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Bay

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One thing that's interested me with the answers to that question is that some people aren't keeping their fic all in the same document. If you don't mind me asking, what's the appeal of doing that? Personally, I'd find it quite inconvenient. o.o
I think what's convenient is you'll be able to locate your chapters faster. I know since sometimes it might take me a while to find the chapter I was working (had NE finished, so yeah). XD Another thing is maybe you might want to do a quick edit of a previous chapter and replace that with the already posted chapter.
 

Citrinin

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Ah, OK. These seem like valid reasons. Since I don't have a BETA, don't mind using Ctrl+F, don't submit to FF.Net, and what's posted and what I've written are usually relatively in sync, it works better for me to keep them all in one document. I was just curious. ^^;
 
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I don't have a beta, or use Ctrl+F, or submit to ff.net, but I still keep my chapters as separate documents. It's easier for me to post my chapters wherever I do submit them (like on LiveJournal) because I just hit Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, and there's my chapter in three steps.

See, my chapters (depending on the fandom) are long. Like, for one of my Digimon fics, a chapter is around thirty pages typed. It's easier for me to find a particular scene in thirty pages than it is to find a particular scene in eight-four pages (which is how long said fic is when put all together).

I also just like the way my fic's folder looks when I open it up in Windows Explorer, and see each chapter's document. I like the organized look.

Plus, if I want to write a chapter that's farther ahead in the story than what I already have written, then it's just easier for me to have it in a new document instead of trying to figure out where it will fit in one huge document.

Also, if I need to check something that happened in a previous chapter, I don't have to scroll all the way back up. I just open up the old document, which opens automatically in a new window, and can flip back and forth easily to make sure things match up.

That's why I do things my way. Just easier for me.
 

Giratina ♀

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I keep my chapters in seperate documents on my computer, simply because scrolling through all that text just to find and replace a little error or getting to the bottom of an eighty-pages-plus story is simply less convenient than having to click on something each time you want to access a chapter. Not to mention I do put my stories on FFNet, which is obviously much more difficult to do if you've got a big old document full of fic.
 
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I have dozens of separate text files for single paragraphs, sentences, or even ideas. You have to keep things in their own place for easier reference, since a "mega-document" would take much longer to navigate through and by then you may have forgotten the reason why you were looking for something.
 

Citrinin

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Astinus said:
See, my chapters (depending on the fandom) are long. Like, for one of my Digimon fics, a chapter is around thirty pages typed.
Thirty pages? :O That's nearly a third of the length of my entire fic as it stands. :P I certainly admire your attention span: I don't think I could ever manage to write a chapter that long. ^^;
 
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Thirty pages? :O That's nearly a third of the length of my entire fic as it stands. :P I certainly admire your attention span: I don't think I could ever manage to write a chapter that long. ^^;
I don't think anyone should write a chapter that long. God... Really? That's just... So much.

Writing is all about conveying a message and getting a point across. Hemingway got right to the point, and wrote novels that barely scraped the mid-section of other classics. If you can't get to the point in under 15 pages, I have to wonder what you're writing about. (EDIT: By "You", I mean the "general" "you". Not poking at Astinus specifically)
 
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Citrinin

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I don't think that's entirely fair, to dismiss long chapters in such a blanket manner. While I myself generally prefer short chapters, long chapters can still be quite effective. :s
 

Bay

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Yeah, a chapter depends on the plot focused and such, not length. Sure, straight to the point is good, but sometimes it might take more steps to get the point across. If you don't at least expand on certain scenes, the chapter might feel rushed. I know since I have one shots over thirty pages and I need all the scenes and explanations I can get.
 
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I don't think that's entirely fair, to dismiss long chapters in such a blanket manner. While I myself generally prefer short chapters, long chapters can still be quite effective. :s
I'm not saying long chapters are entirely bad, but I've never read a chapter over 15 pages that didn't bore me, no matter how much it excited me.

As I said, writing is all about conveying a message and getting a point across. If you're writing 30+ page chapters than I have to wonder what your priorities are and if you're writing things that could better be left out. But then again it all comes down to style, and maybe you really do have a lot of things to say that needs such a long chapter to express.

EDIT, add:
Yeah, a chapter depends on the plot focused and such, not length. Sure, straight to the point is good, but sometimes it might take more steps to get the point across. If you don't at least expand on certain scenes, the chapter might feel rushed. I know since I have one shots over thirty pages and I need all the scenes and explanations I can get.
By "get to the point", I don't mean "Things get done as fast as possible", I'm saying don't waste your time on needless narration and dialogue. Length isn't necessarily important; if you get the job done and it happened to be 3 pages or 50, then it doesn't matter. My point is generally some writers can be very bloated and pretentious in their writing and things get in that really shouldn't be.
 

Citrinin

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OK, then. I misunderstood: I thought you were saying all long chapters are bad. Personally, I have to judge each chapter on its merits before coming to a conclusion: with a poor writer, perhaps they could have left stuff out of a 30-page chapter, or their description might have been far too waffly. But if a writer can keep a reader compelled throughout the thirty pages of a chapter (admittedly a daunting task), then I see no problem.
 
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OK, then. I misunderstood: I thought you were saying all long chapters are bad. Personally, I have to judge each chapter on its merits before coming to a conclusion: with a poor writer, perhaps they could have left stuff out of a 30-page chapter, or their description might have been far too waffly. But if a writer can keep a reader compelled throughout the thirty pages of a chapter (admittedly a daunting task), then I see no problem.
Right. It also comes down to readers' taste; some readers prefer different forms of books to read, and the writer should cater to the right group.

I enjoy reading, and don't mind it at all, but long chapters just irritate me. No matter how much I enjoy the book and I'm excitedly reading page-by-page, I still want a 'break'. I like having chapter breaks to stop and close my eyes, thinking about what I just read and taking it all in. Sometimes I just want a good place to stop reading if I need to do something else. So, generally, short-to-fair-lengthed chapters are best. If you can hold the reader's attention and still include only what's necessary in a long chapter, then by all means, do it. But consider the different ways you could go about it that may entice a broader audience.
 

icomeanon6

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What's the current wordcount on your active chaptered fics?

Compared to many other fanficers (especially Asty and Shrike), my stuff is awfully short. My main fic, at 12 "chapters" so far, has about 18,500 words. Some of them are around 3,000 words long, while a few are less than 1,000. Gary Stu, on the other hand, finished with eight chapters at 12,000 words. My FFC entries were 900 and 3,000 words, and my entry to the get-together contest was 1,350. Writing for volume certainly isn't my strong point, I usually just cut to the chase.
 

Bay

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By "get to the point", I don't mean "Things get done as fast as possible", I'm saying don't waste your time on needless narration and dialogue. Length isn't necessarily important; if you get the job done and it happened to be 3 pages or 50, then it doesn't matter. My point is generally some writers can be very bloated and pretentious in their writing and things get in that really shouldn't be.
Yeah, true. However, I still find it offending you would ask that to Astinus even when she didn't post that chapter here yet. Like you said, she might need the 30 pages to get the job done. Also, because you didn't read it, you shouldn't say it's bloated and pretentious already.
 
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Yeah, true. However, I still find it offending you would ask that to Astinus even when she didn't post that chapter here yet. Like you said, she might need the 30 pages to get the job done. Also, because you didn't read it, you shouldn't say it's bloated and pretentious already.
I wasn't saying her work was bloated and pretentious, that just most is... And my original post wasn't even specifically directed at her, just at chapters that long in general. Citrinin bringing it up was just my segue into a general discussion, with no specific opinion on Astinus or her work in particular (which I'm not acquainted with, so I wont speak on it).
 
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My mistake then. Just a bit "woah" when you mention your take on long chapters. ^^;
I used to write these incredibly long narrative bits that described absolutely nothing because I thought I was supposed to be long. My style is almost entirely "to the point" now, and my paragraphs can be as short as one sentence or even one word. Probably dropping one extreme for another, I don't know, but I suppose the judges will be able to say how my writing has turned out.
 

txteclipse

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Sometimes chapters have a lot of ground to cover, or flip-flop between characters a lot. If you have tons of plot threads running all over the place, and you need a few pages for each, that's a lot of pages. Kind of like the Chronicles, but I'm only up to three major plot threads at the moment, so my chapters probably won't get huge for a while still.
 

Giratina ♀

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Plot threads, omai.

I've personally never used them before in my stories, fanfiction or otherwise, but having one or two sub-plots running on a parallel track to the main one sounds like an absolutely awesome idea. C: I ought to try it sometime. Which brings up a question:

Have you ever implemented plot threads/sub-plots/mini-arcs/whatever in your stories? If they're not spoileriffic and you don't mind sharing, what were they?

Also, Magneton Man is hard to beat in Platinum. >C
 

Citrinin

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Have you ever implemented plot threads/sub-plots/mini-arcs/whatever in your stories? If they're not spoileriffic and you don't mind sharing, what were they?
Yes - I like to have multiple arcs converge into one. At the moment, there are a few developing arcs that have no (or little) seeming connection, but by the end, they'll all come together. 8D
 
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