This is going to be a post specifically geared toward longfic writing (“long fiction”, or “long fanfiction”)—or any writing that is published chapter-by-chapter instead of all at once. It is becoming more and more common online in spaces outside fandom. And it is its own special hell.
I’m not exactly sure how to describe it past that. Truth is, I literally started writing stories in middle school and they were all multi-chaptered, sprawling messes. The only “short stories” I’ve written in my life have been oneshots that you can see on my ff.net and ao3 that I fully admit to existing but will not link here. I came out of the womb a novel writer.
Everyone approaches long projects differently. I know people who outline to hell and back, and I know people who go entire novels without an outline (it’s me, it’s always me, I don’t normally recommend it unless you have a weird brain like I do). Already having an outline is great!
Most writers I know, myself included, write things in order. 99% of the time this means in the same order it appears in your story—or at the very least, in chronological order. You can skip around, especially if you have an outline, but I advise you figure out what your self-discipline levels are like for that kind of thing. Personally, I cannot skip around; I must write in order or else my entire brainspace collapses, burying my novel forever.
Also, more important for longer projects than ever: get yourself a beta! This means someone not only to catch spelling/grammatical errors, but they can be wonderful sounding boards for ideas and stuff, too! (I’ve worked with and without betas, but I’ll forever be very pro-beta.)
And here is something important when posting a project chapter-by-chapter: don’t over-worry about finishing the story. Worry about writing the story. Some stories don’t get finished, and that’s okay. You shouldn’t be afraid to write a story just because you’re afraid you can’t do it. (You can always do it.)
There are too many budding authors out there who are afraid to start longer projects for fear of not finishing. Don’t do that! Do you know how many projects I have unfinished on my hard drive? A truly disgusting amount. But no written word is wasted, so even if that project does end up by the wayside, it is still valuable practice for you and your craft.
Also, you don’t have to have really long chapters. If you’re comfortable with 3k oneshots, that could be a good goal for your chapter length average! Or, if you’re trying to hit a certain plot point, or you look at it and you’re just like “hm” and think it’s too short, double or triple it! Find out what’s comfortable for you. (Also, chapter lengths don’t have to be strictly uniform, either.)
Also, totally unrelated to my disgustingly long chapters: don’t come up with a chapter naming scheme with a finite amount of chapters available. Just don’t.
Try to figure out a writing schedule that works for you. That’s true of any writing, however, not just longfic stuff. It’s super important to set aside time to Actually Write, even if you don’t end up doing much in that time.
Also, weird advice piece here, but don’t be afraid to have porn in multi-chaptered stories, either? I think it’s not so common anymore, but a lot of projects have had exactly one sex scene that acted as kind of a climax for the entire story—even if it’s not romance—and it’s just… strange. If you’re comfortable writing porn and it suits your story, don’t be afraid to relax into what you know once in awhile. (Chances are, your readers will like it, anyway.)
Tiny totally optional advice: build up a buffer before you post chapter 1. Have 2-3 chapters done, and this way you don’t have to immediately stress over the next update and can instead get gooey warm feelings from the feedback you get when you do post the first one. It can give you some very valuable breathing room early on, especially when you’re still excited and truckin’ along with your story.
The agonizing update pressure comes later, don’t worry.
