I’ve vaguely thought about writing my own episode story, but idk how much time it would take me. If any writers would be willing to give their input, it’d be much appreciated!
My main questions are:
This is so hard for me to answer. I’ve decided that it takes me on average, 15 hours to create a 15 minute episode. But there’s so many external factors that change that. Like am I motivated enough? Do I have free time? Am I doing a lot of branching or advanced directing? Do I need BG characters? Do I need outfits? Etc. Like, I know I’m capable of writing an episode in a couple of days but I’ve also taken a month just to finish one episode too.
I have one with over 30 episodes (ongoing), one with three (completed), two with four (ongoing)
This totally depends on your story and your goal. If you want to trend, as often as possible. If your story covers some serious topics, I also recommend as often as possible because some cliff hangers just shouldn’t be left hanging 
Without knowing what your story is about, I’d say updating once a month is pretty reasonable. It’s not too long that people will forget about your story, but long enough to make readers go “I’m so excited to see you updated today” because they probably weren’t expecting it
Lmao I’m the last person who should be answering this question, since I’m an outlier for sure. 
I’m kind of free-spirited when it comes to writing, I only finish 15% of it tops, and I currently have about 7 MS Word or Episode stories that I’d say I’m “working on.”
I started in August and I’m partway through ep5. 
But in that time, I also wrote 90% of the draft screenplay for the sequel. Why? Because. 
Story 1: 4 eps.
Story 2: ~10 eps.
Story 3: ~10 eps.
^ The first one doesn’t actually have 1 plot, it’s a series of shorts. The second two follow one intense, two-hour event, with some assorted flashbacks. If your story is going to show development over weeks or months of the character’s life, yours may be different.
For my particular case, I need to release mine when the story is complete (partly to be certain I finish, and partly because I’m making up the setting as I go and need to make sure the canon doesn’t change between ep1 and ep10 lmao). I’m undecided as to whether I should release the eps 1 per week once I’ve got the entire thing ready, or just drop them all with a big KERPLOP like novel writers do lol.
So to “normal” people writing continuously, 1 per week is the golden ideal. This is very difficult, though, if you either a) make quality episodes, or b) have something resembling a life. So do it how you feel, maybe have a couple eps completed but unreleased when you first publish, to give yourself a headstart. 
For me to write and entire episode with at least 1000 lines takes about an entire day… from
10am-12pm at least
My first answer is similar to Amber’s. If I had to guess it would take around 15 hours or more to complete 1 episode. It definitely depends for me on how motivated I am, how much free time I have, and if my plans are following through when it comes down to writing the episode.
I have one story that has 6 episodes which is completed. Another story of mine has 10 episodes which is ongoing.
Lmao! I can’t answer that because it takes me weeks nearly a month or two to release a freaking episode. But, I guess maybe weekly? But, this is also depending on the person’s schedule. I rather someone update in batches than to release an episode weekly.
Depends on how much of the episode I have planned and how exciting the episode is. If it’s an exciting episode it takes me less time. My GOAL is to write an episode a week but many times it turns into two weeks and I usually spend a few hours in the evenings and over 10 hours on the weekend. Every story I write, it takes me longer to pubish though because I have higher and high expectations for myself.
My stories have between 35 and 40 chapters each. I have 3 completed stories.
I personally think you should do what you can and what’s realistic for you. Don’t worry about what people want so much, especially in your first story. If I upload in a week, I usually have compliments that I release quickly. If I take closer to a month, I’m getting complaints.
Oh son of a gun- it depends. Usually writing 3000 lines which is my normal episode length- I would say around a week. Ugh and with overlays getting approved why not add a couple more days to that. It’s legit soooo time consuming but the outcome and the fun during writing is worth it.
Uh well I just started to revamp my one story which originally had 17 episodes- but I have revamped 6 of them so far. My other story has 13 episodes which was a short comedy story.
Honestly- do whatever makes you feel comfortable. If you want to post in a week or maybe even a month go for it. We know how much time it takes to publish.
If I’m motivated for Perfectly Aligned I can probably finish an episode in 8-10 hours, but the directing is simpler and the storyline is more direct; there’s not really any branching. When I was working on my contest entry the episodes were taking me like 10-20 hours-ish, so for that one I’m going to say 15-20 hours at a guess. If I get my butt in gear I can usually get an episode of PA done a week between sleep, work, sleeping due to work, etc.
Right now The Heiress only has 3 because it’s a contest entry and I’m not updating it until winners are announced. Perfectly Aligned has 11 at the moment and is still being continued.
This is a tough one. I’m going to say personally I don’t like taking over a month for updates, but that makes me a hypocrite because I haven’t updated PA since the beginning of December since I lost motivation for it/I was working on my contest entry.
I think this is something that each author has to decide for themselves. I do think, though, that if it’s been so long your readers are starting to forget what the story was even about, that might be the time limit.
Overall, though, I think a month is a decent amount of time for updates especially if a story has a lot of branching/more complex directing.
How long does it take you to write an episode? (in weeks, total hours, however you think makes sense)
It depends on the episode (i.e branching, directing etc), but anywhere from 15-30+ hours. I’d say on average 20-25? My newest story is taking me closer to 15 hours simply because the chapters are shorter and the directing is a little more simple than some of my others. The dialogue alone takes roughly 3 hours only (so the directing takes 12+ hours), but I’m also cheating a bit (this story is already written elsewhere, so a lot of it is copied).
How many episodes do your story/stories have?
My longest so far is 16 episodes including a bonus episode. Most of my stories are only 5 episodes because they were contest entries with an episode limit. The new one I’m working on will likely be 20-25.
How often should someone release a new episode, ideally?
Ideally? Weekly- at least. The more you release, the better your story will likely do (as it will be pushed up the ranks).
I’m trying to finish a few episodes of my new story before publishing so I can try to update frequently.
It takes me a week to finish an episode.
I’m doing the first three,
For all three stories
A story should be releasing or informing readers no more than bi-weekly.
When it comes to crafting a story, your writing pace will likely look differently from other people - just by nature of everyone having different mental states, processes, and how experienced they are. My writing pace could be very different now from my pace two years ago. But to answer your questions…
This one’s difficult to answer because I jump around a lot and have had setbacks in my own life while trying to write. Longer than others I think, because I like longer stories, am trying to develop a process that works for me, and try to get all my ducks in a row.
Pretty much all my WIPs and ideas with only a couple of exceptions are 20+ episodes.
If you’re somebody trying to grow your reader base, releasing on a regular schedule is the way to go. Basically write your story in advance and then release an episode once a week or every two weeks. Others go shorter than that (both in chapter time and release scheduling), but that’s the fast track to burning yourself out.
Depends of your personal time and how much directing and branching you have to do.
For my first story, I can write an entire episode in one afternoon, if I already have the BG and overlays. Adding to that afternoon, I have the hours I spend looking or editing BG, the directing so I would say 25-30h.
My first in Ink has 7 episodes and it’s on going.
My reviewers know how much of a cheater I’m because I already have 28 episodes lined up 
The second one is a contest entry and has 3 episodes, other 6 planned but I’ve only written a third of the 4th episode.
It depends on your personal time and how much you have ready. For my first story, as I’m comfortable I upload weekly or once a fortnight.
For my second story, I started writing the fourth episode, it’s a contest entry too. But in this case, I’m taking my time with that one as I have much on my plate now…
It depends on the content for an episode. If I have EVERY scene of that episode written on paper as well as all of the BGs(backgrounds) and overlays that I need around a week to 2 weeks. MAYBE a month if I am taking a while. If I don’t have all of the scenes written out on paper…a month or 2 ish.
It varies. I have 2 unpublished stories I am working on. One called The One. With one current episode, but I might start 2 tommorow. And my other story called Miracle, with 2 episodes.
For me, once a month because I would love to release 2 episodes per update.