[LtBroccoli]

Here's a question for the crowd out there.  Is it better to spread out the chapters of a story, or post all of them at once?  Do you think it's better to post what you got when you got, or spread it out over time?  What is too short/too long of a gap between chapters?  What about for reading other stories?

Reason I'm thinking about this is that over the last few days I wrote a story and finished it off.  It's not too long at 4 chapters, but that's making me wonder whether or not I should just post the whole thing at once, or wait a day or couple days between posts.  I want to get more consistent with posting, but I need content to do that.  That got me wondering how other people deal with that.

Thanks

Personally I like to post in parts so if someone wats to comment on something I never considered it gives me a chance to modify what I wrote! Also gives readers a chance to comment if the like where the story is going.

[LtBroccoli]

More I'm thinking about it, I think it depends on the story.  The last couple stories I posted were in chunks, but that's because I wrote too damn much.  What should've been short stories grew long enough that they went over the word limit.  But for shorter stories, or ones with planned pauses, I like to take my time.  Also, like you said CMG, it gives a chance for feedback.

[SoftGameHunter]

If the story is done, then I guess it doesn't matter. If the chunks are long, maybe spread it out to avoid reader fatigue. But if they're short and just happened to be breaking points, you may as well lump them.

When I'm writing as I go, a lot has to do with how I feel about the nature of the story. Easy plots without much fuss get posted as I finish them. If I worry about having to revise something based on later developments, I might delay. One story, my longest on here, I posted three chapters delayed. That is, I wrote chapter 4 then posted 1, wrote 5 and posted 2, etc. That gave me time. And yet, if it's complicated or I'm uncertain, I might wait for the end. And believe me, that can take a while. I've had one long one partially written for four years now and I've posted none of it because I can't trust what I've written will stay. I've already chopped whole chapters that weren't contributing or were going the wrong way. That and it's been a bastard to write in the first place.

[Beater]

Like chgr and sgh said, for longer stories I find myself posting in parts as I write it while if it's a short story I'll just post it in one go. I'm not the best when it comes to proofreading and editing so having a portion copied and pasted on here helps, especially when it comes to making alterations to a section when examining it in isolation.

I prefer to spread out my chapters, even when I have several chapters already written. It gives the readers more time to communicate feedback, and it also gives me more time to rewrite some parts, reread, etc., and sometimes I get a flash of inspiration while doing something else.

I feel it results in better overall quality. One well-written chapter is always better than one big chunk of writings that could bear some proofreading. I also feel that readers prefer chapters that don't take too long to read. I now limit my chapters to something like 1500-2000 words.

Case in point, in my current Gang Rape story, I just had a flash and started writing a chapter introducing new characters. I have the liberty to do it very easily because I have been posting one chapter at a time. In another story, I have deleted the last chapters because the ending doesn't do justice to how good my initial scenario was, so I am now repairing it and this is the result of posting in chunks! Chunk-posting doesn't seem to work that well... for me!

I keep a Word Document on which I store all my draft chapters from different stories. Sometimes I have the entire scenario in my head and I need to write the ending, or at least a draft of it. Thanks to this, I am no longer afraid to have several stories in progress!

[vile8r]

I have always posted my stories in chapters. It helps with maintaining reader interest and builds suspense. Just makes a story much more manage-able.

I prefer to have whole stories in one sequence. I never read a story online, but I download them, convert to pdf and read them on a tablet. For this it is much less convenient to have the story posted in several parts.