World Hopping and Quick Transmigration how many chapters should each world be?

[nii07]

We won't come across one of these before. Now the question is how many chapters do you feel each world should be? You can give a minimum for worlds you're not really interested in and a maximum for world you would like to explore more.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I don’t read those types of stories. I’m not gonna care about characters if I know they only exist for three chapters before vanishing for all eternity. Maybe if was something like a mtg planeswalker type story I’d read it.

 

[LilRora]

For world hopping, hard to say, because it will depend massively on style. If a world is uninteresting and nothing really happens in it, it's fine to describe it even in a few paragraphs provided it's already been a few worlds before that (the rules are a bit different if it's the beginning of the story, or shortly after it). If it's a world important plot-wise, it's fine to stretch it for tens of chapters. The only thing that really matters is whether or not it's written well; there's no upper limit but it has to be a good read like any story.

 

[nii07]

For world hopping, hard to say, because it will depend massively on style. If a world is uninteresting and nothing really happens in it, it's fine to describe it even in a few paragraphs provided it's already been a few worlds before that (the rules are a bit different if it's the beginning of the story, or shortly after it). If it's a world important plot-wise, it's fine to stretch it for tens of chapters. The only thing that really matters is whether or not it's written well; there's no upper limit but it has to be a good read like any story.

I guess that's true but if they do say in the same world for too long then it stops becoming a world hopping story.

 

[LilRora]

I guess that's true but if they do say in the same world for too long then it stops becoming a world hopping story.

I wouldn't say it stops being one. If we assume that a world hopping story has at least a few different worlds the main character visits, you'll naturally increase the length of the whole story by putting more content into the worlds. What changes is not the genre - it still is world hopping - but the style. You can have a fast-paced comedy with each world taking a couple of chapters, or you can have slow-burn progression with various worlds taking tens, if not hundreds of chapters. Depending on the choice, a varying amount of details is put into each world, and different lengths become natural.

Mixing different kinds of worlds and different plots in a story is of course possible. You can have the main character spend years in one world, described over fifty plot-heavy chapters, then brush over a world they spent a few months in within a chapter or two because nothing particularly important happened there. So long as the story's total length is appropriate and significantly higher than the longest world, it won't be an issue from an objective point of view. This obviously doesn't mean some people won't complain it's taking too long, but that's an issue with their expectations missing the style and content of the book, not that it stopped being a world-hopping story.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Seven.

I googled "how many words is an episode of stargate".
It said '15000 - 20000, assuming you're writing in story format instead of script format.'

So technically seven to ten. Obviously there are two-three part episodes though, so you could also have up to thirty chapters devoted to one plot arc. If you have multiple plot arcs on the same world, then you could end up with 100000 word (fifty chapters worth!) segments all on the same world.

In reality... The answer is, "It should be as long as it needs to be."

 

[AbsoluteCode]

We won't come across one of these before. Now the question is how many chapters do you feel each world should be? You can give a minimum for worlds you're not really interested in and a maximum for world you would like to explore more.

atleast 60 chapter per world, 80 chapter or more feels like dragging the story.

 

[corruption]

It all depends on how important the world is for the story. For example, if someone went from their own worlds to an interdimensional hub world, and used that as a base for adventures into other worlds, the hub would be very important. Yet, other worlds may have more importance depending on the story.
As to how to avoid people losing interest as they consider each world a different story and the characters in one unimportant for the overall plot? Maybe if there was a trans-dimensional threat that spanned worlds and the plot involved characters moving between worlds.
A bit like Evil Overlords United, which was a webcomic event that had over a score of webcomics involved. Sadly some latter vanished from the net.

 

[nii07]

I wouldn't say it stops being one. If we assume that a world hopping story has at least a few different worlds the main character visits, you'll naturally increase the length of the whole story by putting more content into the worlds. What changes is not the genre - it still is world hopping - but the style. You can have a fast-paced comedy with each world taking a couple of chapters, or you can have slow-burn progression with various worlds taking tens, if not hundreds of chapters. Depending on the choice, a varying amount of details is put into each world, and different lengths become natural.

Mixing different kinds of worlds and different plots in a story is of course possible. You can have the main character spend years in one world, described over fifty plot-heavy chapters, then brush over a world they spent a few months in within a chapter or two because nothing particularly important happened there. So long as the story's total length is appropriate and significantly higher than the longest world, it won't be an issue from an objective point of view. This obviously doesn't mean some people won't complain it's taking too long, but that's an issue with their expectations missing the style and content of the book, not that it stopped being a world-hopping story.

Yes, that's true. I guess it really doesn't matter the link so long as each world is well, flushed out with good characters and it's well written. I guess there also needs to be like a main goal that is still being attained no matter what world they're going to.

It all depends on how important the world is for the story. For example, if someone went from their own worlds to an interdimensional hub world, and used that as a base for adventures into other worlds, the hub would be very important. Yet, other worlds may have more importance depending on the story.
As to how to avoid people losing interest as they consider each world a different story and the characters in one unimportant for the overall plot? Maybe if there was a trans-dimensional threat that spanned worlds and the plot involved characters moving between worlds.
A bit like Evil Overlords United, which was a webcomic event that had over a score of webcomics involved. Sadly some latter vanished from the net.

Yeah I've read quite a few of the former and haven't come come across many of the latter. And most of the quick transmigration stories, there's usually a hub world where the task takers as they call them can buy and sell items from others like them.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

It depends on the style of the story and the writer.
I have not posted mine anywhere yet, but 90% of the action is split between two worlds, at least 1/5 or so of the story in (chapter 50 or so). One world has a single scene so far (and will get a few more but not a lot) and I have not decided if it will go into more than that or not... though I guess the Ways, the network of paths between all worlds with the palace of the Guardian of the Ways in the dead center might get more detail at some point.

 

[tiaf]

don't think about chapter count, aim to tell a complete story for that world
nothing is worse than a lackluster arc that has no meaning in the overall plot of the story

 

[nii07]

It depends on the style of the story and the writer.
I have not posted mine anywhere yet, but 90% of the action is split between two worlds, at least 1/5 or so of the story in (chapter 50 or so). One world has a single scene so far (and will get a few more but not a lot) and I have not decided if it will go into more than that or not... though I guess the Ways, the network of paths between all worlds with the palace of the Guardian of the Ways in the dead center might get more detail at some point.

What's yours about?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

What's yours about?

57 chapters and counting... :D (Actually it's about a the second, third, and fourth legs of a four part prophecy, made on a fantasy world that impacts the "real" world, their world and possibly several others, and stretches back to the dawn of time... And about a young man who thought he was just a regular gaming nerd until he found a warrior woman in a dumpster while coming home from a convention and discovered he might be much, much more than that)

 

[nii07]

57 chapters and counting... :D (Actually it's about a the second, third, and fourth legs of a four part prophecy, made on a fantasy world that impacts the "real" world, their world and possibly several others, and stretches back to the dawn of time... And about a young man who thought he was just a regular gaming nerd until he found a warrior woman in a dumpster while coming home from a convention and discovered he might be much, much more than that)

Sounds interesting. Let me know when you decide to post it. I'm interested in reading it.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Sounds interesting. Let me know when you decide to post it. I'm interested in reading it.

Have not decided exactly where to post it - maybe here, maybe elsewhere. When/if I do, the working title is "Between Worlds" - not very exciting perhaps but... :D

 

[nii07]

Have not decided exactly where to post it - maybe here, maybe elsewhere. When/if I do, the working title is "Between Worlds" - not very exciting perhaps but... :D

I find titles to sometimes be the hardest part of the story. I think "Between Worlds" is a perfect fit for this story.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Kind of hope so... keep waffling on a few other ones. For example, a kind of pseudo-Isekai/System Western I was thinking of calling after the setting - "The Tumbleweeds Project" - but while struggling with the 8th chapter, the idea "Digital Cowboy" popped up and is probably what I'll stick with. Sometimes stories just hit you over the head with a title right at the start, sometimes they just kind of flounder around saying "eh, what you have is OK but it really is not ME" until the very end...

 

[nii07]

Kind of hope so... keep waffling on a few other ones. For example, a kind of pseudo-Isekai/System Western I was thinking of calling after the setting - "The Tumbleweeds Project" - but while struggling with the 8th chapter, the idea "Digital Cowboy" popped up and is probably what I'll stick with. Sometimes stories just hit you over the head with a title right at the start, sometimes they just kind of flounder around saying "eh, what you have is OK but it really is not ME" until the very end...

True, half the time I have no idea what I even want to call a story. Even till now I sometimes look back on my titles and I would ask myself why would you name it this.