Continuation dilemma

[Luxferion]

Okay, to put it simply which way to write a book is better and more successful in the long run? A long chapter book.Or between volumes or different book titles?

Sorry if I didnt make it clear.

Thank you for answering me.

Bruh...People here are a lot nicer than expected.Unlike media such as reddit or Webnovel where people start criticising and insulting all of a sudden.From personal experience

 

[Nahrenne]

Okay basically, as you know I have a dilemma about my plotline. I am not sure whenever I should make a large pile of chapters instead of going volume per volume..or should I cover the first world in a first volume and then jump to the next one.( In terms of an example my book where we jump from a world, not a fanfic)? But the chapters for the first volume otherwise would be too long and, not saying that I can't..but is it even attractive to the reader? Also, how long an arc has to be perfect or ideal in general terms.
Or should I write different books of different seasons?

Thank you for answering me.

I'm not sure I fully understand what you're saying...
orz
What kind of story is it? A quick transmigration one, or one that involves a lot of travelling to different planets/planes of existence like a game simulation?
If it's the former, then usually it's one arc/volume per world.
If it's the latter, then it's up to you. It depends on how much happens and if the characters return to previous worlds/planets.

What do you mean by different seasons? Is that different from your volumes and arcs?
*tilts head*
'-'

X

 

[Discount_Blade]

I'm not sure I fully understand what you're saying...
orz
What kind of story is it? A quick transmigration one, or one that involves a lot of travelling to different planets/planes of existence like a game simulation?
If it's the former, then usually it's one arc/volume per world.
If it's the latter, then it's up to you. It depends on how much happens and if the characters return to previous worlds/planets.

What do you mean by different seasons? Is that different from your volumes and arcs?
*tilts head*
'-'

X

Yeah OP didn't articulate himself very well here. I'm not getting what he/she's saying here either.

 

[OvidLemma]

I, too, am not entirely sure what you're getting at. But it shouldn't matter too much for the answer:
Do whichever makes the story a better narrative / whichever is more enjoyable to the reader. A good rule of thumb is that, if you think the way you have your story organized *might be* jumbled or confusing, then it will *definitely* be jumbled or confusing to your readers. And readers don't normally stick around for authors to straighten our or carefully explain their convoluted plot ideas or what they were thinking when they started typing.

 

[BenJepheneT]

 

[Luxferion]

I'm not sure I fully understand what you're saying...
orz
What kind of story is it? A quick transmigration one, or one that involves a lot of travelling to different planets/planes of existence like a game simulation?
If it's the former, then usually it's one arc/volume per world.
If it's the latter, then it's up to you. It depends on how much happens and if the characters return to previous worlds/planets.

What do you mean by different seasons? Is that different from your volumes and arcs?
*tilts head*
'-'

X

Fixed

 

[Luxferion]

Yeah OP didn't articulate himself very well here. I'm not getting what he/she's saying here either.

Fixed

 

[Nahrenne]

Okay, to put it simply which way to write a book is better and more successful in the long run? A long chapter book.Or between volumes or different book titles?

Sorry if I didnt make it clear.

Thank you for answering me.

I suppose it depends on how you want the story to be:
- one that has a continuous journey towards the end with no deviation?
- one that has an overarching goal but with a number of mini goals splitting the story into segments?

The former tends to be better in chapters.
The latter tends to be better for arcs set into volumes.

At least, this is how I personally view it. Stories don't have to be set out like that, though. In the end, it's up to you which you would prefer to do. If you want to do it in volumes, you would need to think about how each volume would begin and end in order for the story to flow smoothly from one volume to another.

Don't know if this helped, or is even useful.
>w<

X

 

[Bokuboy]

Don't know if this helped, or is even useful.
>w<
X

It was very useful and you beat me to the punch in responding with almost the same thing. LOL

Okay, to put it simply which way to write a book is better and more successful in the long run? A long chapter book.Or between volumes or different book titles?

If the story is long and you know you have a lot to do, then one book with lots of chapters is best. This is usually known as a living novel and it will continue until you are done with it or lose inspiration for a while.

If the story has distinct breaks in it (like you mentioned with multiple worlds) then volumes for the book will be best, as long as the story arcs are together and mesh well.

If you have only some ideas to how it'll go, do a single book with a moderate number of chapters (novels are usually 50 to 65 at 2,000 words apiece) and then end that part of the story. If you have more to tell (like we all do), start another book, even with the same name, and add a number and a tag line to differentiate it and keep writing.

 

[Discount_Blade]

Okay, to put it simply which way to write a book is better and more successful in the long run? A long chapter book.Or between volumes or different book titles?

Sorry if I didnt make it clear.

Thank you for answering me.

Like Nahrenne said, it doesn't have to be either way, but from my own observations, the longer web serials that can go on and on, having arc after arc after arc, (for example: most isekai & LitRPG stories) and which tend to have no single overarching narrative or "Great Big Bad" at least not for a long time, or just isn't named as such, like the Wandering Inn, Defiance of the Fall, Rupegia, and various of similar tales, they would fit better into the volume format than the traditional chapter book format, though neither of these three subscribe to the format or label their stories as such. Still, I would place them as writers in the volume format.

If you have a single overarching goal as well as the big bad guy/final boss/ etc. etc. already prepared, or just even have one at all really, chapter book format might be better, though in the end, it matters most how you intend to execute it. Is each arc going to be one self-contained arc that can be separated into a separate book? Or is the whole thing one long stream of consciousness? An example being, the way movies are done. You have the first movie, than the sequels. They normally have many of the same characters, but its obvious that each story is a self-contained arc even if they tackle similar issues and often sometimes, the very same group of antagonists. Or is it like manga where enemies and allies move in and out of the plot, either dying or not, but frequently being interchanged for others except for the most important of the lot. The movie example is best for chapter book format. The manga is obviously best for volume format.

I wasn't exactly the most coherent with my response, but I hope I got my point across.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

Okay, to put it simply which way to write a book is better and more successful in the long run? A long chapter book.Or between volumes or different book titles?

Sorry if I didnt make it clear.

Thank you for answering me.

Well, readers usually select the story that appeals to them. It's only a bonus if it's going to have a lot of chapters and volumes.

Though readers also prefer to let chapters accumulate if and only if the story was intended to have a lot of chapters or volumes.

As for the different title per book or volume, it depends on you. My advise is to create a title that is similar to the earlier books/volumes, or have that one overall title to avoid confusion.

Mine is an example of this. I got long chapters in the latter volumes of my book, and yet my readers still read those because they are interested. Also, my 2nd arc has a different title than the first arc, but it's still similar.

So yeah, it does not matter whether your work is long or not, as long as you keep your readers interested in those. Well, that is, if you don't plan to milk money off your story.

 

[Ral]

In the long run as a writer? Lots of smaller tittles. Eggs in one basket and all that.

But if you mean what is the best format to use for very long works, it doesn't really matter unless you are publishing physically. Very long works are done in volumes mainly because of convenience. I mean, think of One Piece Manga, like, can you imagine if the whole story is published as one book? That would be extremely prohibitive in size and cost. Almost no one could afford it, it would not fit in your shelves, no one would be able to carry it, it would be inconvenient if not impossible to read, etc.

If you mean how to successfully write a very long story that could encompass thousands of chapters/dozens of books; well . . . I don't think this is what you meant.