Chapter Length

My books are light on things like stat sheets that take up lots of space with few words. A lot of my crunchy stuff is in the prose. I'm definitely on the light side of LitRPG.

 

Huh. Heavy on descriptions then? Are your books available on KU?

 

Yes. All of my stuff goes into KU, at least at first. My two LitRPGs are both in KU, as will the new book I publish in Sep.

 

It all depends on the story. Epic Fantasy and sci-fi tends to have longer chapters because the reader is expecting to sit and get immersed in this world for quite a while. Thrillers and action stories tend to have shorter chapters with small hooks at the end to keep pulling the reader forward.

Right now, I'm writing a serialized novel, so I've kept my chapter lengths pretty steady at around 1500-2000 words, with a hook at the end of each of them to make the reader want to tune in for the next installment.

 

Not to resurrect a dead horse, but I wanted to say I finished the first draft of Seventh Talon using smaller chapters. This book I did in 3rd person limited, so the smaller chapters work great because I can jump to a different POV, which is something I am not sure we brought up. I just have to be careful that I make the appropriate references and slant the scene from the new perspective, but I like this style quite a bit.

Most of the chapters are around 1000 words. I have a few that reach up to 2500, but when I edit these I usually find a break point to split it down even further. Anyway, just wanted to say it resonated with me more, and editing those chapters does not feel overwhelming.

Next question. Would it be weird to my readers if I switched Office Wars to smaller chapters, considering the first two are much larger ones? Or do you think they'd appreciate it more?

 

I feel like readers will appreciate whatever benefits the story. Anyone pissed off that the average chapter length changed (if indeed said change doesn't hamstring the narrative/style) is a person looking for a reason to complain...

 

LitRPG isn’t really a genre that lends itself to frequent POV switches, I think. It works well in standard epic fantasy because there are multiple things happening to multiple people at once. But in an MMO? We want to follow along with our MC-kun and watch them grow and respond to their very own highly personal journey.

But that’s just, like, my opinion, man.

 

My POV changes are brief. They push the story, and then they go right back to the MC. There are like 50 chapters with my MC and maybe 5-10 with other POVs. Its not like Game of Thrones, you aren't going to follow the other characters around. You get a brief glimpse of the minds of these other supporting characters and see the MC in a different light. I think there are only two of those chapters that the MC is not even present on.

Example. Boh (My MC) gets hurt, she is incapacitated and the escape is through the pov of the of a secondary character.

I'm not worried about the POV switch, because the story is fairly linear. At least this one is. The thing that concerns me is this is not your traditional fantasy, military history, or dragon series. Harry Turtledove comes to mind, its almost alternate history, and I have a cool conclusion to this series that will setup up a second one. Like when you complete the final raid in a game and beat the boss, only to realize next week a new expansion is coming.

However, I definitely plan to use beta readers with this one.

 

If you can send it in a format I can read on my kindle app, I’ll be happy to beta read for you. I’ve got an insanely fast turnaround time and, I’ve been told, I give fairly useful and detailed feedback.

 

I'll add you to my list. I can export it to Mobi, so no worries getting it you in kindle format.

 

If I can figure out a way of sending it back off my phone, I’ll even be happy to redpen it for you.

 

Rip it apart as much as you need. I may not take all the advice, but I've changed quite a bit of it based on feedback. I'm all for the blunt approach, if you don't like something, explain it to me, and I consider it very seriously.

Office Wars is fun to write, but it is not going to be a defining series, it was more for me to get used to the craft. In fact, in the third book, I'm doing one final big prologue, to wrap up all the side plot lines and call it quits on the side story. No one likes it, so I am going to focus more on the main story and game. There are little pieces in all the logues that were part of a bigger story, and a couple of ... 'crap, I totally did not catch that.'

Anyway, I mention that because I'm excited about Seventh Talon, and want it to do really well, because I have two series for a total of six books already planned out for it. So be as brutal as you need to be.

 

Damn, I actually really enjoy the real life glimpses in Office Wars.

But that’s my jam when it comes to litRPG. I like seeing the contrast between a player’s life and their character’s journey.

 

Building a program to critique books? I don’t think the machine learning code is quite there yet.

Have you ever watched the YouTube screenplay of the machine written script? It’s almost unwatchable except for the fascination of seeing what an AI created with no human input other than “write a script”.

 

Don't get me wrong, Bran will still log out, and you'll see dystopian? world still. You just won't have the side stories (The Prologue, Interlogue, and Epilogue) with Vicky, Mark, and Conor anymore. I did a pulp fiction with those glimpses that I don't think people really appreciate. I give a date for people to piece the timeline together and figure it out, but haha that was probably too artsy for this genre.

And my other series are still connected to Neuroma, so you'll get that cross over, although Seventh Talon only spends one chapter in Neuroma. I think it adds a quaint side to Neuroma, like a wistful ghosts of the past type scene.

 

He's a witch burn him...... I mean who would ban you Paul....