STATISTICS: Star Eagle Adventures, Star Trek Gibraltar, Star Trek Hunter

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Okay - this is a totally nerdy thing to do, but I'm a statistics nerd. These stats come from Ad Astra - which makes it easy to pull these kinds of numbers. Some caveats:

1. This is totally meaningless. It has nothing to do with the quality of the work - just the quantity and packet size.

2. These numbers are misleading. CeJay has a LOT more Star Eagle Adventures stories that are not posted to Ad Astra, so those stats are totally missing. There are probably several Gibraltar stats missing too. And a few Hunter stats are also missing as the Rock of Ages short story is not posted at AA.

That said, here are the statistics for Star Eagle Adventures (SEA), Star Trek Gibraltar (STG) and Star Trek Hunter (STH) as posted on Ad Astra:

.................................................SEA..........................STG.....................STH
# of Titles..................................18.............................18..........................9

# of Chapters...........................397.........................168.......................439

Total Word Count................1,132,132................525,342...............416,234

Avg (mean) Words/Chapter....2,852....................3,127......................948


For some context, the modern English language novel (meaning 1950's to date) averages 70,000 - 120,000 words and 30-50 chapters, with an average of 3,000-5,000 words per chapter.

As a reference point, Frank S. Herbert's DUNE (1965) has 48 chapters with a total word count of 181,493, giving it an average words/chapter of 3,781.

J.R.R. Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS (1954) has 62 chapters with a total word count of 455,125 words, giving it an average of 7,340 words/chapter

Just some totally random stuff that was on my mind at some point, so I went and pulled the stats.

Thanks!! rbs

 

[CeJay]

Wow, you're right, this is super random

One thing this illustrates to me is the pros/cons of short chapters versus long chapters.

I have to admit, I do love delving into a chunky chapter of a compelling and high-quality fan-fic such as STG, but since having discovered STH, I've come to appreciate the short-form chapters quite a bit. Particularly when they are well written and snappy like in STH. They are great for pacing and especially appreciated when you want to squeeze in a quick read and you ain't got much time (because who does, these days?).

I used to think that if I don't hit at least 1k-2k per chapter it wasn't really worth it and I'd find myself looking at ways to "pad the run time" as it were. I've started to become less concerned with keeping it short. Although, admittedly, brevity is not my forte, as evidenced above.

 

[Gibraltar]

A fascinating breakdown!

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

One thing this illustrates to me is the pros/cons of short chapters versus long chapters.

I'm simply astonished at you guys' output. Gibralter's published at least 3 DUNE's and you've probably hit about 9 or 10...

Thanks!! rbs

 

[Gibraltar]

I'm simply astonished at you guys' output. Gibralter's published at least 3 DUNE's and you've probably hit about 9 or 10...

Thanks!! rbs

Yes, but that's also over 16 years of writing.