I'd really like to hear what people thought of Mobius.
Splitting it into parts to post is a double edged sword. Some people don't read a multipart story until it's complete, and I have to admit, I don't always, either. Especially when the writer has a track record of not finishing all of her stories. Of which I'm guilty. Lol.
Thee other side, at least in my case is it makes it where people are able to comment on things while they are fresh in their mind, rather than reading a single file and commenting on what is left at the forefront of the mind.
The skeleton of book 2 in the Mobius storyline is pretty well finished, and I'm hoping to find out what works and what doesn't, so I'm asking for people to let me know. Comment, PM, however you wish. Nice, scream, whichever, please let me know. I'm delving into a genre that I love to read, but to write is another matter entirely.
As of this date, November 22, I'm posting the end of Mobius tomorrow (I'm typing this on my phone, so the umlaut is really hard to type, lol). I don't want to be, but pleeeeeeeaaaaaase, leave comments! Lol.
Thanks, everyone!
Hugs!
Comments
There are two kinds of opinions
Those the count and those that don't. I'm sure that mine is one of the latter. I dropped out of reading somewhere between 3-6 and 7-11. The story jumped around from case to case with little difference between them and no hint of how they may be connected.
Maybe I'm just not that good at solving mysteries, but it just didn't hold my interest.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
No problem.
The cases might be related. Lol.
But basically, you're saying don't use one murder to confuse another. I value that opinion, Patricia.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Whoops!
That was supposed to be, I don't want to beg. Lol. Shaky hands make it hard to type on my phone. I even went to a Samsung Z-fold 5, but even opening it into a tablet, which I always do, unless answering the phone, it's still hard. Much easier, but still hard.
Hugs!
Rosemary
I binge read..
I binge read all but the last posting to date in one session, which really helped me get my head around who the characters were, and follow the twists of the plot.
Unfortunately, having had couple of days away, I found the last posting quite confusing, as I had forgotten who all but the majority players were, and I have resolved to go back and reread the earlier chapters to work out whose blood it was, and why it had been frozen.
For me, posting the story daily would help me keep the minor players in my head.
I hope that this is helpful?
Lucy xx
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."
Thanks.
I understand. I have to do the same thing, when I have writer's block. It's somewhat embarrassing to have to reread my own story to see what was going on. Lol. I'm sure many on bigcloset can attest to that.
I'm also thrilled that you binge read the story! That makes me so happy!
Hugs!
Rosemary
posting incomplete works
can be a PITA.
For me this topic splits into two distinct parts.
1) posting a whole story in sequence
2) posting parts of a story in an Ad-hoc manner.
1) Posting a whole story.
With this type of story I'm in the camp of 'don't post until it is all written (not edited)'. I'm posting Redress in 5 chunks but it was complete (other than editing) over a year ago.
2) Ad-hoc posting
For me this is for series such as County Sheriff, Forsythe Saga. both of these are almost complete. Sheriff needs one part to wrap it all up. The Forsythe Saga, needs two maybe three parts to wrap it up. I know what needs to be written for them but I just need the nudge to get them done.
Other writers will have different views/opinions on this matter. I have a backlog of already written posts (at 1 per week) that goes into the middle of 2027. Other authors are more of the write and post type. We are all different people (hurrah).
Samantha
I agree.
Mobius is the first that I have waited to post, except for the prologue, until it was finished. I believe it is a stronger story because of this. Feedback has been minimal, and I would like more because, while the outline for the next part is mostly done, fleshing it out is not.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Unfinished work
It takes a special talent to post an incomplete series and keep rolling on a schedule through to the final chapter. I don't have that kind of talent, as evidenced by the bone pile of incomplete works on my hard drive.
That being the case, I usually don't post serials. Most of my works take about 20K words, give or take. That's about one to two hours reading by the average adult. Personal opinion: that's a comfortable time to read a single story.
On two occasions I've exceeded that word count. One more than doubled it and the other nearly tripled it. For these I posted the serially. To be fair, the second one was a fan fiction to continue the unfinished story of another author who had posted 24 chapters as a serial and to do anything else wouldn't have worked anyway still my contribution to the story was 59K.
One of my pet peeves are unfinished serials and when I started posting stories, I vowed to never contribute to that here on BCTS.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
thank you!
I am hoping to someday complete the works I've been working on. I believe I have six that need finishing. Most of these need some serious rewriting to finish. Currently, I only have 2 on my drives that I'm working on actively; Part 2 of Mobius and another rather silly story that is in outline form and will remain that way when posted.
I think when I post things serially, my quality declines significantly. My one offs are much better received than the serials. I guess that's why I'm asking for opinions and comments.
A longer story has much time for character developement. Many things can end up disagreeing with things said in the earlier parts. with a mystery, things can get very unclear - Although that is somewhat desirable as you don't want things too easy to solve, you don't want your reader slogging through mud, trying to understand what's going on.
That's why your earlier comment is so appreciated.
Another thing I have problems with, from my pov, is I tend to focus on dialogue and not actions, descriptions, feelings, sensations...
It's quite a well known fact that NBC told Gene Roddenberry that Star Trek was too cerebral. I'd rather "sell" my stories the first time rather than rely on a second pilot. LOL. or a rewrite...
I appreciate what people have said, and I hope for more. Meanwhile, I need to stitch up my computer after some surgery, then I can post the ending of Mobius. My file server decided to quit on me, and I had to move my data raid from it into my desktop. Hence the reason I use raids. :-) They can be a lifesaver! This is also why I don't recommend hardware raids. When the hardware dies...
Anyway.
For those reading Mobius, let me know what you think of the conclusion.
Hugs!
Rosemary
My Experience
Is mixed. I posted my multi-part story 'An Unexpected Christmas Gift' and received quite a few comments on each chapter, which was gratifying. Then I decided to combine all the chapters into a single volume and post that. I received more reads than I had anticipated but very few additional comments.
So my view is that a story will benefit from being served up in relatively small doses so that readers can comment as the story proceeds. However I know that there are readers who will wait for a conclusion before tackling a serial. It's really up to the audience to decide!
I agree with Joanne
Naturally!
As an author, I get much more useful feedback on longer stories when I post them as serials (regardless of whether I post them as I’m writing or wait until I’m done). I find out what connected and what didn’t throughout the story. What made readers laugh, or cry. What minor characters made an impression, and why. Readers often have insights into my stories that I didn’t see. Comments at the end of a novel that’s posted as one unit tend to be more general, or focus on the ending.
There’s another aspect of posting as a series that I really love. It allows a community to develop around a story, almost like a book club. Readers even comment on each other’s comments, like they would if you were all sitting around together in big comfy chairs. It brings people together, and that’s magical. Priceless.
— Emma
But Emma
She said, taking a sip of her glass of Malbec, and settling back into her armchair, in front of the late Autumn fire, I would suggest that that is exactly what BC does best.
Give us a (safe) place to form our own little book communities, congregated about stories we enjoy, and writers who interest us.
For my sins, I am a fan of books which explore the emotions and characters of people, rather than "plot" led books where "things" happen to a cast who, frankly, I don't find believable. As I read those books I enjoy , "the usual suspects" of likeminded others seem to gather round, and yes, we do form a community, knowing each others foibles and having a pretty good guess at who else will turn up and join in.
Oh, and Emma, do have another of those scones, I baked them barely an hour ago. A glass of Sauv Blanc Joanne?
Tongue firmly in cheek, Lucy xx
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."
Bitch!
Lucy, You know I don't like Sav Blanc! But I'll have a glass of something else with you any time!
A big hug for you!
Couldn't Really Amswer...
...until the last part of Mobius went up. I couldn't tell how much of my confusion was due to problems with the story (I should say, with my reading of the story) and how much was with the presentation.
I can say now that I think I would have been much better off reading it all at once, than at trying to remember details from earlier sections having read other stories in between. To what extent I'd generalize that into a full preference for complete stories, I'm not really sure.
(The reason I didn't respond to your public offer for beta readers/editors was because I was having trouble keeping things straight. None of the people whose stories I'd been editing have anything for me right now; two or three of them aren't here any more. No comment about a possible correlation...)
Eric