Something I’ve mentioned before, but usually as part of a reply to something else: I strongly believe that the work would benefit from being officially divided into different books. Chapter 63 was incredibly cathartic to read, partly because it was a very intense chapter that resolved a lot of stuff, but partly because at the time, we knew a hiatus was coming and that it was the End™ of a particular section. That, in combination with the fact it touched upon every single plot thread, made it feel more potent. And the PDF version, at that time, was a little over 1000 pages, which is about right for a Harry Potter book.
It’s also a daunting to get new people to read something when there’s a bajillion chapters. I don’t know if you’re planning for two parts or three, but presumably there will be at least 120 chapters when this is done, if not 180+. I had better luck getting new people to read it when I specifically said “book 1 just finished, I can give you the PDF of that,” and I think that’s in part because “one book” is a friendlier way of measuring length than some large number of pages.
Fanfiction.net might have specific rules, or you might want to just keep things consistent there. But I’d like it if when the next section is finished, you do a PDF that gets treated as its own separate book.
(I also feel like Part I could benefit from being divided into subsections. For instance, the first 20ish chapters end with Harry sending the letter to his parents, which felt like a good stopping point, as did the Christmas break which gives us a pause before the events leading to Azkaban kick into overdrive. I’m less concerned about that, but I do feel like having discrete chunks to show to people makes it less daunting to begin reading).
It’s also a daunting to get new people to read something when there’s a bajillion chapters.
Funny, I have the exact opposite reaction. I quite enjoy getting into a story by reading through a long archive and I’m often put off by small page-counts, since I know that even if I like it I’ll just hit a frustrating stop in the near future.
My personal criteria is “likelihood of being finished” regardless of how long it is. Part of what I like about book 1 being a separate PDF is that no matter how long it is till the next part is done, you have one section that you can point to and say “finished.”
I also try to judge by that, although its not always easy to do so. I also like the idea of Book 1 being separate, for many of the other reasons you gave.
I actually think that usually, books should be turned into TV shows, not movies. A thousand pages of book translates into approximately a thousand minutes, so making a movie requires you to gut the book down to the equivalent of 200-300 pages, whereas making a tv series would allow you to actually flesh things out further, giving the director time to actually do something interesting with the material. I firmly believe Harry Potter should have been a TV show, not a movie. At least from an artistic, if not economic standpoint.
Back when the story ended with the “Humanism” arc, I told someone that a hypothetical publisher could reasonably treat it as the end of Volume One. If we can actually agree on possible ending points, then it makes sense to at least note these at the end of the chapter (somewhat like the sub-books within The Fellowship of the Ring etc.)
Something I’ve mentioned before, but usually as part of a reply to something else: I strongly believe that the work would benefit from being officially divided into different books. Chapter 63 was incredibly cathartic to read, partly because it was a very intense chapter that resolved a lot of stuff, but partly because at the time, we knew a hiatus was coming and that it was the End™ of a particular section. That, in combination with the fact it touched upon every single plot thread, made it feel more potent. And the PDF version, at that time, was a little over 1000 pages, which is about right for a Harry Potter book.
It’s also a daunting to get new people to read something when there’s a bajillion chapters. I don’t know if you’re planning for two parts or three, but presumably there will be at least 120 chapters when this is done, if not 180+. I had better luck getting new people to read it when I specifically said “book 1 just finished, I can give you the PDF of that,” and I think that’s in part because “one book” is a friendlier way of measuring length than some large number of pages.
Fanfiction.net might have specific rules, or you might want to just keep things consistent there. But I’d like it if when the next section is finished, you do a PDF that gets treated as its own separate book.
(I also feel like Part I could benefit from being divided into subsections. For instance, the first 20ish chapters end with Harry sending the letter to his parents, which felt like a good stopping point, as did the Christmas break which gives us a pause before the events leading to Azkaban kick into overdrive. I’m less concerned about that, but I do feel like having discrete chunks to show to people makes it less daunting to begin reading).
Funny, I have the exact opposite reaction. I quite enjoy getting into a story by reading through a long archive and I’m often put off by small page-counts, since I know that even if I like it I’ll just hit a frustrating stop in the near future.
My personal criteria is “likelihood of being finished” regardless of how long it is. Part of what I like about book 1 being a separate PDF is that no matter how long it is till the next part is done, you have one section that you can point to and say “finished.”
I also try to judge by that, although its not always easy to do so. I also like the idea of Book 1 being separate, for many of the other reasons you gave.
To go with the TV series analogy proposed by Eliezer, maybe it could be an end of Season 1?
Yeah, that’s exactly how I’d think about it.
I actually think that usually, books should be turned into TV shows, not movies. A thousand pages of book translates into approximately a thousand minutes, so making a movie requires you to gut the book down to the equivalent of 200-300 pages, whereas making a tv series would allow you to actually flesh things out further, giving the director time to actually do something interesting with the material. I firmly believe Harry Potter should have been a TV show, not a movie. At least from an artistic, if not economic standpoint.
Back when the story ended with the “Humanism” arc, I told someone that a hypothetical publisher could reasonably treat it as the end of Volume One. If we can actually agree on possible ending points, then it makes sense to at least note these at the end of the chapter (somewhat like the sub-books within The Fellowship of the Ring etc.)