Chapters versus Nodes - Name Change? (sorry if this was in the wrong section before)

Something that's been on my mind for a while, and I'm not sure this is absolutely necessary, just a convenience sort of thing to satisfy my OCD, but when you click on an answer to the question to advance to the next part of the story at the bottom of every page, maybe it should be called a Node instead of a Chapter? In literary terms, it just feels like the word Chapter should be reserved for a larger chunk than is typical for each iteration of a given story. I myself have made a habit of posting a chapter number and title at the top of each new upload entry, but I have also found myself trying to explain my stories to people, and finding the nomenclature of chapter versus Chapter to be a bit confusing in conversation.

Thoughts? Is this change more trouble than its worth after it's been this way for years, or am I on to something that could be helpful to others without my OCD?

The second and to a lesser extent third definitions are the ones I was looking at.

 

Are you meaning chapters that are generally just stub entries and a bridge between two longers chapters?

 

I'm meaning the way the entire site is labeled right now, where every time you click to go to the next page or choose a new path, it's called a "chapter" when most people don't write full chapter length entries for each of these.

My main story has 5 "chapters" (lower case) between the intro and the end of "Chapter 1" (upper case) for instance. Another 6 for "Chapter 2", then 13 for "Chapter 3", 11 for "Chapter 4" and finally, I've posted 19 entries in "Chapter 5" (not counting Interludes) and it's still not finished. My story is labeled as being "57 chapters deep" with "97 chapters" total, but that counts every entry or "node" as I'm suggesting we call them, including seven Interludes that are each about 2 posts/nodes long.

Does that make sense?

Again, I'm not saying this is wrong, or bad in any way, just mildly confusing, and a little frustrating to my OCD.

 

There is no standard for what counts as a full chapter length, it is up to the authior. Same with the terminology used. What you call Chapter 1 someone else might call Part 1, or Seasons 1, or Arc 1, or... you get the idea. So there is no one correct answer here.

 

That's actually not true. There are in fact literary standards for chapter length that even vary to some degree based on genre. Most such standards are loose and adaptable, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Maybe I should have said 'typical' chapter length from a literary perspective.

And I already said the way it is currently isn't wrong, just perhaps not as clear as it could be. And clarity of conveying ideas is the whole purpose of language.

 

I get what you are saying but I personally have no issues with those being described as chapters. The longest branch in my story sits at twenty six chapters. I'm entirely fine with those being described as chapters.

Yes, but the discussion is the context of chapter on choya and not the wider literary description. On Chyoa a chapter is any individual story post which can be a single image or 10,000 words. What you are describing is entries is I'm guessing what everyone else would be describing as chapters.

 

The context is both, actually. I'm using the example of a wider literary description as to why it gets a little confusing sometimes to have these entries called 'chapters' by default, and why I think it might be a good idea to change it. Again, I'm not asking if people have an issue with it, I'm asking if people can see why it might be useful to make a change in the terminology, so that people that do want to separate Chapters out differently from individual 'nodes' can do so with greater clarity. Mine is hardly the only story on the site that does this.

 

To answer your question, then no, I don't think it would be useful or that there is any need to change it. Its been chapters for at least a decade I fail to see why there is any need to change it.

 

Again, it's not so much about need, it's about clarity. Even if you don't think it should be changed, I'm hoping you can at least see where I'm coming from and why I'm making the suggestion. Why it could be useful, even if you don't think it's worth the trouble it might cause.

Just because something has been one way for a decade, doesn't mean it couldn't be helpful to change it. There have been many changes to the site over the past few months. Are you saying they are all bad simply because they were another way for many years?

 

But things aren't unclear and neither would really it be a useful change. Yes, I get the point that just because some things have been that way for a long time doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed except in this case, I fail to see the point. Nothing is broken, things aren't unclear, everything works as it should.

 

You've clearly never tried to have a conversation about a story that had designated Chapters that didn't align with the number of 'chapters' listed, or you wouldn't be so quick to assert that things aren't unclear. I tried to explain why and how things can get confusing the way they currently are, but I guess you just aren't understanding where I'm coming from in that regard.

 

Well so far you've not actually linked to any of your work on the site or provided examples of where this creates that difficulty.

 

Seriously? Are you just trolling now? Do you not know the definition of "examples"?

I'm done.

 

No, it was a legitimate request for you to provide an actual example of how this effects your work.