Looking for advice

That thread on story lengths has me thinking about something...

I'm hard at work at Christmas story that has gotten a wee bit out of hand. It's in the 50,000 word range and I have yet to reach the end. Or even or News Years Eve - it's based around a college freshman spending her Christmas Break at her pro-spanking aunt's as part of a plot to get her youngest brother the spanking she feels he richly deserves.

Part of me wants to post it as is, but would more people read it if it was broken into parts? I suppose I could break into into chapters, say "Thanksgiving" (when the plot is hatched), Interlude (where the plot is expanded on), then one part per day of the winter break (Dec 19 - Jan 3), followed by Aftermath. The thing is I can't see doing anything to bridge things for the reader - the parts would have to be read in order from the start because I can't see doing summaries for each part.

Or do people prefer massive stories?
Looking over the stories I've got posted here, I can't help noticing the Magistrate part 1 (8.7k words) - Victorian judicial discipline) has twice as many readers as the Magistrate part 2 (38.5k words) ... Then again, Returning To... (36k - about adult women forced by the economy and their parents to return to childhood and spankings) has a decent number of readers...

So what do people think? One epic post or several chapters?

Goodgulf

My vote is for chapters. Descriptive & creative chapter names might better encourage readers to continue, compared tp just having numbered "parts". Also, there is no simple way to return to a place in the text window, so that argues for all long stories here to be presented in digestible parts.

Guy

I've got to agree with Guy. a multi-faceted story that is nearly novel length should be broken into separately digestable parts that maybe could stand on their own. They should probably get separate titles. I did this with the trilogy that was "Farm of the Delphian Sisterhood", "LaForge" and "Thermopolis Springs". It was all one work really, but broken into pieces that readers could absorb separately. I should have done this with "Atonement" but that was when I first started and didn't know better.

Yes! I agree with Guy & Rollin. Put it up as a Series with a series title. Sub-titles for the chapters. That's exactly what it is anyway. A short novel with titles for the chapters that you get to chose.

Chapters, parts, series - whichever you like to call it - most definitely. A lot of people will not read something that long but will probably go back to chapters.

I agree with all above. I think more people will read it if it is broken up into chapters, and after all that is what you write for; so people will it.

It looks like it will be posted two ways - as one story on www.spanko.net / SIN, and in chapters here.

Now to add chapters breaks to something that wasn't written with them in mind.

Goodgulf

Personally I prefer one story in one go - however that's if you can print them out.

So if you mean specifically for this Library then I suggest bite sized chunks because of the on screen nature.

DJB

I can honestly tell you that if you post it in epic form I will never read it. Through out the day I stop for breaks and sit down with a cuppa and look for a short enough story to read. I would much rather it was in chapters and then if it's good enough to keep my interest read on.

I'm kind of old school; I don't usually read stories staring at a computer screen. I prefer to print out stories that look as if they will be interesting (draft mode, it saves ink) and and read them in a comfortable chair or bed. So length is unimpotant to me since I read them as I would a magazine or a book, for as long as I want to at a sitting.

Of course that means that I don't have any favorites listed on the Library since I have them in hard copy but that does not mean I don't have favorites.