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What's The Longest I Should Have A Work Be?



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Wed Dec 31, 2014 12:32 am
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Lefty says...



Hi! I've had a few people mention that my chapters are too long and should be published on here in broken-up parts. I plan to repost my chapters after I revise them and plan to cut them into parts. So, how long should each "part" preferably be? Thanks!

Also, is it okay for me to repost my chapters but revised? Or no? Should I delete the ones I originally published? Thanks!

-Lefty
Hear me out, there's so much more to life than what you're feeling now. Someday you'll look back on all these days, and all this pain is gonna be invisible. - Hunter Hayes
  





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Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:01 am
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Lumi says...



From experience, you tend to get comments akin to "Please break this up" around 3500+ words. I believe that the "average" break-up point is around 3000-4000 per entry; and if the chapter is shorter than, say, 5500 words, then you can break it into two chunks of 2750 or leave it whole and risk getting slow and incompetent reviews.

It's also really popular now to repost your work after editing so that folks who follow your novel properly can see your progress in editing (and also see if their suggestions made the cut!); but it's all about your growth, really. If the differences are minuscule, I personally wouldn't repost; but if you commit to a major edit as in scene structure or character interaction--things that people really thirst after in reviews--then I would definitely repost!

As a general rule of thumb, I never suggest deleting anything a YWSer has written from the site so that, again, growth can be tracked. There are major exceptions, though, if, say, you want to be published (because so many publishers will ban you from having it featured anywhere on the internet outside of their publication). Either way, you can always decide and change your mind later on. In fact, if you want to soft delete a work, I believe you can simply "Unpublish" it from the editing interface.
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Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:21 am
Rosendorn says...



If you're posting on YWS, a good length is actually closer to 2,000 words.

That's on the long end, for me, because when you're starting to get to in depth reviews you want people to have smaller chunks instead of bigger. Then they can really go in detail and know what's going on.

As for editing, yes, if you've done major revisions and reviewers have already picked it to shreds, it's better to re-post with some indication it's been edited in the title.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:26 am
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Lefty says...



Thanks! I appreciate your help.
Hear me out, there's so much more to life than what you're feeling now. Someday you'll look back on all these days, and all this pain is gonna be invisible. - Hunter Hayes
  





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Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:00 am
artemis15sc says...



I concur with the above. I generally try to keep my chapters below 3000 and around 2,000.

However, I've also had people tell me my chapter is too short. I don't think it was that the chapter was to short, I think I just cut off the chapter in an unsatisfying place. So while you should break up those long chapters, do your best to still make it feel a scene or scenes that grow and propel the plot forward.
Check out my newly published YA fantasy novel here!

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SaraETall
  








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