I'm thinking of publishing my first novel on Webnovel.com. I never read OC's so idk how many chapters a new one is published with. I can't imagine its published with just one or two chapters at a time.
How many chapters do you publish an Original Novel with?
At least start with one chapter in three days. (If you are a starter,) and slowly become one chapter per day with 1500 words.....It depends on what you can do for now and don't pressure yourself. Make it engaging but fun.
For more experienced, well they can update two chapters for a day. One chapter on the afternoon (1–4 pm) and one chapter in the night (6–9) with three to four hours each chapter of 1500 and up words each.
SirLobo93
It depends on what you are aiming for.
There is something called a "New" Ranking, but to be featured there you need to have published for less than one month, and you have to have published a minimum of 15.000 words.
I would say, when I release a book, then I try to join the "New" ranking as soon as possible, as it provides you with a lot more publicity.
However, it is completely a question about your preference. There is no right or wrong way to publish, however the readers do prefer steady release rates, and not too short chapters.
Good luck!
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One a day maybe. To be honest the plot flow is more important. I never think about chapter count when writing but focus on the plot progress to reach a final outcome.
I guess for Webnovel the expectation is 1.5k word chapters daily to the story's end.
Find a routine that works best for you.
Mel_Aniv oh my first chapter is a prologue and its like 4k words... I was expecting to have to write 3k a day this sounds way more manageable!
Tinalynge I was expecting to have to write like 6k words a day, 2 chapters of 1.5k is so much easier. 15k for publishing to get on the "New" ranking doesn't seem that awful. I already have the general outline and first 3 arcs in my mind.
Veronica8 Tbh I have no clue were to stop the chapters.
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SirLobo93 If that's the case, a three act outline would be beneficial.
Act 1 = Setup
Act 2 = Conflict
Act 3 = Resolve
https://blog.reedsy.com/three-act-structure/
You could set up story goals that complete the acts. Example:
Act 1 = Chapters 1 - 10
Goals = Introduce key characters, introduce conflict situations, wants
Give characters wants and needs that progresses with the story goals.
Wants = what is known that the characters are after (eg. quest for a sword)
Need = what the characters gain or realise inwardly through their journey of getting the want (eg. a value gained or loss during the want stage. This changes the characters personality. It's the character development.)
Hope that helps.
All the best
I agree partly with Mel_Aniv , it's good to start off casually. I just started off with a chapter every two to three days... and I pretty much maintained that pattern till now until I dropped it to once a week lol. I'm a very casual paced writer.
Putting out more chapters in a week doesn't necessarily equate to a good story after all. Just take it easy, focus on quality and if your content is good and intriguing enough you'll catch some readers in a week or two. If you're aiming for a contract- my advice is still the same lol. I don't know why some people think you gotta bash out daily chapters but you can get offered a contract just by updating a few times a week as long as the reader engagement is good so yeah, there's a bunch of different ways you can go about it. But I personally think starting slow and steady is the best.
Veronica8 I remember first reading something like this in Desolate Era. At the time I didn't know what a 3 act structure was but I noticed that the story was set up so beautifully. There was always an introduction, a conflict and a resolution and there was no lull, maybe a buffer period but never a lull in the story's flow.
LittleBlueLake Idk if I'll be looking for a contract but making money from a hobby is never a bad thing. My story may contain a large amount of world building and character dialogue so I already expect not a lot of interest in my story until the end of Arc one when the world building comes to a slow. I will at least have a backlog of chapters and stick to a Draft first, Revise and Edit type format I vaguely remember being taught in school. I'll try to aim for having 20 chapters piled up at a given time.
Hi! I'm a new writer and I find this forum very helpful. I posted my novel before on a different website and always rushed myself to update thrice a week with a minimum of 2k words per chapter just to be able to catch up to the rankings. However, it was very frustrating and unsatisfying since I cannot fully take my time to edit the plotholes, grammar, character building, etc. When I read it back, it was so more like a 'crap', I had a lot of mistakes. So, I unpublished my book and edited the chapters one by one. Unfortunately, I ended up quitting on the website and moved here. To my surprise, most of the writers update daily and me? I cannot do that. I'm a slow writer. But thanks, I realized that it's not actually about updating daily or speedily write another chapter. It's all about the good plotting of the story. Thank You!
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JAErvikson
I've been too afraid to publish even one chapter so far even though I have 3 prologue chapters and 1 volume 1 chapter so far. Can I still publish my work and edit it if I find some inconsistencies in the story and such? Like you I'm most likely gonna be doing the Editing and Proofreading all on my own and am a bit of a perfectionist which keeps me from writing at all.
For instance:
I'm working on the outline of my story making sure I have the idea of what I'm doing without going on tangents or whatever. I'm following the 3 act structure but slightly modified like The Desolate Era. TDE followed the 3 act structure but each arc was connected to the next.
ARC
Act
Goal
Intro
Incident
Conclusion
The arcs link to the next arc very well and that's what I'm hoping to mimic. Because I started working on this after finishing those 4 chapters I'd already written I haven't wrote anything new in 6 days. And so far only 2 arcs are fully outlined.
Your story sounds interesting
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JAErvikson Everyone updates their stories at their own pace. So it's okay to have a routine that works for you to see the story's end.
Let me know if u know how to unpublish here...trying to lol.
For me, usually i don't store chapters and write on the fly. My latest story, it takes me a while to update the first chapter. I quite a slow starter too. I feel being slow sometimes is good.
SirLobo93 I have been doing that with my story in the other platform, publishing, proofreading, editing again, and then publish. I kind of relate to you with the perfectionist complex. Sometimes, a lot of ideas come to mind when we read again our chapters and it's actually frustrating for me because the idea seems to be a good idea. So, I'm back again with plotting. However, I'm afraid that my readers get frustrated with my new updates on the previous chapters and how the story flow goes. It's like there is no consistency with my story. So, I decided to unpublish my story and plan the whole plot as well as the characters, what will take place in each chapter, what will be the main problem, etc. Currently, I have written 25 chapters and I edited them one by one and funny thing is . . . it took me almost 2 weeks to edit a chapter. A perfectionist with a procrastinator complex. So, I guess it doesn't hurt if you start publishing your chapters one by one, even it's a slow update, but make sure you are already contented with the content of your chapter. PROMISE I'm still new, I hope this helps.
https://dynamic.webnovel.com/book/18247224006014005?utm_source=writerShare&utm_campaign=4314237554
Please go through my book and vote for it.
JAErvikson I have had this trilogy (starting backwards) in my head for 9 years that's a 3rd of my life lmao I keep starting it and stopping it this is the first time I've written, but not published more than 3 chapters; currently on my 6th. I have the story outline for the first 3 arcs and even examples of story writing I like.
I've taken 3 weeks to go through 6 chapters + outline and editing the entirety of the first 3 and still not satisficed with it.
As a reader for many years I know how frustrating it is to read something not fleshed out and as a aspiring writer I can't stand the thought of putting out something subpar.