Why publish chapters?

[Garmonbozia]

Personally, if I didn't release things by chapter people would be waiting until 2018 to read anything I have written. I tend to write fast but slow at the same time - I type fast when I actually have the time to write, but there can often be an entire week where I don't get the chance to sit and write at all, other times I can have two or three multiple hour blocks I can devote.

I also agree with js207 regarding feedback. I have had some really great feedback that has helped me to make my writing a little tighter. If I had completed hundreds of chapters (and yes this is what it looks like my stories will end up being) before realising some small deficiencies I had it would have been a daunting task to go back. I am just dabbling really, so when a recurring problem is pointed out I find it immensely helpful.

A lot of people also read quite slowly. I have had feedback that they really enjoyed chapter two and will try and read chapter three this week. For them, a few chapters at a time is no big deal, it is actually preferred. My chapters do tend to be long though (sometimes longer than complete stories I have seen posted) so that might make up for it - one of my stories is 36 chapters already, clocking in at 400,000 words and is only just starting, yes I tend to write long

I also tend to post in a serial format, a few chapters at a time, so if I hit a patch where I cannot write at all I can still keep the story moving. My blog has a lot more stuff hosted than has currently been posted to the library, and if people want to read ahead a little, they know that they have to wait on my timing. I have no control over the random posting dates at the library so I try and keep my blog chugging along with a new chapter of something each week (though I can't always manage that).

Serialisation used to be the way stories were distributed to the masses and I personally think it's a great idea. After all, how many of us can have the opportunity to sit down and read an entire book in one sitting. I rarely have the time and even tend to read the books I do, a few chapters at a time.

I guess I don't sympathise with your problem lucy, because I haven't read anything posted at the library for quite some time and when I did, I completely avoided stories that were extremely short. I guess I just like the epics.

Hope that has given you a little insight into some other reasons why serialisation is preferred by so many.

[lucy]

Thanks for your answers. I don't have a problem at all with people posting chapters. I was merely curious as to why authors would chose to do that.

[Garmonbozia]

Thanks for your answers. I don't have a problem at all with people posting chapters. I was merely curious as to why authors would chose to do that.

Ah I may have read a little more emotion into what you said than was imparted.

I do agree with you in one respect though. I, too, find it a little difficult to understand the shortness of some chapters/stories that are posted. I can read and enjoy a short story - after all some ideas suit themselves to this style perfectly. To extend them would just be adding filler. But when a complete story takes me 10 minutes to read (and I am by no means a speed reader) then I do feel it to be a little underdone. Chapters that are over in the blink of an eye, and feel more like small codas to a proper chapter, also bewilder me.

I will always post my stories in a serial format, but I will always endeavour to give my readers some bang for their non-existent buck