At what point does a one shot become a chapter story? Also how do you decide where to break the story into the chapters? I am currently working on my first fanfic and intended it as a oneshot. It has, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, morphed into something more, and I am having difficulty deciding what to do with it. I know what I personally like to to read, but would like some opinions on what others consider reasonable regarding length of chapters and stories. Thank you to anyone who can answer a stupid question from a new writer.

Personally, I choose where to cut off by feel - I know that sounds a little odd, but the best way I can explain is that if I think a piece would flow better as a long oneshot, then I usually let it be a long oneshot. If your story has clear plot twists or opportunities for cliffhangers, then maybe it would be more effective as a chaptered piece.

As for the chapter length, as a reader I prefer longer chapters to shorter ones, but it doesn't bother me either way if the story is worth reading!

I hope this helps in some way, and good luck with your writing! ^^

thirteenxwishes wrote:
Personally, I choose where to cut off by feel...

This is how I operate as well. I just write the story out, forget about chapters or cut-off points, then when I'm finished I re-read it from beginning to end from the reader's perspective then decide if and where to cut the chapters. The only thing I try to be careful of is making a chapter too short. But then again, I've read stories where the author put in a chapter that was literally one paragraph, but for the writing style (and the story) it worked.

It's ok if you have a long one-shot. Many of my favorite authors's one-shots are technically chapters long. As long as there is a defined beginning, middle, and end to the one-shot, length doesn't really matter IMHO.

Also, it's nice to have a second pair of eyes too. If you have a friend that you trust to read your story in draft form in order to give you some incite that's often very helpful.

There are no stupid questions!! If you need help or want additional opinions, there's noting at all wrong with that!

As far as your story, I say start typing and see where it goes. One of my most popular stories started out as a long oneshot. It then morphed into a short chapter story, and I'm glad that it did!

I agree with Thirteenwishes about "feel." I write all of my stories that way.

Another way to know where to end a chapter has to do with how much you are willing to type. I tend to type between seven up to eleven or twelve pages per chapter. (there are some exceptions though) By the time I ge to around seven pages or so, I start thinking about how I want to end the chapter.

Hope this helps!

If you have a place you want to take the story and it's going to take longer than 10,000 words to tell, then a chapter piece might be ideal. There are such things as two-shots or even three-shots.

My personal preferences for chapter length are shorter chapters. If I'm reading a long story, I can soak up a few brief chapters here and there without being committed to reading for an hour whenever I begin on a new chapter of that fic.

Nonetheless, chapter length fundamentally is up to you and how long you prefer to write before posting. You'll get a whole range of preferences here and a fair chunk will conflict with each other, so just do it how you prefer and never mind us (Although chapters under 1,000 words are generally not liked).

If and when you do decide to break up the chapters, break them when the scene has ended or when a climactic point is going to be reached. You'll have to be careful about the latter as you don't want to sour the appetites of your readers or break up the flow of the story.

I agree with the others. I go by feel as well. I have trouble writing one - shots [something I have attempted to work on ] as mine tend to become long and before I know it I have a chapter story on my hands. I tend to like including detail so readers are able to envision what is happening. I feel that is is more entertaining if one can get a mental image in their minds to go with what they are reading [ kind of like watching a movie in your head ] . If I am able to accomplish that , then I am satisfied with my work.


As for length...I used to feel chapters had to be long so the reader kind of gets their moneys' worth [ figuratively speaking of course- we make no profit from our work except the knowledge it is entertaining to others ] , but now I mix it up. I will just write until the chapter feels done to me and some are longer than others...it works out better that way. The cut off being one of two things: 1- A cliff hanger , and 2- a twist in the plot.

I hope this helps you and wish you success in your writing. I look forward to reading your work !


All Respects ,

OROYUKAE.

So you wrote a one-shot that has potential to be a chapter story? (Forgive me if that's not right)

If your story that you've written is like a chapter and could be continued from there, you could post that first piece (the "one-shot" version) and gauge your feelings on more chapters or not from there.

I hope that helps! Good luck!

tenchi no mai wrote:
At what point does a one shot become a chapter story? Also how do you decide where to break the story into the chapters? I am currently working on my first fanfic and intended it as a oneshot. It has, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, morphed into something more, and I am having difficulty deciding what to do with it. I know what I personally like to to read, but would like some opinions on what others consider reasonable regarding length of chapters and stories. Thank you to anyone who can answer a stupid question from a new writer.

In the world of fanfic, there are no hard and fast rules One of my personal favorite oneshots is 25,000 words long, and was posted as one chapter (though it could've easily been broken up into 4-6 shorter chapters, as there was a rise and fall of action at a few different points of the story). Right now, I'm writing a series of expanded drabbles, where none of the individual entries are over 1,000 words long; I'm also currently working on a series that requires upwards of 10,000 words/chapter to get in all the events I want to. These are all purely stylistic choices on my end, though. If I was to start a regular WIP today, my chapters would range from 2500-3500 words long, probably.

Really, it all depends on you - if you want to post the whole thing in one go, great! If you want to break it into easier to handle chunks, also great!

I'd suggest actually writing out what you have now before deciding how to post it. It might not be as long as you anticipate, or it might be a grand epic in the making - you never know until you actually write it out

I also go on "feel" when deciding where to break off my chapters. You just know when's a good place to wrap things up, usually right before or right after a twist in the plot. It's something you have to practice, but a good way to observe it is to look at chapter stories you've read. How did that author handle wrapping up events in one chapter? How did they tie back to it in the next chapter? Some folks say that good writers are also great readers

Thank you all for your answers and suggestions! I certainly didn't expect to get so many opinions so quickly, from my favorite authors no less. I am honored! I think I will continue writing a little more, then go back, reread, and start breaking it into chapters to post. The word count is currently 18,441 and growing. Thank you again!

Everyone has already pretty much said it all.

I've seen one-shots that are a couple hundred words long and one-shots that are a couple thousand words long. In fact, when I copied and pasted a one-shot in the past to read in the car while on the road, it took up about 30 pages!

As for where I cut off in a chapter, I too cut it off based on feeling. Or if I think a certain point would be a good cliff hanger, I cut it off there as well. It is a bit difficult to explain about how to feel for where to cut a chapter off, but since this is your first fanfiction, just give it a try and write until you deem it a good point to come to an end; that is if what you have does turn out to be a chapter story.

I believe you will know what other authors and I are talking about when you encounter it. I used to trouble myself with that in the past as well, but I quickly got the hang of it. It's all natural. =]

Good luck.

thirteenxwishes wrote:
Personally, I choose where to cut off by feel - I know that sounds a little odd, but the best way I can explain is that if I think a piece would flow better as a long oneshot, then I usually let it be a long oneshot. If your story has clear plot twists or opportunities for cliffhangers, then maybe it would be more effective as a chaptered piece.

As for the chapter length, as a reader I prefer longer chapters to shorter ones, but it doesn't bother me either way if the story is worth reading!

I hope this helps in some way, and good luck with your writing! ^^


I agree with Thirteenxwishes. I go by the feel of the story's progress. Sometimes, I just know that I can't continue without it mixing with the next chapter.

Apparently I'm the odd woman out, again lol, as I know before starting a story if it's going to be chapter or one-shot and I cut off chapters by what's going to leave the biggest impact. I love cliffies so most of my chapters end in them lol.

As far as which to make it, I would say it depends on the amount of scenes/detail you want to add into it. If it's just a few scenes leading up to the main plot, go for one-shot, if it has background story to explain or scenes after main plot go with chapter.

Another way to look at it is if there is only one story line, go one-shot, many story lines go chapters. For example: my story Painter in the Woods, has only one story line which is Kagome meeting up with Sesshoumaru in the woods and is a one-shot. Now with The Void you've got Kagome and Sesshoumaru's storyline, as well as the Inuyasha and the others' 'outside' storyline, plus other story lines I can't mention without giving things away hehe, which makes it a chapter story.

Hope this helps, and yes I realize the Void part was vague but didn't want to give away plot lines since it's not finished lol.

Ug. This happens to me all the time. Diarrhea of the word processor is the pits!

I could give you all sorts of advice on that, but in the end it's all useless because those questions... well, it's up to you to answer them. I think all of us who did answer have come up with the same thing... chapter length, story length, where to cut things -- it's all up to you. When I first started writing, I was really worried about this (after I'd gotten a rather nasty flame about my long chapters) and I always cut the chapter after around ten to fifteen pages until I realized that I was short shrift-ing my own work. From that day forward, I resolved to let my chapters be as long as they needed to be.

In the end, you have to do what's best for the story. If you feel it'd fare better as a chapter-ed story, then do it. If you really intended it to be a one shot, then do it. Either way, you win.

Hairann wrote:
Apparently I'm the odd woman out, again lol, as I know before starting a story if it's going to be chapter or one-shot and I cut off chapters by what's going to leave the biggest impact. I love cliffies so most of my chapters end in them lol.

As far as which to make it, I would say it depends on the amount of scenes/detail you want to add into it. If it's just a few scenes leading up to the main plot, go for one-shot, if it has background story to explain or scenes after main plot go with chapter.

Another way to look at it is if there is only one story line, go one-shot, many story lines go chapters. For example: my story Painter in the Woods, has only one story line which is Kagome meeting up with Sesshoumaru in the woods and is a one-shot. Now with The Void you've got Kagome and Sesshoumaru's storyline, as well as the Inuyasha and the others' 'outside' storyline, plus other story lines I can't mention without giving things away hehe, which makes it a chapter story.

Hope this helps, and yes I realize the Void part was vague but didn't want to give away plot lines since it's not finished lol.

I agree with Hairann and I also agree with everyone else. I know before hand whether I want it to be a chapter story or a oneshot (twoshot threeshot), but then when I've decided on that, I just let the storyline take me.

i would think 10000 plus is pushing it for a one shot. I like shorter chapters, but my taste has changed. When i first started the fics couldnt be long enough. And now i like little 8 chapter 1000 words at a time ficlets. But thats just my preference.

Personally, most of my chapter are pretty short. If you have to stop and start a story, it is more convenient to find your place again if you can go to a certain chapter, and that the chapter is short. I hate reading a long story that is in only a few chapters. If it was broken up into smaller bites, you have an easier time.

To switch topics, I wrote something I thought would be a oneshot, but had inspiration to add to it. It seems like the second chapter added a lot. Sometimes you feel you are done with a plot line, or that particular characterization of whomever you are writing about...but then, you will find out that they are not done, and have not finished having their say. There is no shame in it.

I think 5K words is max for a oneshot. If the word count gets up to 10K words, then I say divide by four and make four chapters, nothing wrong with a short story, with each chapter having 2K to 2.5K words (four or five chappies long).