Should I publish before the whole story is finished?

[HisDivineShadow]

Right now I’m facing a choice, either rush to finish the rough draft of my book, or take my time revisiting the chapters I’ve already written, polishing them up and publishing little by little.
I’ve talked to some experienced writers, people who’ve been doing this for years, and their advice was: just keep writing the story while it’s alive in you, don’t look back. Only after you’ve written the final sentence should you go back and start refining.
The thing is, if I follow that advice, I won’t be getting any feedback or motivation along the way. On the other hand, let’s be honest most readers don’t even bother to leave a like, so the motivation to publish regularly kind of dies off anyway.
So I’m stuck: do I go offline and just write the whole thing without looking back? Or do I keep publishing bit by bit, slowly, as I polish chapters?
For context, I’ve already polished the first 15 chapters enough to show them to a reviewer, so they’re in decent shape.
I’d really like to hear what others think, whether you’ve got experience or not. How do you handle this kind of thing?

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Wait to publish till you've finished.

 

[Minx]

Different people have different ways to finish the story. I like to write mine while getting feedbacks, however, I'd recommended to not follow my lead cause I never finish my story lol

So yes, it will be wiser to finish your story first before publishing them.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

If I waited until I was finished, I wouldn't have anything published anywhere... instead I have two "live" books on PocketFM (both with "versions" here as well), two finished with "live" sequels either in progress or set to start soon, and one that is a collection of linked short stories with the first story completed yesterday.
The act of publishing kind of compels me to continue (and, hopefully, eventually finish) the stories - but everyone is different, and different systems work for different people.

Though one thing - most of mine are meant to be serial fiction, and thus ongoing for quite some time - if that is NOT your goal, then finishing first is probably the best bet, but if that IS then you probably should have about a 20 chapter buffer before posting anything, and try to keep at least 10 ahead.

 

[Tyranomaster]

Ultimately, it heavily depends on your own process. I personally don't treat my webnovel as the final product. It's essentially a free alpha, the first draft, which people choose to support me in writing through patreon. It's a way to guage market value for a completed product. There is no way I'd have multiple hundreds of chapters now if no one wanted to read the story. Any webnovel website basically encourages a write as you go format due to how traffic works.

That doesn't mean you can't do it another way though. Often I see authors get discouraged too soon and drop series early. You do basically need 1 novel of content up before any story has a chance of taking off (70-100k words/70ish chapters). Often people drop a series they are writing at like 20k words never to finish it because it didn't take off. In that regard, having a whole book finished first will prevent you from having that issue.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

Ultimately, it heavily depends on your own process. I personally don't treat my webnovel as the final product. It's essentially a free alpha, the first draft, which people choose to support me in writing through patreon. It's a way to guage market value for a completed product. There is no way I'd have multiple hundreds of chapters now if no one wanted to read the story. Any webnovel website basically encourages a write as you go format due to how traffic works.

That doesn't mean you can't do it another way though. Often I see authors get discouraged too soon and drop series early. You do basically need 1 novel of content up before any story has a chance of taking off (70-100k words/70ish chapters). Often people drop a series they are writing at like 20k words never to finish it because it didn't take off. In that regard, having a whole book finished first will prevent you from having that issue.

So here’s the thing while I was working on the book that originally got me into writing (which, as it turns out, is probably going to be a whole series), a completely different story came to me. It’s a standalone and I started writing it mainly as a kind of practice.
At first, I only planned to write ten chapters, but somehow I already wrapped up the second arc. And now I feel like I’m drowning in all these projects.
And how do you even find the time to run a Patreon on top of all this? I started one, but the sheer amount of work just crushed me. How do you manage to juggle everything?

 

[AMR]

People out here finishing stories before they publish?

 

[roobYssence]

People out here finishing stories before they publish?

I had the same question ?

But I suppose not finishing it yet but having an ending in mind would help?
At least one would know which direction they want to take the story to...

 

[FemaleHolesLover]

Different people have different ways to finish the story. I like to write mine while getting feedbacks, however, I'd recommended to not follow my lead cause I never finish my story lol

So yes, it will be wiser to finish your story first before publishing them.

ahhh yes! The bane of all readers.....Authors dropping the story left a cliffhanger.....It like you author giving us foreplays only to suddenly get up and walk out of the door.......

 

[HisDivineShadow]

If I waited until I was finished, I wouldn't have anything published anywhere... instead I have two "live" books on PocketFM (both with "versions" here as well), two finished with "live" sequels either in progress or set to start soon, and one that is a collection of linked short stories with the first story completed yesterday.
The act of publishing kind of compels me to continue (and, hopefully, eventually finish) the stories - but everyone is different, and different systems work for different people.

Though one thing - most of mine are meant to be serial fiction, and thus ongoing for quite some time - if that is NOT your goal, then finishing first is probably the best bet, but if that IS then you probably should have about a 20 chapter buffer before posting anything, and try to keep at least 10 ahead.

I can already see the goal, but I don’t see the way to get there yet. I like writing. Either way, I wanted to see if these stories would be interesting to anyone besides me. That’s why I started publishing.
The problem is, SH doesn’t really seem like my target audience. Same with RR. So I still don’t know if there’s any real potential.

ahhh yes! The bane of all readers.....Authors dropping the story left a cliffhanger.....It like you author giving us foreplays only to suddenly get up and walk out of the door.......

If a reader doesn’t let the author know they’re enjoying the story, it feels like the author is shouting into the void… That’s how it is.

 

[HungrySheep]

I can already see the goal, but I don’t see the way to get there yet. I like writing. Either way, I wanted to see if these stories would be interesting to anyone besides me. That’s why I started publishing.
The problem is, SH doesn’t really seem like my target audience. Same with RR. So I still don’t know if there’s any real potential.

If a reader doesn’t let the author know they’re enjoying the story, it feels like the author is shouting into the void… That’s how it is.

There are only really a couple genres that give you a chance at blowing up when it comes to writing webnovels. If that's your reason to write, you will have to fall in line to realistically have a shot. Otherwise it's fine even if your audience is small. As long as it's reaching the people you want it to reach, you're doing just fine.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

There are only really a couple genres that give you a chance at blowing up when it comes to writing webnovels. If that's your reason to write, you will have to fall in line to realistically have a shot. Otherwise it's fine even if your audience is small. As long as it's reaching the people you want it to reach, you're doing just fine.

I’m into psychology and I love dragons :)
Not exactly what most readers come here for, so I’m not sure for now
Now I get that

 

[SurfAngel_1031]

Right now I’m facing a choice, either rush to finish the rough draft of my book, or take my time revisiting the chapters I’ve already written, polishing them up and publishing little by little.
I’ve talked to some experienced writers, people who’ve been doing this for years, and their advice was: just keep writing the story while it’s alive in you, don’t look back. Only after you’ve written the final sentence should you go back and start refining.
The thing is, if I follow that advice, I won’t be getting any feedback or motivation along the way. On the other hand, let’s be honest most readers don’t even bother to leave a like, so the motivation to publish regularly kind of dies off anyway.
So I’m stuck: do I go offline and just write the whole thing without looking back? Or do I keep publishing bit by bit, slowly, as I polish chapters?
For context, I’ve already polished the first 15 chapters enough to show them to a reviewer, so they’re in decent shape.
I’d really like to hear what others think, whether you’ve got experience or not. How do you handle this kind of thing?

I have two completed books and I released them chapter by chapter as I wrote them. I suppose my different way is that I've outlined the main story, subplots with names and such long before I get to the actual chapter. So when I sit down, I can easily type 2500 words of a 9000 word chapter.
Based on that outlook, my advice is plan everything and write. Release per chapter until you've finished. Easy peasy.

 

[AMR]

I had the same question ?

But I suppose not finishing it yet but having an ending in mind would help?
At least one would know which direction they want to take the story to...

Yes, absolutely.
I also try to have a general direction of where I want the story to go and then just type away.

 

[roobYssence]

I can already see the goal, but I don’t see the way to get there yet. I like writing. Either way, I wanted to see if these stories would be interesting to anyone besides me. That’s why I started publishing.
The problem is, SH doesn’t really seem like my target audience. Same with RR. So I still don’t know if there’s any real potential.

If a reader doesn’t let the author know they’re enjoying the story, it feels like the author is shouting into the void… That’s how it is.

I feel the same way, mostly on the bit where readers doesn't tell you what they think ?

I don't know where I should get decent feedbacks either since I'm only writing for fun and I'm a bit terrified of people who are very strong on their opinions ?

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

If a reader doesn’t let the author know they’re enjoying the story, it feels like the author is shouting into the void… That’s how it is.

While I understand this point of yours, I managed to finish my story (21 volumes, 5 arcs, 400+ chapters, and 1.2 million words) by pushing through and turning my eyes away from the low performance of the titles I wrote in the main site. My main goal was to finish something I started, anyway. A few readers did enjoy the story, to be fair, messaging me congratulations and their feelings about the end, which is nice.

And yes, I didn't make money off writing, which is significantly different from your motive why you write (your reason isn't wrong, just to be clear). Now, after a few months of self-doubt, self-pity, and dealing with my emotional condition, I'm on the next title I'm working on (two volumes in, but I'm not publishing it until I reached three to create 'backlogs' so I won't be in a hurry).

 

[WhaleSprite]

I think it depends on your process. But I think it would be wise to at least have an outline of where your story will be heading before you publish anything. If you publish while not having a solid direction, most of the time, there might come a point where you get stuck and don't know how to continue. Or realized you wanted something else from the story, but now you're too far in.

I publish as I write, but I've already have a pretty fleshed out outline of where I want my story to go, even if I'm constantly still refining the smaller details or story arcs.

 

[miyoga]

I finished mine before I published, but both of mine were short stories so I'm not the best example to follow. However, a lot of the people commenting here are absolutely right in what they're saying. If you choose to finish the main story and use the side project (the one on the 2nd arc) as a go-to for burnout or clearing your mind on the first, you've made a great choice. If you choose to publish as you finish each chapter (minus any backlogs) to get it out there and start self-promoting for later, you've made a great choice.

Point is there's a ton of people I follow on here who publish hundreds of chapters before taking a break, going back and re-visiting/editing the earlier work for physical publication. There's a ton of others who finish their stories and release them slowly so that they can edit as they release. Ultimately, because you're the writer and doing what works best for you, no matter what you choose to do, it's the right choice.

Speaking as a reader, I don't really care which way an author does things as long as they finish the story (or at the very least leave things on a satisfying cliffhanger where we can make our own ending). I rarely comment on chapters, and never like/favorite them, but the fact that I keep it on my list (and the list is public) should count for something. Dragons would do well on most sites, where people start getting turned off is the psychology stuff because it requires more brainpower than some people are willing to invest (there's a reason we call this place "smut hub").

 

[Xcalibur_Xc]

I write as I go, but I got a rough draft with an ending. So, get a draft of what you want, stockpile enough chs and then post. So, along the way, you will be able to improve depending on the feedback.

 

[Tyranomaster]

So here’s the thing while I was working on the book that originally got me into writing (which, as it turns out, is probably going to be a whole series), a completely different story came to me. It’s a standalone and I started writing it mainly as a kind of practice.
At first, I only planned to write ten chapters, but somehow I already wrapped up the second arc. And now I feel like I’m drowning in all these projects.
And how do you even find the time to run a Patreon on top of all this? I started one, but the sheer amount of work just crushed me. How do you manage to juggle everything?

I've got 2 pieces of advice on this, which may or may not apply in your situation.

1. Few authors realistically handle more than one project at a time. They might have two going, one that is their main project, then a second that is an easier, side story (which then sometimes morphs to become their main project). Some do, obviously, but most handle only one. It's hard to keep more than one coherent plot going in your head at a time. I write a story, and I have a pathfinder campaign that I run as my side creative endeavor. I have other stories that I'd like to write, but I know I'd be completely overwhelmed if I tried to write two stories at the same time. One thing I have found is that I can do groundwork stuff alongside my main project without much issue. That means researching the feasibility of other project ideas, or doing other writing related work that isn't actually doing plot. Art/character design/world building/etc. Things that go in my notes that would help me hit the ground running on a new project when I get to it (of course though, that makes me all the more eager to start said new project, which makes me less eager to write what I need to for my existing projects).

2. Once you get into a flow, Patreon isn't that bad. My advice, however, is that the old "create multiple tiers" advice is outdated for authors now. Realistically, you should probably just have 1 tier. Set the price at what you want, $10 is the norm. Most subscribers will get the highest tier anyway. I like that I have a handful of people at lower tiers, but ultimately, each tier is equal amounts of work for diminishing returns. My tiers are $2, $5, and $10 for 10, 20, 30 chapters ahead. That means I have to do all that extra work to support the lower tiers, which make up less than 10% of revenue. It's not *a ton* of extra work, but it does mean I spend about an extra hour a month maintaining patreon. I usually set aside a morning on a Saturday to schedule chapters there and on SH/RR. If you've got weird time windows that you could manage your patreon during where you wouldn't be able to do much else, then maybe it would be worth it.