Questions From a New Episode Author!

Hey there. I’m currently working on my first Episode story and I would love to hear the community’s feedback!!
Here’s the a bit of context to my MC. I’m telling a story that focuses a lot around mental health, how it impacts MC and the people around her. I wanted MC to be Asian because as an Asian with parents who have never been educated on mental health, I know that experience first hand, and I would love to share that part of my life in this story. DISCLAIMER!! This does not go to say that all Asians [parents] do not get the concept of mental health, and this definitely does not mean there are not other cultures, groups, etc. that struggle with the understanding of mental health.

  1. Should I have CC in my story? I’m afraid that doing no CC or limited CC, people will not want to read my story and this’ll discourage me.
  2. Do y’all hate author intros and/or outros?
  3. I personally don’t love when a chapter is so short but I don’t mind it because I know how much effort writing can be. How long should one chapter be?
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That’s your choice. Will you be using limb overlays And custom poses? If you are, then maybe not. If you want to envision your characters a certain way, don’t either. Unless you don’t care. If a reader doesn’t want to read just because of no CC, kinda stupid, don’t bother about that

They are very common in new stories. Honestly, I find them a little annoying, but I’ve done it before because I was a noob. Almost all noobs do this (not calling you one). And since it’s your first story, if you do it, then I don’t mind for myself

A good episode is around 10-15 minutes long

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Thanks for your response, I appreciate it!! <3
Do you know how many lines a 10-15 minute Episode would be?
Also, holy cow are you Viet??

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Woahh how do you know I’m veit because YES!!

Okay it all depends on how much advanced coding you’re adding compared to the lines. usually for me, it’s around 2k (no branching). If you’re branching or add all the extra stuff etc, it may take a lot more. Some authors even make up to 20k lines and that’s with branching

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It’s up to you, if you want the mc to look a certain way or if the way she looks impacts the story in anyway then don’t add it in. Most readers prefer cc tho.

YES I HATE IT!!
Just don’t do it.
I clicked on your story because i was intrigued and i want to know what it’s about, i don’t want to have to tap through the author speaking or describing the characters. Show me not tell me.

It depends if you have advanced directing. On my old story that i scrapped, it was up too 8000 lines and i was only on scene 3.
So the lines don’t matter as much because you don’t actually know how long it is by the lines as it can vary.
I would recommend writing your story and then using a stopwatch and reading through it to see how long it is. (then you get to proofread aswell)
I personally like stories between 10-15mins
If it’s 20+ i will get very bored very quickly.
If it’s -10 I wouldn’t read the rest of the story because it’s not worth my passes :woman_shrugging:

Just my opinions :smiley:

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  1. CC is completely optional, whatever you feel is best.
  2. I prefer outros over intros personally. I did it in my story when I first started (almost everyone does honestly :joy:). Overall though, if an author makes a statement at the beginging or ending of a chapter for a genuine reason (not just thank you so muchhhhh it’ll get betterrrrrr I promiseeeee), then there is no issue at all in my opinion.
  3. 10-15 minutes is the amount most readers want, however, if you plan on updating more regularly then 5-10 minutes is fine, especially if you release chapters in batches of 2-3 chapters.
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If the MC is supposed to be the reader, yes. If the MC is supposed to play as a character, no.
In this case, the MC is Asian. Therefore, no. However, you can add limited CC, such as eye colour, lip colour, etc.

Readers should be more interested in your plot, characters, directing, etc than CC.

I prefer Intros over outros. I’ve seen some really creative ones.
However, if the intro includes the author, I’d probably stop reading.

15 minutes. But I’ve heard some people read hour long episodes.

Regardless, the flow of the chapter is more important. Don’t overfill or underfill your episodes.

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1. Should I have CC in my story? I’m afraid that doing no CC or limited CC, people will not want to read my story and this’ll discourage me.
I don’t have CC and It’s fun because I can have my character the way I imagined them. So you don’t need to put it and honestly its irritating to put It in anyways.

2. Do y’all hate author intros and/or outros?
I like author intro’s because they tell you what to expect from the story and introduces you to the author. I don’t like author outro’s.
3. I personally don’t love when a chapter is so short but I don’t mind it because I know how much effort writing can be. How long should one chapter be?
I think the length depends on what YOU want to do in your story. If you feel like it should be short then make it short. You can make it long but don’t make it too long. Too long for me is over 15 minutes. I also appreciate you saying that you know how much effort writing can be so you don’t care.

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havent read what others said so I am just gonna give my opinion

  1. personally I dont care. but a lot do, CC is your choice. I think you should add cc because you are new and wont be using art scenes and bodyoverlays. (at least I dont expect you would, ) and a lot of people can be really rude about CC. I just had a complaint over not haveing all cc features in my CC templet, which I actually do. I dont know what happened there, so yeah people are rude

  2. I dont like authors walking into the scene starting to explain, and you should never say sorry the story is bad. if you feel like saying that DONT publish. wait to you no longer feel bad about it.

  3. the qustions who has been asked a 1000 times already. and my conclusion is around 10 minuts but dont go over 15

bonus : I wont recomand writhing about your own life. because honestly no one has an interesting life. ofcourse you can if you really want you shouldnt stop just because I say so. I have mentally health provblems too and I woldent write about because its just not interesting.

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  1. It’s up to you
  2. Yep
  3. 10-15 minutes
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Because Mỹ Anh is clearly Viet, haha :slight_smile:
If you ever wanna chat, I made a new IG for my Episode acc, it’s @/epi.lilydee !!
Hm, okay that makes sense I think I’ll try that and see how long it takes me to read it! Thank you for your input :heart:

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Thank you sm for your feedback, it was super helpful <333

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Hey there! It’s great that you want to write on Episode! It takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication, but it’s fun and worth it! As someone who has an Asian family and is half Chinese, I definitely relate to that topic. Just make sure to add twists, turns, lots of conflict, and a lot of tension in your story! Make the plot engaging.
It’s best to have CC in your story. Some people don’t mind not having CC, but it’s best to include it, because a lot of readers do like CC or prefer it. You can tell the reader that if they change the MC’s look too much, it won’t match the story. CC is easy to add. You can use Dara.Amarie’s customization templates.
I don’t hate author intros/outros, but it’s better to just have a regular intro/outro. A short intro with warnings, overlays, and music is nice. And an outro with tappable overlays that readers can tap on that will answer questions such as your updating schedule, your instagram if you have one, and the background credits. Having a character walk up to a black screen and just explain that it’s your first story is boring, and I don’t like it when authors do that. You can include an optional message for readers to read at the end of your first chapter to explain all that stuff.
I recommend about 1000 lines of story telling. That excludes long lines of spot directing, overlays, and customization. A lot of scripts will sometimes be over 4000 lines, but that’s usually because there is a lot of directing, coding, and many lines of coding for customization. 1000 lines of basic directing (like, a character’s position, a speech bubble’s position, and animations) and dialogue, where you’re actually telling the story. Of course, episode 1 tends to be much much shorter. Most readers, in my experience, prefer chapters that last 7-12 minutes. Make sure not to make the chapter too long though, because no matter how good your story is written, readers may inevitably loose focus or just click out of your story.
You can message me if you have more questions! I’d be glad to help. I wrote my first story months ago, and it was bad. I’m currently pre-writing a story.
Happy writing! I hope I helped. :slight_smile:

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@xXMagicalUnicornXx Agreed! I’m just a bit conflicted since some people think intros/outros are a good way to get familiar with the author but I’d also rather just start the story as to telling them what it’s about, you know? Thanks for your reply!!

@LaurelleE27 Wait, that’s a good way of looking at it- since MC isn’t supposed to be the reader, and that CC is not more important than the story itself. I think I’ll do the limited customization, thanks so much!

@Kbail True, I guess I felt like if I added no CC my fanmail would consist of, “Can we CC plz??!”
Intros ARE a good way to connect with your reader, for sure. However, some people may get irritated and stop reading, haha- I’m a bit conflicted.
Thanks for your reply <3

@line123462 You’re right, some people can get really rude about CC which is why I’m trying to put a lot of thought into CC, no CC, or limited CC.
Also, yeah I get it. This isn’t an autobiography though, so it’s not about my life, and it won’t be just about mental health, I just want to spread mental health awareness through my story without making mental health the whole storyline if that makes sense! Don’t worry haha (:
Thank you for taking the time to leave me some feedback!!

@Amphia Wow! I appreciate you leaving this reply!! Thank you so much, it was super helpful (:
Asian representation !! <3

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Ohhh you saw my bio I thought it was because sherry sounded like something viet parents would name an America child LMAO but yes!! Follow me on ig @rabecca.stories and we can totally talk more!! :heart:

I’d say the majority of people prefer not to have to read an intro/outro

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  1. I personally prefer stories which don’t have CC, I feel like it becomes more personal and I love that!
    It’s up to you whether you have CC or not, you could always limit the CC so it still feels right for you!
  2. I much prefer a author outro that’s quick! (&necessary)
  3. However long you prefer, some episodes may need to be longer than others for your plot! :heart:

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