How much do you write before releasing the first chapter?

[Gryphon]

Yeah, I made this mistake. I released my first chapter after immediately finishing it, and after that I released chapters after only one go around of editing. My story, especially my grammar, suffered because of this.

At least write 50% of your story before submitting the first chapter. That way you can somewhat take your time with writing newer chapters and not rush things and get burnt out because of it only to stop posting because although you love your story and the way its going, it looks and reads like a dumpster fire.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

The only story posted here was mid-chapter 10 when I posted, and is now up to 13 complete, 14 in progress, with 5 posted (will be 6 Monday).
But the stories not yet posted (not sure if they will go here or elsewhere) range from 3 to 54.
The other one I am tempted to post here is currently stalled at chapter 8 (need to write a poker game with one very skilled player willing to cheat on one side and one competent player assisted by an AI on the other. If I can get that one to 10 it will probably turn up here too.

So I guess the answer is 10...

 

[Rezcore]

For the new story I'm attempting, at least the first arc. But as it has me consulting archeologist, psychologist, biologist, military experts, and tons of other niche people... it's a struggle

 

[LesserCodex]

Question in the title.

I recommend 10 chapters, from my experience releasing 5 immediately and the other five between days to build a sort of schedule, I'm sure some would recommend the same if not maybe more chapters as it helps having more than one chapter took a reader in as some might just dine and dash if there isn't anything more to read.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

1 chapter otherwise I'll get paranoid.

 

[2wordsperminute]

3 chapters for my current story. When I finish it (although it will be a while before I finish it), I'll make sure to write 50 chapters before releasing any for my next story.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Question in the title.

An entire manuscript. My story is divided into volumes.

 

[ElijahRyne]

Question in the title.

2-5 chapters worth, so ~4,000-10,000 words.

It's nice to have multiple chapters ready but you want to make sure you publish it all slowly because maximizing the time you're on the recently updated list is how you get most of your readers.

Or you could have hundreds of chapters worth, so you are ready to post a spare one for whenever you leave the front page…

 

[Grim_Ether]

The entire story.
Which make my problem obvious as I have yet to actually finish anything.

 

[Nolff]

Question in the title.

The first chapter

Depends on my plans, but minimum about five chapters, preferably more than ten. At the very least, I want to know if can keep writing consistently. Sometimes there are stories that just don't work out, and I don't want to swamp my profile with stories I dropped after just a few chapters.

The entire thing

I generally write at least 10,000 words, which can be between 5 and 10 chapters, depending on how I divide them. If I get bored before reaching that goal, I stop writing and put what I've written in the "ideas to recycle" folder. Nothing goes to waste!

I wrote about 250-300k words before my first chapter but that's probabaly not the normal....

Sometimes 1 chapter. Sometimes 5 chapters. I struggle with holding onto them since I want to share it.

I make myself compile a bunch of storyplanning and research first to ensure I'm serious about it, but I otherwise post the first chapter as soon as it's done. I then create a backlog to use for Patreon right away so everything is set up properly from day one.

It's nice to have multiple chapters ready but you want to make sure you publish it all slowly because maximizing the time you're on the recently updated list is how you get most of your readers.

I had the first volume written on Lysette before I posted a chapter. 70 chapters in all.

10 chapters or 50,000 words. What ever comes first.

Just go with the flow, if i felt like releasing first chap without a backlog then i'll do it. If i felt like i should stock up then i'll do that.

Around the first 10 chap or so. Gives me more time to work on the next chap as i drip feed my readers

Funnily enough I'm in the final stages of preparing a novel I plan to launch this upcoming week.

I've written 5 chapters (6 chapters if you include the prologue), currently sitting at just over 15,000 words, and I'm hoping to have first drafts of chapter 6 & 7 finished before Prologue & chapter 1 go live on thursday.

In a perfect world I would've liked to have drafts up to chapter 10 but real life has been a bit annoying and I don't want to delay my novel too much. Since I only plan to release 5 chapters a month I figure my current backlog is sufficient. (as long as I write 2 chapters a week I should never run out of backlog)

You want at least 14, if not 21. To get a decent flow of readers early, you want to have chapters coming out daily for a minimum of two weeks, at the same time each day. Then you can slow down to whatever your intended release schedule is.

. . . write? . . .

Maybe five releases’ worth. The first few within the first few days/hours, or right away, and then the next couple will be whatever upload schedule you want. It also depends if you’re writing short or long releases, short can build up and churn out a lot more

Yeah, I made this mistake. I released my first chapter after immediately finishing it, and after that I released chapters after only one go around of editing. My story, especially my grammar, suffered because of this.

At least write 50% of your story before submitting the first chapter. That way you can somewhat take your time with writing newer chapters and not rush things and get burnt out because of it only to stop posting because although you love your story and the way its going, it looks and reads like a dumpster fire.

The only story posted here was mid-chapter 10 when I posted, and is now up to 13 complete, 14 in progress, with 5 posted (will be 6 Monday).
But the stories not yet posted (not sure if they will go here or elsewhere) range from 3 to 54.
The other one I am tempted to post here is currently stalled at chapter 8 (need to write a poker game with one very skilled player willing to cheat on one side and one competent player assisted by an AI on the other. If I can get that one to 10 it will probably turn up here too.

So I guess the answer is 10...

For the new story I'm attempting, at least the first arc. But as it has me consulting archeologist, psychologist, biologist, military experts, and tons of other niche people... it's a struggle

I recommend 10 chapters, from my experience releasing 5 immediately and the other five between days to build a sort of schedule, I'm sure some would recommend the same if not maybe more chapters as it helps having more than one chapter took a reader in as some might just dine and dash if there isn't anything more to read.

1 chapter otherwise I'll get paranoid.

3 chapters for my current story. When I finish it (although it will be a while before I finish it), I'll make sure to write 50 chapters before releasing any for my next story.

An entire manuscript. My story is divided into volumes.

2-5 chapters worth, so ~4,000-10,000 words.

Or you could have hundreds of chapters worth, so you are ready to post a spare one for whenever you leave the front page…

The entire story.
Which make my problem obvious as I have yet to actually finish anything.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

View attachment 30661

Heh... years worth... When my wife got into serial fiction a few months back I went back over my old hard drives to find unfinished stuff ... and then just started writing new stuff anyway!

Off the top of my head:

1. Hunter's Moon (Horror)- unfinished horror story I hope I have on a flash drive somewhere. Was at about 12 out of 15 - 18 planned chapters. Started a little before the pandemic.

2. Tumbleweeds (Pseudo-Ikesai Western with System) - Vigilante executed for killing the guys who raped his sister wakes up in what looks like the Old West... and he now has VICC - a System. Stuck on Chapter 8. First new story from this phase.

3, Strange Awakening (Body Swap Superhero Supernatural)- Man wakes up in his life on an alternate universe, where the least of the changes he has to worry about is the fact that here he was born female. Started at about the same time as Hunter's Moon, Chapters were way too long and I have spent more time paring them down and editing them than writing this one.

4. True Blue (Mystery/Superhero/Generational)- The case files of a superhero named Indigo who poses as a regular police officer until the crap hits the fan. Started about ten years ago, left off in the middle of the second major fight/first arc climax. Finished that arc except for a wrap-up chapter and have half of the first chapter for the second arc written.

5. Between Wolds (Multiversal Fantasy probably GameLit or LitRPG) - the second new story I started during this period and first one that I did not have ideas for floating around but never written down for years. A gamer geek (only fit because he has one of those gargantuan backpacks and carries everything around in it) finds a girl in a dumpster and everything gets bizarre from there. Believe that one is at chapter 43 (though the actual STORY is only in maybe 8 chapters, the rest of it being character development mostly). This was the second new story I began and the one that follows the "serial fiction format" the best

6. Diamond in the Rough - (Noir/pulp/H.P.Lovecraft plus magic weapons) hopefully the first outing for Jack Diamond, a detective destined to be the PI people bring cases that fall ... outside of conventional law to. This one is probably about half written and 1/5 posted. Have a title for the sequel (Blood Diamond) but not much more than that.

7. Out of the Past (Superhero Horror)- hit Chapter Four last week. On a trip to Egypt, two hidden tombs are found in an old pyramid. One holds the tomb of a priestess of Bast who set a guard on the other, the tomb of the last of the Hotep kings, a figure so vile he was stricken from the official histories... And, of course, they are still far more active than things that should have died 3000 years ago should be... Started writing THIS one to explain a comment in True Blue where two FBI agents Abramski and Burke, explain that Indigo is the third strangest being they have encountered, and that that "mummy in Atlanta" was the oddest, barely edging out "that guy who claimed to be Frankenstein's Monster"

8. The Gray Files (Multiversal Dark Fantasy but structured more like a political thriller): Started over a decade ago, but lost when the company I worked for scrambled our computers so we could not 'steal proprietary secrets' (the fact that I had time to write this is one of the reasons they let 40 people go over two days; I was in the second batch of ten). Nathaniel Gray drives a cab, and is afraid of dreaming. So when a woman he has a history with shows up on his doorstep and 3 AM, disrupting a dream, he knows that the fate of at least one world is in serious jeopardy. He is an interesting character because there are times when he literally seems to know more about his world than *I*, the Author does. Have rebuilt the first chapter.

9. The Blonde Bet (Romance, almost but not quite reverse harem) - After Donna Crandall's best friend hears one too many "dumb blonde" jokes from her, she makes a wager - go 40 hours without making a blonde joke and Donna can chose the color and style for Linda's next appointment; if she cannot, Linda choses... Donna doesn't even make it fifteen seconds and finds her life turned around a lot as a result. Chapter count is close to 30.


So that is what I am working on

 

[Representing_Tromba]

5-10 is recommended but I think 15-20 is safer so that you can give yourself breaks as needed without taking a hiatus for a good while.

 

[HypnoticNovels]

I had about 25 chapters finished (averaging around 2.3k words) and I had outlines written for the next 10 chapters, along with a solid plan in mind for the following arcs.

I am so freaking glad I prepared so much because I noticed a few pretty big plot holes before I started posting which I managed to iron-out before they were uploaded thanks to the buffer ?

 

[MesaMesa17]

Two chapters, but ideally I should've done more. As I continued I realised I wanted to make changes to earlier chapters which would've improved some aspects of the story

 

[miyoga]

Mine were both shorts, so I finished them before releasing them into the wild that way I didn't get sidetracked by anything. For something so short, there really wasn't a better option than to simply finish then release. For releasing them, that I spread out with a couple hours between each chapter.

Wasn't seeking to make it big or become the hot new author, just wanted to write a couple fun, nonsensical stories. This would be more important depending on your goals. Like, if you want to make it onto the first page, you need to plan your releases better than I did.

 

[2wordsperminute]

View attachment 30661

I would say not any more, but I'm actually building a backlog of 7 chapters before I release the next one (which is the reason for my hiatus).

 

[Jemini]

Funny you should ask this question now of all times. Right now I am actually in the process of pre-writing a story I plan to release later. I've written 20 main chapters and 3 side chapters for 23 total chapters. I plan to reach somewhere around 30-40 before I begin releasing it, with around 10 chapters being set up for the initial public release. 20 chapters for the patreon, and then 0-10 chapters for a backlog buffer zone.

 

[Nolff]

Heh... years worth... When my wife got into serial fiction a few months back I went back over my old hard drives to find unfinished stuff ... and then just started writing new stuff anyway!

Off the top of my head:

1. Hunter's Moon (Horror)- unfinished horror story I hope I have on a flash drive somewhere. Was at about 12 out of 15 - 18 planned chapters. Started a little before the pandemic.

2. Tumbleweeds (Pseudo-Ikesai Western with System) - Vigilante executed for killing the guys who raped his sister wakes up in what looks like the Old West... and he now has VICC - a System. Stuck on Chapter 8. First new story from this phase.

3, Strange Awakening (Body Swap Superhero Supernatural)- Man wakes up in his life on an alternate universe, where the least of the changes he has to worry about is the fact that here he was born female. Started at about the same time as Hunter's Moon, Chapters were way too long and I have spent more time paring them down and editing them than writing this one.

4. True Blue (Mystery/Superhero/Generational)- The case files of a superhero named Indigo who poses as a regular police officer until the crap hits the fan. Started about ten years ago, left off in the middle of the second major fight/first arc climax. Finished that arc except for a wrap-up chapter and have half of the first chapter for the second arc written.

5. Between Wolds (Multiversal Fantasy probably GameLit or LitRPG) - the second new story I started during this period and first one that I did not have ideas for floating around but never written down for years. A gamer geek (only fit because he has one of those gargantuan backpacks and carries everything around in it) finds a girl in a dumpster and everything gets bizarre from there. Believe that one is at chapter 43 (though the actual STORY is only in maybe 8 chapters, the rest of it being character development mostly). This was the second new story I began and the one that follows the "serial fiction format" the best

6. Diamond in the Rough - (Noir/pulp/H.P.Lovecraft plus magic weapons) hopefully the first outing for Jack Diamond, a detective destined to be the PI people bring cases that fall ... outside of conventional law to. This one is probably about half written and 1/5 posted. Have a title for the sequel (Blood Diamond) but not much more than that.

7. Out of the Past (Superhero Horror)- hit Chapter Four last week. On a trip to Egypt, two hidden tombs are found in an old pyramid. One holds the tomb of a priestess of Bast who set a guard on the other, the tomb of the last of the Hotep kings, a figure so vile he was stricken from the official histories... And, of course, they are still far more active than things that should have died 3000 years ago should be... Started writing THIS one to explain a comment in True Blue where two FBI agents Abramski and Burke, explain that Indigo is the third strangest being they have encountered, and that that "mummy in Atlanta" was the oddest, barely edging out "that guy who claimed to be Frankenstein's Monster"

8. The Gray Files (Multiversal Dark Fantasy but structured more like a political thriller): Started over a decade ago, but lost when the company I worked for scrambled our computers so we could not 'steal proprietary secrets' (the fact that I had time to write this is one of the reasons they let 40 people go over two days; I was in the second batch of ten). Nathaniel Gray drives a cab, and is afraid of dreaming. So when a woman he has a history with shows up on his doorstep and 3 AM, disrupting a dream, he knows that the fate of at least one world is in serious jeopardy. He is an interesting character because there are times when he literally seems to know more about his world than *I*, the Author does. Have rebuilt the first chapter.

9. The Blonde Bet (Romance, almost but not quite reverse harem) - After Donna Crandall's best friend hears one too many "dumb blonde" jokes from her, she makes a wager - go 40 hours without making a blonde joke and Donna can chose the color and style for Linda's next appointment; if she cannot, Linda choses... Donna doesn't even make it fifteen seconds and finds her life turned around a lot as a result. Chapter count is close to 30.


So that is what I am working on

*Reads the long-ass comment*

*Sees the word 'horror'*

*Attracted*

May I get a draft of it? I-It was nothing for money, uhh, it was for community purpose of course!

I would say not any more, but I'm actually building a backlog of 7 chapters before I release the next one (which is the reason for my hiatus).

Das just means you have backlogs, you moron.

Oh, I also noticed that your username contradicts what you've been doing lately.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

*Reads the long-ass comment*

*Sees the word 'horror'*

*Attracted*

May I get a draft of it? I-It was nothing for money, uhh, it was for community purpose of course!

Das just means you have backlogs, you moron.

Oh, I also noticed that your username contradicts what you've been doing lately.

Hunter's Moon was an experimental story (each chapter is first person - but different characters get different chapters. This helps me avoid the "Oh, it's first person, so either the character goes insane, becomes a monster or makes it out alive somehow" syndrome that makes 1p horror irritating at times ... and even lets some of the characters narrate their own deaths...:D). If I find it, I will post it publicly, probably here. But finding it is the hard part. Probably would have finished and posted it somewhere long ago, but it kept getting so dark I had to step away from it for a few days before I could dive back in, and then had a series of computer issues and ... not sure it still exists but keep hoping to find it.

Diamond in the Rough is borderline horror but more neo-noir.
Out of the Past is not ready to share in any form yet.
And I haven't even titled the other one that has been kicking around in my head for over a decade (the male lead and "secondary main character" believes it either is or was the basis for the stories of Frankenstein's Monster, and has developed a bizarre sense of humor over the 150 or so years it has walked the Earth, naming itself "Kadaver (with a K)" in the process) - though that, oddly, would be more conventional superhero (and the MC is actually the female reporter who "finds" him while looking into another story).

 

[Nolff]

Hunter's Moon was an experimental story (each chapter is first person - but different characters get different chapters. This helps me avoid the "Oh, it's first person, so either the character goes insane, becomes a monster or makes it out alive somehow" syndrome that makes 1p horror irritating at times ... and even lets some of the characters narrate their own deaths...:D). If I find it, I will post it publicly, probably here. But finding it is the hard part. Probably would have finished and posted it somewhere long ago, but it kept getting so dark I had to step away from it for a few days before I could dive back in, and then had a series of computer issues and ... not sure it still exists but keep hoping to find it.

Diamond in the Rough is borderline horror but more neo-noir.
Out of the Past is not ready to share in any form yet.
And I haven't even titled the other one that has been kicking around in my head for over a decade (the male lead and "secondary main character" believes it either is or was the basis for the stories of Frankenstein's Monster, and has developed a bizarre sense of humor over the 150 or so years it has walked the Earth, naming itself "Kadaver (with a K)" in the process) - though that, oddly, would be more conventional superhero (and the MC is actually the female reporter who "finds" him while looking into another story).

I really want to continue that project...

The context you gave just strengthens this itch to steal your ideas. But no, I have my own version of horror.

So, if you could, you can give at least a draft of it. I have no Patreon and as such have no way of making money. Please give me that for the sake of my horror-loving mind...

Oh, just in case you were asking, the horror series I'm writing is titled "Peaks Of Paranoia". It has no chaps for now, because I have too many chaps to work on and it makes me procrastinate on life.