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How often is too often to update?

LightningTopaz

LightningTopaz

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How often is too often to update a fic, in your opinion?

I've learned that every other day is my absolute minimum, but I tend to try update weekly or every two weeks if I can. (sometimes even longer if I have to do a lot of planning for an episode)

What do you think? Do you update every other day? Is daily too often to update?
 
I don't think so - you can update whenever you'd like. Nothing beats frequent updates, actually. I'm a fan reader of a lot of fanfics, but it makes me rage a bit when I really want to know what's going to happen next, and there's no update.

I think an update every two weeks is fine at the most if you have your regular fan readers :)
 
Well, personally I think a week is perfect, every other day if the chapters are short, and at most two weeks if the chapters are long.

So, it really depends.
 
More than once every couple days seems to be a bit much. Anything longer than 3 weeks, though, unless chapters are especially long, seems to be too much time. I agree that it depends on the length of chapters, and also what's currently happening in the fic.
 
I think really if your fic is in demand and you like writing it, you should update as frequently if you want.

If you're not being pressured by readers, or you have none, no worries how quickly you update.
 
i update once every week; everyday is a little bit unnecessary for me and i think it would annoy some people. updating a week is kind of like when you're following your favorite tv show and they only update once a week so it gives you a sense of plotting about what's going to happen in the next chapter and anticipate the update more. since i generally write long chapters, i hope to please my followers enough with them so their one week craving can be satisfied.
 
Personally I think that if your chapters are huge and have very high quality and plenty of things going on, then around monthly would be alright. Though if your chapters are shorter and feature less material, then weekly would be alright. This might be a little biased as I’m used to reading manga on weekly/monthly basis and I have sorta built that into my thought pattern about when are good suspense points, where are terrible places to cut off, etc. I also think that if you update quicker than once a week, some people might not be able to keep up (lately I’ve had very little time to actually sit down and read some of the interesting mystery dungeon themed fics I’ve wanted to read) though if the person really wants to keep reading they’ll find a way. In the end, I figure that once you get a steady updating pattern, you try to keep it steady so that the readers can gain a sense of stability and that they don’t have to rush through the chapters in order to stay up to date. That and it really bugs some readers if you have a steady schedule then suddenly don’t update for no reason. –ignores fact that his own fic is 4 weeks without updates-
 
Personally, as long as it's good quality, I think the frequently-er the better. The MLP fanfic "The Prince and the Workhorse" has been updating between at a ridiculous pace (from once a day to once every three days) and it is GLORIOUS.
 
I actually reckon that any more often than weekly is overkill, unless you're trying to catch up to where you've posted elsewhere (as I did with Champion Game initially; even then, I kept it to two chapters a week, three absolute maximum). I tend to post chapters whenever they're finished, simply because these days I don't have the time to sit down and churn them out every couple of days. Once upon a time, I had a backlog and a release schedule, and life was glorious and full of rainbows. Hehe, those were the days. In any case, I actually find it really difficult to keep up with fics that update with relatively high frequency. To be 100% honest, I've yet to find an in-progress fic that has grabbed me to the extent that I can't wait for the next chapter. I only really get time to sit down and read fanfiction once a week if I'm lucky, between homework and school and prefect duties and Facebook and tumblr. I don't mind waiting weeks or a month for a chapter update; if it's worth the wait, I'll keep reading happily, and if it isn't, I'll likely stop reading.
 
I'm guilty of taking a long time in between chapters. I understand how it could be off putting and hard to follow when there is such a large gap in time.

I think about once a week is pretty good if you are able. Sometimes real life makes this difficult though.
 
I am constantly writing, so whenever I finish a story, I update it. I have some stories that get updated more regularly, but the longer ones usually have more of a break before being updated (sometimes even two months). Hopefully your readers are loyal enough to stay tuned
 
Well I personally like to read fics like I watch tv shows All in one go until I reach the point in which I have to start waiting. But with my fics I just release a new chapter when it's done.
 
For your average story, once a week is perfect, really. Many readers are busy outside of weekends and stuff like that. But if you want to update more frequently, go for it! (but bi-weekly is a maximum, IMHO) And don't go over a month without updating; you have a responsibility to your readers after all P: (preferably no more than two-three weeks though; depending on chapter length)
 
When I was writing Rival's Story and I had a lot more time on my hands than I did with when I was writing my later fics, I updated it twice a week. However, the chapters I wrote for Rival's Story were unusually short, so I think that's probably the only reason why I managed to do that whilst retaining readers. I think what people have said about aiming for once a week is probably good advice.

Obviously, though, we all have real lives and it's important not to get too crazy about updating that frequently. I've seen many fics that updated far less frequently than that and still retain readers.
 
Updating daily is a bit excessive.

Biweekly/Triweekly is the fastest time that I would go for.

But I can deal with fics that take months to updates (Cornova's Poké Wars universe comes to mind) if the writing is really high quality.
 
I tended to complete a fic before I post it (I've never written a fic larger then 15 chapters though) and one time I had a lack of reviews and I promised to update more if I had more reviews. I know it's bad, but it was fun to try it one time.
 
As people have already stated, I believe it depends on the length of the chapters. For example, the chapters of my Mario fic Super Luigi: Battle Star Legend are fairly short, so when I'm not in writer's block with it (which I was for months, but recently began working on it again. Now I've almost got a new chapter ready), I update it rather frequently.

The chapters of my Zelda fic and Fire Emblem fic are much longer though, so they take more time to update. Still, I try to update as often as I can so I don't keep my readers waiting too long, especially when a chapter ends with a cliffhanger.

If I already have some chapters complete, but not posted, I usually add one chapter a day.
 
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