VOTE Asking readers' opinions: Splitting chapters into parts or keeping them whole?

Hello (/・0・)

I'm publishing a novel. The following concerns the first volume of the story.

Right now each chapter hits that sweet spot of 1500-2000 words. The way chapters are built is quite good, because each has its own rising point. But if I divide them into chunks, I'll be able to insert a notice/warning when there's a gory scene coming up in a later bit. I'm considering splitting them up, each into two parts (Part 1 & Part 2). Think of it as a kdrama, where you an advert running in the middle.

The volume serves as a setting, consists of 11 chaps, and comes a little below 20k words. So if I do that, I'll be able to spread out my schedule. The chapters would still work if split in halves, but maybe it'll make them too short?
I'm posting here, and not in Author's discussion corner, because I want to ask whether it'd frustrate you as a reader if your writer did that
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Spoiler: EDIT:

Geez, you guys are wild - I'm looking at you, @elengee (´ﾟдﾟ`)

Overall, I get the gist. The people have spoken - I'll keep it the way it is. Also, got some tips about not breaking the story flow with warnings. I should clarify that I thought to put them in the comments of the previous chapters. Where I'm posting the story (on tapread - they recently launched an original novel program), you scroll down through chapter continuously, and the comment section is between the chapters by default, so I thought to exploit that.
But, again, I received lots of stuff to take into consideration. You can keep posting if you have other things to add - I'll watching the thread

Thx everybody!

 

Yeah, I probably wouldn't like that.

 

How about we split you in parts and see how you like that

 

Splitting chapters tends to get in the way of people's enjoyment. If you want to put warnings and stuff, it'd be better to just put a gore warning in the very beginning. One isn't really needed right before the gory section.

 

Let's make an example
Keeping whole:
1 - "I wanna talk about something"
2 - "about what?"

Splitting chapter:
1 - "I wanna talk"
2 - "about something"
3 - "about"
4 - "what?"

Which one do you prefer? Which one is more annoying? Think about it...

 

Splitting chapters unnecessarily ruins the flow of the story.

I will leave the author a bad review.

 

Splitting ruins the author intention.

 

No one would prefer a partial chapter to a whole one.

 

Tbh, if you don't say it, people probably wouldn't care since you're the author and they have no idea. I would recommend not naming every single chapter "Cool Title Part 1" and "Cool Title Part 2" if you do split. (However, if you're translating, whole chapters >>>>>>>, keep the pacing like the author did it pls) As a reader, 1.5-2k chapters are exactly a sweet spot as you say, and half of that would feel pretty short (not bad if you're updating frequently, but still short).

 

Let's say you can update a full chapter once a month or you can produce 1/4 of the chapter per week. I would rather wait a full month to read a full chapter than to read split chapters every week.

 

as of this message, you have 20 votes against splitting to 0 for splitting. I always knew one of us was the chosen one, the messiah to unite all nuffians from the BL all the way to the GL, I just didn't expect to see it before i died

 

There are only two reasons I dislike split chapters:

1. If I read the first part of the chapter and I missed an update I forget what happened to the first part and I lose interest on the story
2. Some translator websites have the worst website navigation and very inappropriate ads.

 

Wow a landslide, but yeah I would prefer not to have gory warnings within the novel. Put the potential gore warnings in your novel description/summary. I like to enjoy the suddeness of gore or horror.

 

ᗜಠ o ಠ)¤=[]:::::>
This made me laugh, a lot (・∀・)

 

Pleased to make your acquaintance.
(≧▽≦)

 

Make the votes public so we can lynch the mistake.

 

That's reasonable, I'll do that!

 

I prefer the the chapter to break at a point where there is a shift in story. Where the break acts as a cliffhanger of sorts. That helps build anticipation to some extent. For example, there is a long ass battle chapter. You can break it right where the tide shifts. Eg: Part 1 will end with hint of reinforcements when the heroes are losing the battle.
But you need to make sure that the the start of part 2 isn't simply the continuation of part 1. Like adding a page break in the middle. Part 2 should begin like it's a new chapter. Try to drag that anticipation. Eg: Goku vs frieza. Part 1 ends with goku on losing end but some of his hair starts flashing gold. Part 2 should either start with some monologue or from someone else's pov, not directly continue from where part 1 left off, with the rest of goku's hair turning gold.

 

Well I didn't think of posting them on different days, more like within an hour or two from each other. But yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly. A lot of important points were brought up to my attention (including splitting me into pieces T_T )

 

I tried but can't do that after I posted the poll XD