I'm writing a novel in the form of almost a guide, where it's full of tips from the narrator meant for the reader. It's about a guy giving tips on how to be an effective superhero. Anyways, I'm afraid that I'll have too many tips in too short of a time. What would you say would be a decent number? 1 every chapter? 1 every 5 pages or so? Can't seem to figure out an effective ratio for words/pages-to-tips. I'm about to have 3 in the first 2k words. Maybe have more "tips," but don't necessarily list them all in the "tip" format I'm using? I dunno.
I'm really not sure this is going to be the sort of thing that can be answered in general terms. You may need to finish a draft and then get some feedback on it overall?
Are you writing in first or third? Who is giving these tips? Who are they intended for? I think the way you've described it might be a distraction from the actual story. Though, I agree with @BayView that it's really going to come down to the presentation and the complete story. Anything can work. Personally, I'm not a fan of having these tips in a novel, but I don't want to discourage you. I think you have to get a lot farther than 2k words to really evaluate if something is working. Come back to this issue at 20k words and reevaluate. You should know better by then than any of us will know now.
A way that I've seen people do it, here and there, is to preface each chapter or section with one tip, like an epigraph, then center the action or plot around it.
Interesting. Could possibly make them the chapters. If I wanted more tips, simply make chapters shorter and add more
Exactly. And it provides cohesion within the chapters, and a pleasing symmetry in relation to the others. The trick there might be threading the plot through the entire book, but I assume you've thought through that. Sounds like a cool idea, man.
When I started my novel I did something similar with chapter titles. But where I am now with the story those chapter titles I thought were going to be important are starting to feel gimmicky. I'm realizing that I am injecting enough of my original concept with using these chapter titles into the story itself. I'm probably going to drop the chapter titles. However, using them in a first draft has helped me stay focused in each chapter. It's sort of like writing "this chapter is going to be about this." And I'm not sure readers really need it spelled out for them. I don't plan out my stories in advance. The most I did for my novel was write out a list of potential chapter titles, and that helped me see how this story could work. I'm still writing my chapter titles. Like I said, it helps me focus. But once I finish my draft I'm going to read it through without them and I'm leaning towards letting them go.
Depends on the style. If it's showcased as a big thing, it might get repetitive and annoying. But if they're amusing asides sprinkled here and there, you should be fine. Anecdotes play well with just about anything... provided they're amusing/poignant/clever.
