Rabid Euphoria

I figured a writing site, if anything, would be void of such a low limit. only 5,000 words a post? My short story I just spend fifteen minutes formating to post, spacing between paragaphs just for it tell me I'm 600 characters above the limit. So I remove some double spaces and white space between paragraphs and it tells me I'm now nearly 2000 characters above the limit. Doesn't make much sense to me...

Just curious on why the restrictions. Only allowing approx five pages per entry isn't very much. If this is the case I'll definitely have to link all my works to outside sources.

Hodge

No one wants to read more than 5,000 words in a single post. Actually, more than 2,000 is probably bad. Reading off a computer screen is no fun for us old people.

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Science

Rabid Euphoria

All the same, I can't post my novel like this. It's almost 240 pages now...if people didn't want to read on a screen they wouldn't come onto a forum at all...it's all reading. I wrote a story not even full six pages and it was too long. It all flows together, I can't just break it up into too posts....all the same, this post counts towards my ten so I can post links.


Suggestion: A dark background can help relieve the eyes. A dark blue, with white text works well in my opinion. A bright, white screen hurts the eyes...especially for insomniacs at 5 in the morning like me.

Hodge

You can break it up into parts. It isn't like people typically sit down and read a whole book in one sitting.

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Mallignamius

Maybe it hurts your eyes, but the suggestion you make would hurt mine. I think you should poll for a majority opinion.

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lisajane

No one in their right mind, no matter what the colour background and text, is going to sit down and read a 5000+ word post.

Either put it under 2000 words (which, if you want people to read your story, should be the maximum words) and put your novel up as little chapters, or don't post your story at all. You might have enough time up your sleeve to sit down and read such a long post, but no one else does. It's not that people don't want to read what's on a screen - it's that people don't want to be expected to read such a long post.

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Lost in Some Story

Us old people? Damn, I must be ancient.


Or dead.

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WriterDude

I generally don't read many posts if they don't catch my interest in the very first paragraph, and even then the shorter, the better. Why on earth would I want to read a 240 page book here? Even if I did, I would print it out and read it at my own leisure whenever I feel like it.

Besides, I don't use this forum for reading stories in the first place. I use to get critics and ideas for my stories, as well as give it back to others. If you want to get people to read your story, have you tired, I don't know, getting it published?

It has nothing to do with what color the background and fonts are, what your posts are about or even who you are. It's just that there are already far too many posts for one person to read, so why should I read one giantic post instead of twenty smaller ones from people who need advice?

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smilinghelps

How 'bout giving us a teaser (say 500 words or so) with a link to the rest you want looked at. That way anyone who wants to read on, can and you'll still get feedback on a portion of your work.

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R.R.Pearce

I posted four chapters of my novel that I am working on, I did that before I had read the rules, I was told about it. And I will never do that again. I posted 9,000 words....

Unfortunately the story is now buried because of lack of interest in reading such a long piece. If I had the chance I would have the post, deleted and resubmit in smaller portions.

We live and we learn.

Ray

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DRuthie

Why not post a portion of it. The first handfull of paragraphs. If people like it they will ask for more and you can post more of it as a reply. Or even send the rest of the story to that person.

Theotherguy

Bah.I really want to find a site that is as active as fanfiction.com, but for original fiction. All I can find, unfortunately, are more discussion-oriented forums like this one.

Some of us simply cannot afford publishing, or our work is not yet good enough to publish, so we use the internet as a way to get suggestions on our writing.

For me, the internet is like my own weekly editor's column. When I used to write fan-fiction, I would post a new chapter of my fan novel every week on fanfiction.net, and I would use the comments as motivation to post my next chapter. I actually gained quite a following there, and it really blew up my ego. I literally still have ten or twelve people emailing me a day telling me to write another fan novel (a request I repeatedly deny). I found that the original fiction crowd (which tends to be older, more educated, and generally has better taste than the cesspit that is fan fiction), is much harder to please, and much harder to gain a loyal following. I suppose my only option is to keep writing, keep getting advice on my style, and eventually maybe a magazine somewhere will take my work.

tru35683

if you were to post only one chapter of a book and caught the attention of a few willing readers, would it be prudent to ask the reader if they would like to finish reading the book through private email? or some other alternative.

mandax

Try fictionpress.com. I think it's what you're looking for.

The Backward OX

Could someone please explain to me where I find this rule about the maximum size of posts? I've read through the rules three times and can see nothing on the subject.

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