WIPs and Chaptered Stories vs Oneshots

[amorette.livejournal.com]

Crossposted from my journal as part of this month's writing series.

I think there used to be a lot more chaptered stories in fandom than there are now, where the landscape is primarily taken by the "one shot" which is just a story that is delivered all at once, whatever length. It makes me think about the nature of stories, what draws some writers to chaptered fics and some to one shots.

I have a theory that the more fests there are, the more oneshots there will be, just because of the nature of writing for a fest, and also writing multiple fests at once. But there are fandoms out there where there are much fewer fests than in HP fandom but still loads of oneshots. I ponder patterns such as these simply because it's fun to think about how different stories take form :D

1. As a writer, what do you mostly gravitate toward? Do you write in chapters, or do you write one-shots? (Personally, I gravitate toward writing one-shots, although I've just started dabbling with chaptered things... mostly because I just don't want to finish the whole thing before posting and because I enjoy getting feedback little by little)


2. If you write in chapters, how long do you usually make them? (Personally, I find that my chapters are very short, about 1-2k each)


3. What makes a chapter, and what makes a scene?


4. What is the nature of stories in chaptered and one-shot form? Are there similarities and differences?

I was going to comment on length, but I honestly don't think length plays a large role here. I've seen long oneshots and short chaptered fics, and vice versa.