or is it just me?

Seems to have picked back up last week. Saturday isn’t a good day to publish, though, evidently.

Modifié par lillitheris, 12 août 2012 - 05:45 .

[fluffywalrus]

lillitheris wrote...

Icyflare wrote...

Does anyone else feels like there's another reading slump or is it just me?

Seems to have picked back up last week. Saturday isn’t a good day to publish, though, evidently.

Weekends tend to be very slow.
I figure people would rather spend weekends doing things other than reading fanfiction, whereas during the week, it's a good source of entertainment. Perhaps even doable at work.

[PrinceMitch]

Thanks guys, seems my first chapter could be more of a prologue. It was just under 2000 words as I wasn't sure how much to write, but I'll try and do a good chunk more in future chapters.

[fluffywalrus]

PrinceMitch wrote...

Thanks guys, seems my first chapter could be more of a prologue. It was just under 2000 words as I wasn't sure how much to write, but I'll try and do a good chunk more in future chapters.

Honestly, just write until you feel comfortable ending the chapter. Don't worry too much about getting X amount of words in. Just make sure the chapter does what it's supposed to do, and you'll be fine.

[Sweawm]

[quote]Drussius wrote...

For example, if I had published the first chapters of my story as I wrote them, you could basically take out all of the "Above Terra Nova, Now..." sections and just read the "Four weeks earlier..." stuff, [quote]


Here's some advice when it comes to setting scenes without actually taking up a pospective. I tend to use date stamps like in the Halo Novels, which state time, and then place with the beginning of each chapter or change in pospective. Sort of like this:

0700 Hours, March 21st, 2178 (Systems Alliance Standard Miltary Time)
Kirothi Ward, Citadel, Serphent Nebula

It's more formal that the cliche 'so many weeks ago', 'meanwhile', or 'so and so location'. I also got inspired by the Halo novels to do the time stamp in an alien format when entering a non-human character, just to show the change.

3rd Cycle, 21st Sun, Hevkik Season, 2nd Imperial Era
Timerius Palace, Alpherius Prime

It's a quite useful trick. 

Modifié par Sweawm, 12 août 2012 - 09:54 .

[Spiritwolf1]

It's been said here many times that it's better to come late and leave early to a chapter or even a story. Don't pull it along simply cause you think it's not long enough. If it feels like it should end then it probably should

[Spiritwolf1]

lillitheris wrote...

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

because reading it on the computer hurts my eyes and there is no way to book mark a spot and come back to it later,

You should use Readability, Instapaper, or something similar. They save the spot you are in. And then there are those fanfic-specific readers that I never remember.

Thanks Lilli didnt know I could do that, just downloaded a bunch to my kobo and its much easier to read

[lillitheris]

Sweawm wrote...

0700 Hours, March 21st, 2178 (Systems Alliance Standard Miltary Time)
Kirothi Ward, Citadel, Serphent Nebula

Nice, except that there is no Kirothi Ward
(The Wards are Tayseri, Bachjret, Shalta, Kithoi, and Zakera.)

[hot_heart]

I'm guessing they got a bit confused with Kithoi.

Plus, it appears ME3 turned Shalta into Aroch. Though I stuck with Shalta in mine.

In other news, I think I may have gotten my groove back. Just skipped over one section for now, which I will revisit later and expand upon. Don't think this chapter will be too great but it needs writing.

Modifié par hot_heart, 12 août 2012 - 02:06 .

[lillitheris]

^ BioWare’s not great at keeping their ducks in a row.

[Drussius]

Sweawm wrote...

Drussius wrote...

For example, if I had published the first chapters of my story as I wrote them, you could basically take out all of the "Above Terra Nova, Now..." sections and just read the "Four weeks earlier..." stuff,

Here's some advice when it comes to setting scenes without actually taking up a pospective. I tend to use date stamps like in the Halo Novels, which state time, and then place with the beginning of each chapter or change in pospective. Sort of like this:

0700 Hours, March 21st, 2178 (Systems Alliance Standard Miltary Time)
Kirothi Ward, Citadel, Serphent Nebula

It's more formal that the cliche 'so many weeks ago', 'meanwhile', or 'so and so location'. I also got inspired by the Halo novels to do the time stamp in an alien format when entering a non-human character, just to show the change.

3rd Cycle, 21st Sun, Hevkik Season, 2nd Imperial Era
Timerius Palace, Alpherius Prime

It's a quite useful trick. 

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think it works fine as it is, since I have two parallel timelines slowly converging together, and it's more obvious to the reader that this is so when I'm going with "now" and "four weeks earlier" than it would be if I was going with "April 24th, 2176" and "March 29th, 2176". I don't know much about other readers, but I tend to skim past dates without paying that much attention.

Plus, I set it up the way I did on purpose. Started out with "now..." and "four weeks earlier" and the gap is slowly closing toward just "now."

The purpose of my post was just pointing out that the reason it was good that I held chapters back was because IF I had published it the way it was originally written, before I added the dual timeline structure, all of the "four weeks earlier" stufff would have been published together without any of the "now" inclusions, and in that incarnation, the story started off much, much slower. I was midway through Chapter 3 before I decided on the current structure and did a lot of rearranging and rewriting, and had I been publishing per chapter, I wouldn't have been able to make such a drastic change to the story.

Was just a look at my writing process and why I am so adamant on holding chapters back when publishing, as I make major changes to the beginning of my stories quite frequently before settling on something I like. And why I admire people who are put together enough not to have to hold back like I do...

[Drussius]

And on a completely random and separate note, I just feel compelled to say again that while the "visitors" number on FF.net is an irritant to me since I can't seem to stop checking it, I absolutely love the breakdown by location. For some reason it tickles me that I can see that people all over the world have at least stopped by my story. I've had readers from South Africa, Uruguay, Malaysia, and the Russian Federation at least stop by my story once, and more hits in the US, Canada, United Nations, Singapore and France than anywhere.

I have no idea why it makes me smile so much to see the breakdown by country, but it does.

[lillitheris]

Hm, now I’m wondering if my salarian patois turned out well. Someone apparently missed it and mentioned that I wasn’t using a complete sentence

[Drussius]

I don't know, but I'll be happy to give my thoughts when I get back to reading. I've just been hesitant to break my stride while I'm writing at such a fast pace, and as a result all my reading is falling behind...

[lillitheris]

Drussius wrote...

And why I admire people who are put together enough not to have to hold back like I do...

…Yeah, no. I can assure you, there’s nothing put-together about it for me. Or, really, me in general.

I just seem to be incapable of doing it your way. I’d love to get ahead, but I’m quite unconvinced I’d manage to make any use out of it. Or, in fact, maintain it. Then I’d just be sad.

On the upside, it’s flowed alright thus far with only a rough idea of an outline. (But that’s more accident than skill.)

Modifié par lillitheris, 12 août 2012 - 08:44 .

[hot_heart]

lillitheris wrote...

Hm, now I’m wondering if my salarian patois turned out well. Someone apparently missed it and mentioned that I
wasn’t using a complete sentence

Is it because you have Kirrahe talking like Mordin?

Modifié par hot_heart, 12 août 2012 - 08:34 .

[lillitheris]

hot_heart wrote...

Is it because you have Kirrahe talking like Mordin?

Not quite like Mordin. He prunes unnecessary words, but far less than our favorite scientist. Perhaps that’s the problem.