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Am I the only one who started a 40 chapter web serial in January and just hit chapter 12 last night
Back in January I found this long fantasy serial called The Wandering Tide on a forum thread about underrated web fiction, and the first 5 chapters were so slow I almost quit twice. But everyone kept saying chapter 8 is where it clicks, so I stuck with it on my lunch breaks, maybe 20 minutes at a time, and last night at my kitchen table I finally hit chapter 12 and something just snapped into place with the two main characters. I actually said 'oh come on' out loud when the chapter ended on a cliffhanger, which never happens to me with stuff I read fast. For people who ride out these long slow ones, how many chapters do you usually give a story before you decide it's worth the haul?
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singh.jordan14d ago
Man, the 8 to 12 chapter range is exactly where I stop deciding and just keep going. My rule is I give a slow start 10 chapters or a big plot turn, whichever comes first. If I'm still forcing myself at 10 and nothing has grabbed me, I bail, no guilt. But that click you're talking about, where you blurt stuff out loud at a cliffhanger? That's the payoff for being patient, and it sounds like you found it. The ones that hook me fast actually fade quicker for me, weirdly.
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