Longer fics...

[Esmeralda]

We've had a minor problem with the way we've been posting fics and would like you members to give us feedback on how to handle.

It has to do with fics that are longer than 20 chapters. When you open the fic's sub-board, you only see those first 20 and the little "Page 1 of 2" is hard to notice, depending upon how your screen shows the colors. (I know I can see it very clearly at work, but not-so-clearly at home.)

So we've been trying to figure out the best way to let readers know that Chapter 20 is *not* the last chapter.

Here's our suggestions:

• We could add a note to the sub-board or author board (or both) saying that there are multiple pages of chapters in the sub-board for that particular fic.

or

• We could do a separate sub-board for the longer fics.
  So, for example:
  • "Charmedfic Part One" would have Chapters 1-20
    
  • "Charmedfic Part Two" would have Chapters 21-30
    
  • "Charmedfic Part Three" would have Chapters 31-40, etc.

What do you guys think? Or do you have another suggestion to throw into the mix?

[Assassin Witch]

I say just make a note saying how many chapters the story contains. Readers should hopefully see it and understand that if they don't see the chapter there, it must be on a different page.

Also, in the admin panel, you can actually change how many threads per page are allowed.

[StoryGirl83]

Hmm. Jackie is right that you can change the number of threads perpage, but to what? Is there a limit? I know a girl on TCS who posted one of her stories on ff.net and it had over 100 chapters. Now, that's an extreme, but I think there is a limit to how many threads you can have on a page. I figure that if the story doesn't seem like the end, then I should start looking for an other page. I know I was reviewing one of Es' stories a few chapters at a time and one of my reviewing sprees ended on chapter twenty. I knew there were more chapters, but she didn't.

I think you should up the number of threads per page to 25 or 30, depending on if there is a limit and what it is. Of course there will still be stories longer than this, so I think for those stories, maybe in the board description you should put how many pages, something like this:
Title (2 pages) - Description
Or if you want you could do that for all stories with chapters instead:
Title (15 Chapters) - Description
Title (27 Chapters) - Description
I guess the second one would allow "Alternate Charmed" to know when the whole story is posted so they can link it into the Just In thread and the catagory thread.

[Esmeralda]

That would work, if people would do it...

I'm finding myself liking the idea of a different sub-board for every 20 chapters also because after each chapter, you get thrown to the front again and have to go to that subsequent page
This way you wouldn't have to.

Reactions?

[StoryGirl83]

That is true. I did find it annoy when I was reading your story that everytime I went back to the menu after chapter twenty I got kicked back to the first page.

If you do seperate subboards for every twenty-chapters, you should probably require chapter fics to put how many chapters:
Type: Chapters (27)
That way you know if you need one subboard or two or even more than that. So far all my fics on here are under twenty, but I have one that I'm still working on that's going to be around fifty or sixty when done, pretty close to a full novel when done I guess. My readers don't know that though. They think it's almost done.

Anyway, would that work, to require adding the number of chapters to the Index Card? The stories are supposed to be complete so they should know how many chapters.

[simymonna]

But what If you have an 23 chapters for more seasons?
I'm planning on making more seasons then just an season 9

[Esmeralda]

Don't worry about that, Simy!

Check out the Series section of our Library. That's the way that we would set up your Season 9 and any other Season that you come up with. Each Season would be given its own board with each episode given its own sub-board, and each act would be set up as its own thread. As soon as you're done with Season 9, we would set up Season 10 as its own board. Hope that that will work for you. I'm sure StoryGirl will agree that it's working great for her.

[StoryGirl83]

Yep, it's working quite well for my series. So far I have eight episodes posted. I was a bit concerned about what would happen when I got into my additional seasons, some time in the eventual future, but Es' idea about seperate boards for each season makes sense and would leave it a whole lot less cluttered then going through pages of boards to reach the next episode.

[Esmeralda]

I'm glad you like that idea, StoryGirl! That was what I always planned if you were going to continue into a new season.

Simy, since you do like Chris, I think you would like StoryGirl's spin-off, too, just like I think she'll like your Season 9.

[simymonna]

Okay I will read it then!

Okay That's fine by me!

Season 9 has an name in my case! It's Charmed Season 9: A new Beginning!

Will there be video's added to the subboards as well?

[Esmeralda]

That doesn't really work if you want it to be Season Nine, since the seasons didn't have titles--they're simply called by their number. If you wanted it to be a spin-off called "A New Beginning" (which is what I think you're really trying to do), you could do that, but then your Season Nine would actually be Season One.

Sure, if you want to put in a link to a video within your fanfic, you can certainly do that. Also, if you have a banner to go with each episode, we can post those, if you give us the links.

Hope that makes sense to you! AND you now have 10 posts, so when you want to start posting your season, you can!

[Primrose Empath]

Will there be video's added to the subboards as well?

Sorry, but no -- no videos will be added to the sub-boards.

This is a fanfic site first and foremost, and we'd prefer that the fics and their authors take center stage instead of vids or graphics. That's the reason why there are no boards or threads dedicated to either of those two subjects.

[Lexi]

I think the best way to tackle the long fic problem is to say how many chapters a fic has. They're all completed so everybody should know how long their fic is and how many chapters it has.
Having a new sub-board for the next 20 chapters would be a good idea, but I think somewhere telling the reader how many chapters there are first of all would be a good idea.

[simymonna]

My story's are very short but I have a reason for that.. Simple: I'm Dutch! Not full English! And writting will always be a difficult part for me to do!

[StoryGirl83]

I have one of my completed fics that is over 20 chapters. And one of my uncompleted fics that is 42 chapters and counting. If you guys want to make a second board for the story that is 25 chapters, just let me know and I'll tell you which story. As for the other one, well, I guess I'll need at least three boards for it, though I predict four. It will be a while before that one is done, though.