Well you are right, if it's 1 week between paragraphs it would take a little under 2 years to make it to 5000 words (at about 50 words per). You are free to do this however you want to. However, I do think that if you want ongoing engagement and a quality creation, there needs to be a system to alert everyone that all entries have been received and now go back and read all the entries and vote. Even if that's 1 day to post the paragraph and 1 day to vote. Then it's 2 days per paragraph. It would be done in half a year or so, and have higher quality and higher engagement.
Authors will feel more inspired to write if they know their piece will be read. I think it's crucial that everyone who posts a paragraph also takes the time to read all entries, and then votes, but that's not going to happen consistently unless you nudge each author. Otherwise, so many people's entries aren't going to be seen by the earlier authors. It will certainly make the tale more haphazard, I think, and probably decrease some author's involvement.
Of course, if the post were getting a lot more votes by people other than the authors, then no need for the system. But if it's authors who are writing and voting (which it appears to be for the most part now), then we need to rely on them to participate in coming back and voting on all entries.
I understand what you are saying. I anticipate that the project will gain more and more attention as it progresses. So I'm hoping that by the time we reach the ninth or tenth paragraph, there are enough people paying attention that there isn't a necessity for such a system.
Should we arrive at the point and still have a problem with minimal votes, I will make use of this suggestion. Thanks for sharing it.
Sounds like a plan! :)