Not to give undue weight to something I saw one person complain about one time

[dira]

...But, look, I will take any opportunity not to write, so: a question about reading very long fic on the AO3 (say, 75-100,000 words, as a totally random hypothetical).

Do you care if there are chapters? Is that a thing? I personally kind of enjoy having escaped the tyranny of having to break a story into parts for posting because it makes my life easier--and I tend not to pay much attention to chapter divisions when reading--but apparently a non-zero number of people really prefer having chapters, so now I am curious.

Comments

[fullygoldy]

I understand chapter divisions as a narrative device, so if the story is written with them specifically, then ok. But I tend to like the giant post with the individual chapter headings, over the AO3 way of clicking on an arrow to get to the next one. It's kind of embarassing, but sometimes I forget that's a thing, and I'm sitting there going "bwuh? where's the story?" until I remember again.

[dira]

Have you heard the good news of the "Show entire work by default" profile option? Because yes.

[frostfire]

I am mostly anti-chapter! I mean, with the AO3, all you have to do is click once to see the whole story, and yet, uh, I still would rather not have to do that. As the commenter above, if there's a narrative reason for there to be chapters, then okay! But like you, I hardly notice chapter divisions when I'm reading. (I feel like the best internet-reason for chapters ceased existing long ago--remember when stories were broken up into pieces so it wouldn't be too much of a burden to *load*? Oh, dial-up.)

Unrelated: OMG DID YOU SEE THE TRAILER DID YOU SEE IT? I MIGHT DIE BEFORE MAY. SO MANY FEELINGS.

[iulia]

I ACTUALFAX GASPED AT THE END OF IT.

[susan_voight]

Don't care.

(Well, okay, it's a little nice, when making a podbook of a long podfic, to have actual chapters to put chapter markers at. That very minor consideration is the only thing that comes to mind for me about my interactions with long stories.)

[isweedan]

Yep, this!

[poisontaster]

I prefer chapters, because I don't--can't--read long fic in a single sitting or even a single day and my computer will not hold my place on a infinite rolling screen, so every day, I'd lose my place, which makes it not worth the hassle.

[mlyn]

This. My phone likes to randomly refresh pages, and trying to find your place (when you can't remember where you left off when you got off the bus that morning) in 100,000 words is agony.

Not to mention it gives good opportunities for stopping for bedtime or something. If I did that. Or revisiting favorite scenes in certain chapters! I DO do that.

I respect the argument for only using chapters as a narrative device, but I'm more relieved than irritated to see a long fic broken into chapters.

[montanaharper]

It doesn't matter to me much either way. I don't read things that long on the computer; they all get downloaded as epubs to my iPad and read in Stanza anyway, so I don't even have to click on the "next chapter" link. (Though I have occasionally been flummoxed by shorter things with chapters...when I get to the bottom and the story seems kind of incomplete, and it takes me a minute to realize that there's more, if only I clicky the button.)

Though that leads me to my personal pet peeve, as someone who downloads long stuff to the iPad: stories posted as a series when they probably ought to be chapters in a WiP because they're not narratively complete on their own. Partly that bugs me because I like to know something is a WiP before I make the decision to start reading it (or not), and partly because downloading stories in a series (and compiling them into a single epub for reading convenience) is more labor-intensive than downloading a chaptered work. </entitlement>

[amalthia]

There is a plugin for Calibre called Epubmerge that will merge stories into a single file. I use it for series all the time.

[pollitt]

I'm pretty easy (no laughing ;)

If I download to my kindle, it's nice to be able to jump to a chapter if it makes sense in the narrative breaks, but if I'm reading on my computer, I just choose to read all at once.

I wouldn't think less of an author either way.

[j00j]

I can go either way. If it's a fic that long, I'm probably going to download it to my phone anyway (reading fic on the train is the best! As is reading fic in bed without a heavy computer!), so the divisions don't matter as much (though I do notice that there are chapters and appreciate them as a narrative device when used as such). If I'm not reading in Stanza or iBooks I sometimes appreciate chapters because I don't have to scroll forever, though, and can theoretically stop and do something else at the end of the chapter (usually doesn't work. JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER! *several chapters later* SHIT, HOW IS IT THIS FAR PAST MY BEDTIME?!)

[ailis_fictive]

If I'm reading on AO3, I default to single-page..

But anything over about 25k words, I tend to put in epub on my iPod--which gets a little grouchy when the epub "chapters" get too long. So I have a minor preference for chapters on really long stuff, just so my antiquated iPod touch doesn't have fits.

[jest]

If there is a really long story that I can't read in one sitting, chapters make it easier to pick up where I left off. I jump between many shared computers home-work-library-school-otherwork so picking up where I left off without bookmarking is a big deal.

[joyfulseeker]

I tend to prefer everything in one page load because I'm often skimming fic via wifi on my ipod touch, so if it's chaptered and I lose wifi I have lost the rest of the story for a little while! This might just be a special case, though.

[dira]

IDK if you tend to be logged in on your ipod, but you can set a preference on the AO3 to show you the entire work by default, which might help with those?

[umadoshi]

The system I do most of my fic reading on is very good about remembering where I was in a long story on AO3, so I have no real preference. (I haven't yet experimented with putting really lengthy fic on my ereader, though, so I don't know how that'll go. Logistical difficulties would make me suddenly appreciative of chapter breaks.)

[sage]

I default to a single non-chaptered view. The thing that makes me crazy is people's chapter notes interrupting the text, since I listen to fic via text-to-speech reader. Nothing kills momentum and makes me forget what just happened at the end of a chapter like the next chapter's #*@! notes interrupting the flow. (I know, this is a problem only for like 0.0002% of people. It just makes me batty. :P)

Author's notes at the beginning and/or end of the work are fine. It's just the ones added to individual chapters I have issues with.

[keerawa]

SECONDING what sage said.

I read either 'entire work by default' on the AO3, or downloaded ePubs on my phone, so chapters don't bother me either way. So I'm fine with or without chapter breaks.

However, reading a tense scene, wondering how our narrator could possibly survive, and then having my flow disrupted by the author sharing her apologies about how long this next chapter took, because she went on holiday to Spain, and her cat had kidney stones, but her beta is amazing DRIVES ME UP THE WALL!

[derryderrydown]

I stick it straight on my ebook reader, and really don't notice whether there are chapters or not.

[nestra]

Yeah, for anything that size, it's probably going on my Kindle, so it doesn't matter.

[templemarker]

definitely non-chapters. The only exception is that if someone writes a number of stories independently of one another in the same verse, the ability to view all those stories as "chapters" in a single work is infinitely preferable to navigating through each comparatively short story as a separate work. but most people still post them as separate stories in a series, which is equally understandable.

[hermitsoul]

As long as I have the option to view it all on one page like on AO3, I'm fine. I just don't always have the best internet connection, and it's frustrating to have to open twenty tabs just to make sure I can read the entire story. (the joys of living in a rural area!)

[mmegaera]

I prefer chapters, but that's mainly because I'm old-fashioned and traditional that way.

Possibly really old-fashioned, because I don't think I've ever read a fic that's actually book-length [wry g].

[amalthia]

I'm flexible about chapters now that more authors are posting to A03. Otherwise, they are the bane of internet reading! or reading on a tablet device. Though I will say sometimes chapters are helpful for jumping to later points in super long fic.

But for me I can take them or leave them. (I care more about the single file aspect which A03 is great with)

EDIT: forgot to add I read the majority of fic on my sony reader...

[exceptinsects]

I rarely notice chapters, even in books, so either way is OK, but I prefer them all together, not separate pages, if possible.

[(Anonymous)]

If a fic is under 35,000 words I like to read it in one section. But, I find that anything longer, if you have to refresh it or read it in multiple sittings, it’s easier if there are chapter breaks (long chapters, such as a 50,000 word fic in two parts). It’s partly practical: if the scrollbar is at the smallest size, it can be really hard to navigate, especially if you’re trying to reread you favorite parts. I find that the longest sections I’m comfortable with is about 35,000 words, more or less, and at most 40,000. Anything larger than that is too large to easily manage (at least in my experience). If people prefer to see the entire work, regardless of length, that is an option on AO3.

[terrio]

When I encounter a chaptered story on AO3 (or elsewhere, for that matter), my first move is to consolidate it by one means or another into a one-page document. I don't care if there are chapter headers inside it, but I want it all on one web page.

Fortunately, AO3 lets you do that with a single mouse-click, so it's pretty much a moot point there. I would be willing to let the chapter-lovers have their way, since it's so easy for me to still get what I want.

[northern]

I'm not really into chapters, but I don't hate them. Unless they're posted in WIP format.

[ruric]

I really don't mind either way - but if I absolutely had to jump one way or the other it would be for non-chaptered works *G*

[astridv]

Unless the structure of the story asks for it I don't care about chapters. I always download longfics in one chunk to reformat and print them, so as long as I can get the whole story in one file and don't have to patch the chapters together manually, I'm happy.

[askerian]

Chapters please. On AO3 I default to single page anyway but I like having section markers for if I get interrupted in the middle. Plus if the fic's longer than about 30K it gets impossible to find something again.

[beck_liz]

Since anything of that size I download for my Kindle, chapters don't really matter to me. It is occasionally nice to have a chapter marker to help find your place (normally the Kindle keeps your place, but every once in awhile something funky happens) or go back to re-read a section you particularly liked, but mostly I don't care either way.