So here's the tea:

My story is divided into Volumes, and we're sitting at around 7 volumes so far. Pretty good, no? Well, my IT ass thought "Hurr durr people should know clearly what Volume they're reading" so I decided to name my chapters as such:

[Vol. Number].[Ch. Number from the start of the Volume onwards]: [Ch. Name]

The reason this is dumb as shit is because you get chapters with titles like the latest one for example:

7.9: Steel bridge run (yes that is a JoJo reference)

I never realized this before somehow, but I can definitely see people mistaking my story for a new fiction with only 7 chapters. That being the case, you think I should scrap that and just name the chapters as one would normally, i.e. :

Chapter 130: Steel bridge run

Or maybe even:

Vol. 7 Ch. 130 - Steel bridge run (kinda prefer this one but it may not be the norm for RR)

Oh, and do be honest, please. The last thing I wanna hear is some "do whatever makes you happy :)" nonsense. Please tell me if I'm a moron or not (preferably using those words exactly).

I've never felt like such an idiot in my life... 

I feel this. That would make sense to me, but I work in several IT fields so a lot of things that are common sense to me just aren't common. (Like if Windows is upgrading from 10 to 11 and you see it restart, don't force restart it thinking something's wrong [yes, true story])

I also made a mistake for a while where once a new volume started, the chapter count would reset. So once Cerulean started, people were seeing chapters 1, 2, 3, etc when it was really 70, 71, 72. So I went and renamed all of them to match this. In my mind, restarting the count made sense until Zaq pointed out that all people saw once a day on latest update was "The First Flame: 8. Under the Light of a Paper Moon" which made the impression that the story is new in that context.

You usually miss stuff like this unless you look at it from a reader's perspective.

EDIT: I forgot to acknowledge it; I see you are a JoJo of culture as well.

Kobayashi Wrote: I feel this. That would make sense to me, but I work in several IT fields so a lot of things that are common sense to me just aren't common. (Like if Windows is upgrading from 10 to 11 and you see it restart, don't force restart it thinking something's wrong [yes, true story])

I also made a mistake for a while where once a new volume started, the chapter count would reset. So once Cerulean started, people were seeing chapters 1, 2, 3, etc when it was really 70, 71, 72. So I went and renamed all of them to match this. In my mind, restarting the count made sense until Zaq pointed out that all people saw once a day on latest update was "The First Flame: 8. Under the Light of a Paper Moon" which made the impression that the story is new in that context.

You usually miss stuff like this unless you look at it from a reader's perspective.

EDIT: I forgot to acknowledge it; I see you are a JoJo of culture as well.

Hell yeah, JoBros unite!

Word man, I'll rename all of the chapters appropriately tomorrow, rn it's literally 4AM and I really don't feel like booting up my PC again (and before anyone asks, I'll be damned if I do any editing on my phone)

Heheheh. Yeah, won't be fun for you. I renamed all of mine at chapter 90. Didn't take me too long. In your case, wellllll........that might be a while.

I've been using Volume 2 - Chapter 7: Bears Vs. Chickens or whatever.  I was thinking about changing it at some point, but I'm not sure what to change it to.  This website favors the Chapter 649 format where it's one very long story, but i prefer a volume approach.

Good luck with whatever you do.

James Wrote: I've been using Volume 2 - Chapter 7: Bears Vs. Chickens or whatever.  I was thinking about changing it at some point, but I'm not sure what to change it to.  This website favors the Chapter 649 format where it's one very long story, but i prefer a volume approach.

Good luck with whatever you do.

You could try what the Orange Teacher here was considering with Vol X - Ch Y : TITLE format, even if that's a bit clunky. It does mean shorter titles (which doesn't work for me with how I do things but to each their own)

Have more confidence in your readers - most of them will be fine with any system you use as long as you are consistent.  In some ways, having a more unique system of chapter naming may make you and your stories more memorable. 

James Wrote: I've been using Volume 2 - Chapter 7: Bears Vs. Chickens or whatever.  I was thinking about changing it at some point, but I'm not sure what to change it to.  This website favors the Chapter 649 format where it's one very long story, but i prefer a volume approach.

Good luck with whatever you do.

Yeah, I noticed the same thing, but to me it just feels, I dunno, off brand? It just feels like I'm writing just that. Fan-Fiction. Like my next chapter title's gonna be:

Chapter 483: The Goku that gritty'd

Thing is, I'm supposed to be writing in a Light Novel style, but very few LNs actually have 20 chapters per Volume. Thus the option I mentioned is far more akin to a manga.

Yeah, I'll do the "Vol. 7 Ch. 130 - SBR" style after all. Best way to describe it is it just feels right. You get all the info you need and most people just outright faze out the "Vol. x" part completely (speaking from experience).

Bookhermit Wrote: Have more confidence in your readers - most of them will be fine with any system you use as long as you are consistent.  In some ways, having a more unique system of chapter naming may make you and your stories more memorable.

It's not my readers that I'm worried about. They already know what I'm talking about as they've at least looked at my chapter index and know what the deal is.

My problem is with the new viewers who have only ever seen me on the "Newest Uploads" <div> of the main page.

They might be getting discouraged from clicking the link to my page (or heck, the newest chapter depending on preferences) exactly because of what I said. They might think "this guy only has 7 chapters? If so then I'll wait a bit before diving in", not realizing that in actuality there's over 130.