My story has 8640 words, and it's sort of a "first episode" in a series. However I just don't feel like posting it in a "novel" section, I am to fresh to start with a novel I would rather have it as a series of short stories. So can I post this in short stories or should I post it in the novel section?
If it's a story, it goes in the stories section. However, only consider posting a short excerpt (maybe the first few thousand words). I'm not sure many people want to sit there and read all 8000+ words. That advice would have also applied had this been a novel.
Yeah, 8k words is stonkingly large. Find the juiciest block of 1500-ish words and post that bit. From there you'll get the bites you want that may offer to read the whole thing.
I'm sorry but not reading the whole story is worth nothing to me. Whoever reads needs to read it as a whole. Somebody probably said this here already but to me this sounds like if somebody asked a painter to cut off 90% of his picture.
No one said you can't post the whole thing. You can. We don't have any rules against that. We're telling you what we have learned about the nature of the average forumite. Also, if you have future plans of trying to farm the story out to traditional publishers, having an 8k block of your story out in the wilds of the web can prove to be an issue.
No I have no ambition with the story. Also some of my friends who even don't read newspapers have read the story, why would somebody on a WRITING forum have a problem with that? Anyway, I noticed that in the Novel section some forumites are gradually "updating" their story. That seems like a nice way of doing it, no?
That's the standard manner in which it works in most writing forums. You post your stuff, you get feedback, you apply that which you think makes sense, and then you can post a revision later in the thread. Revisions don't count as "new work" when it comes to the forum requirements. Once your thread is in play, it's in play.
I guess there is no other option for me but to split the story chronologically and post it bit by bit. But, do I have to start a new thread for the new parts of the stories? I guess it would better for me and for the forum, since it requires more activity on the forum.
It would most definitely be the most organised option, I'd say. Posting a new part of a story on, say, post 23 in a thread would make it hard to find and would also confuse new readers who have not been with the thread from the beginning. On thread per section would keep the discussion/critique on the same piece and thus avoid confusion. A suggestion is that you add links to post #1 in each thread to link the readers back to the (latest revisions of the) next and previous parts to give everyone the possibility of reading the story from the beginning. And, as you say, it is better for both you and for the forum. A bunch of users will get additional critique on their work by you, while you become a better reviewer! EDIT: Just realised this thread is over two weeks old, and that you already have followed your own suggestion and posted the first part of Ep. 1...
