Short novels/one-shots

SwordSong

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Questions about appropriate chapter lengths had been frequently discussed, but I wonder what's the typically expected length of a full novel/story in a web series?

Like, I know some mangas or light novels run only for 2-5 volumes (less than 50 chapters), but in web serial novels, it seems like the standard is hundreds of chapters. I myself have multiple story ideas that I just don't see spanning that long.
 
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tiaf

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Shouldn’t you rather consider total word count and actual word count (no padding or filler to inflate the word count)?

There are stories that are completed within 10k words and are published as Oneshot. I’ve also read short novels that were completed with 6 chapters each chapter around 2k. Chapter number is quite unreliable to use as measurement.

You can look up the word count of novellas vs novel. I don’t remember but I think/guess the benchmark for novella was around 60k or something?
 

TinaMigarlo

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edited: wrong thread, lol

but for this thread...
if you take the whole web-novel thing out of the equation.
and think of a one shot as just a single paperback.
80k words was what I saw was universally considered the official novel length.
this is your box standard 185 to 225 page pulp paperback that used line the book shelves.
 

TheKillingAlice

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edited: wrong thread, lol

but for this thread...
if you take the whole web-novel thing out of the equation.
and think of a one shot as just a single paperback.
80k words was what I saw was universally considered the official novel length.
this is your box standard 185 to 225 page pulp paperback that used line the book shelves.
That is indeed true. Regularly, 80 k to 100 k, in fact, is the regular paperback size.
In general, people read differently online and I've also caught myself thinking of the novel's overall storyline in a different manner than when I was thinking about a book that was meant to be a paperback.
When my novels used to span around 100+ k words, the first Webnovel season I finished, which was meant to make a paperback in the end (it will, still, but it will be juicy, not gonna lie; it's gonna be THICC) wound up to be a whopping 220+ k words in length.
There's also the difference that I mentioned in how the story goes - there is still the original rough steps of the typical hero's journey, but it's told in arcs, like one long story, not in three acts, the way a regular story is told. The reason for that being the way you just read it "on end"; there may be seasons, but their not as short as a regular book would be and even if they were, the feeling is a lot different from holding onto several books, because you just "keep reading" instead. That, I believe, is also why they turn out so long.
But that's just the results of me reflecting on that topic for a while, so take it with a grain of salt.
 

Bayleyrockstar

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Questions about appropriate chapter lengths had been frequently discussed, but I wonder what's the typically expected length of a full novel/story in a web series?

Like, I know some mangas or light novels run only for 2-5 volumes (less than 50 chapters), but in web serial novels, it seems like the standard is hundreds of chapters. I myself have multiple story ideas that I just don't see spanning that long.
A lot of those hundred-chapter-long novels also has to do with contracts that the writers sign with a publisher like Royal Roads or Webnovel, which dictates they need to reach a certain word count before they are allowed to end the series. This is usually super high for massively popular webnovels. With one of them I know having signed a contract for 5 million words. This generally means the author pads the story until they reach that number, then begins actually writing proper arcs until they conclude the story.

Some people also just write super long arcs, and don't get me wrong. I enjoy those stories, I just don't know how they do 50+ chapter arcs, when I'm ready to start tapping out after 20 chapters of 1.5k average length.
 

Juia_Darkcrest

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My FF is a world hopper, and after the initial getting the MC used to this idea, I have been writing 80k+ word stories in each world, spanning 35-45 chapters each time.

It's all under the same web novel, but each world is pretty much its own full-length story. Usually by the end, he (MC) needs to leave that world to gain X power to come back later and fix some issue, though I have left a few worlds in a much more... peaceful state.

Even my OG world in the FF is only 100k ish words

I think you can tell a good story with 60-100k words, with ups and downs within your writing to build drama and solve issues. You don't need to be Robert Jordan or Stephen King and make a 250k - 400k word count books to tell a good story. (not all of Kings books are that long, but a lot break 250k)
 
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