# How long are your chapters?



## scerys (Jun 18, 2017)

I'm trying to shoot for a general chapter length but I wanted to know how long people's chapter's usually are? I know there are some people who have them at 2k words, 5k, 10k, etc. But I thought I'd ask you guys here  
I was thinking like 2k for my first chapter at least. :-k:book:


----------



## Sam (Jun 18, 2017)

They are as long as they need to be for the chapter to say what it needs to say.


----------



## Non Serviam (Jun 18, 2017)

A "typical novel" has  100,000 words and is divided into about 20 chapters.  Simple arithmetic  should give you a mean chapter length of 5,000 words; but in practice  this varies very widely.  Some authors average 3,000 words, others more  like 7,000.  

Terry Pratchett didn't use chapter breaks in most of his stories so each  book is effectively one chapter of ~100,000 words.  There are extremely  short chapters in published fiction, including gimmicky ones with  chapters of a single word or even a single punctuation mark.  The  shortest chapter that I know of that isn't one of these gimmicks is  chapter 8 of _The Invisible Man_ by H.G. Wells.  I believe it's less than 200 words.

2,000 words a chapter would be okay if you were writing a particularly  terse, laconic and Hemingway-esque adventure novel, or a dialogue-heavy  hard-boiled piece of detective fiction starring a wisecracking private  dick who's down on his luck, or an avant garde series of sci-fi  vignettes.  The wordiest mainstream genre is fantasy and if you're  trying to write one of those, then aim roughly at 5,000-7,000 words per  chapter (and 120,000-150,000 words per book; it's obviously okay to  divide your story into several books).

Don't put chapter breaks in as you write, though.  Write the whole piece  just broken by scene.  Put the chapter breaks in during the editing  phase, after the second or third rewrite; before then you'll still be  moving whole scenes around.


----------



## Writers Block (Jun 18, 2017)

Non Serviam said:


> Don't put chapter breaks in as you write, though.  Write the whole piece  just broken by scene.  Put the chapter breaks in during the editing  phase, after the second or third rewrite; before then you'll still be  moving whole scenes around.



That's interesting. I'm not a published author but in the three novel length pieces I've completed I've always added chapters as I write. They often change during an edit, even a read through and often I put in the breaks without a number but they go in none the less. Just something I've always done.

With the last one I completed I had one editor tell me my chapters were too long and one tell me they were too short (they average about 1500-2000). I also had one tell me I can't use a Prologue because it's a red flag for publishers while the other editor told me use of the Prologue worked well to build the start of the story and needed to be there.


----------



## Jay Greenstein (Jun 18, 2017)

Here's the deal: think in terms of the commercials in a TV program. Notice that they don't simply stop the action, show the commercial, and restart the show. Commercials come at a point where some turning point in the plot occurs, so that the commercial, instead of feeling like an intrusion acts as a scene break point—a kind of meta-punctuation. Yes it's a break, but the thing that happens makes the reader _want_ to go on watching, to make up for the negativity of the interruption for the commercial.

In fiction, the last thing we want is to resolve the problems at a chapter end because the reader will have no _need _to come back, and may not. And we don't want to stop in the middle of action because the reader will resent it. Stopping when nothing particularly important happens risks the reader losing interest and not returning, too. So...think not in terms of stopping, but in turning points and reveals, places where a reader will be saying, "Oh my."

If you're going more than 4000 words without such a point your story might be in trouble, so finding the chapter end-points can also act as a check to keep the story moving along.

Hope this helps.


----------



## Sam (Jun 19, 2017)

Non Serviam said:


> A "typical novel" has  100,000 words and is divided into about 20 chapters.  Simple arithmetic  should give you a mean chapter length of 5,000 words; but in practice  this varies very widely.  Some authors average 3,000 words, others more  like 7,000.
> 
> Terry Pratchett didn't use chapter breaks in most of his stories so each  book is effectively one chapter of ~100,000 words.  There are extremely  short chapters in published fiction, including gimmicky ones with  chapters of a single word or even a single punctuation mark.  The  shortest chapter that I know of that isn't one of these gimmicks is  chapter 8 of _The Invisible Man_ by H.G. Wells.  I believe it's less than 200 words.
> 
> ...



Those are the averages, yes, but I think it ultimately depends on how interesting your chapters are for the reader. In thrillers, for instance, Ludlum and Clancy got away with chapters above 10,000 words even before they became popular to the point of topping best-seller lists. 

To elaborate on my point above: with time and experience, you will learn to intuit when a chapter needs to end. I don't necessarily agree that you shouldn't put chapters in while you write (I've put them in before editing for everything I've ever written), but I understand the sentiment. It's easier to put them in when you have the whole story laid out and you can gauge where a break works best. 

The reality, though, for this question is that there is no right answer. Chapter lengths are flexible. That said, I'd aim for 5,000.


----------



## Terry D (Jun 19, 2017)

My chapters tend to be very long (8,000 words +) but with a number of scene breaks and POV shifts within each. I create my chapters as I go with only minor tweaks after. With experience you'll find your style and learn the rhythm of your story.


----------



## Writers Block (Jun 19, 2017)

Jay Greenstein said:


> In fiction, the last thing we want is to resolve the problems at a chapter end because the reader will have no _need _to come back, and may not. And we don't want to stop in the middle of action because the reader will resent it. Stopping when nothing particularly important happens risks the reader losing interest and not returning, too. So...think not in terms of stopping, but in turning points and reveals, places where a reader will be saying, "Oh my."



I was thinking about this last night watching TV and you're right about the TV ads often being placed to break scenes etc and it's interesting now to see how many places they can find to make shorter 'chapters' in tv shows and movies as the number of ad breaks increase. 

To some degree I also agree with what your saying about the written word. I write serialised fiction for several blogs, each 'chapter' averages about 1200-1500 words (blog readers have a shorter attention span) and really needs a hook at the end to convince a person to come back. Because there could be days between chapters it also helps a lot to summarise the previous chapter in the first paragraph or two of the next chapter to help new readers but also to give continuing readers the chance to pick the story back up again. 

In a novel I don't think either of those are needed all the time. Summaries definitely aren't needed at the start of every chapter but can be used if a character hasn't been prominent for a few chapters. And while hooks definitely work, I can see a chapter end working just like a TV ad, break the scene, change the scene, give the reader a chance to take a breath, or even pause and come back later.


----------



## K.S. Crooks (Jun 24, 2017)

I decide what major events I want to occur in a chapter and let that dictate the length. A chapter with only a simple journey to a new village will be shorter than one containing a battle. Let the amount of action or dialogue needed determine the size. I do like to keep an average for a particular book, for instance 5000 words, but this still allows one chapter to be 7000 and another 3000 and so on. As a reader I tend to prefer medium to short chapters as I'm a little obsessive about putting down a book at the end of a chapter. Shorter chapters makes it easier to squeeze in more reading when I'm on the subway going to work. All this being said I would still prefer a chapter that was long and contained all the action for a major event, than having it split for no actual reason.


----------



## Jessica Stemmer (Jul 10, 2017)

My first chapter for Mercy is currently sitting at about 3.5K words. I don't really have a set wordcount per chapter, though. To me, it's more important to tell the story, and then I'll worry about adding or removing scenes.


----------



## Nicholas McConnaughay (Jul 31, 2017)

In my novel *Catherine*, the chapters are as short as 1,000 or 2,000 words, but in my *Katalene *novel, the chapters can sometimes be as long as 15,000-20,000 words, albeit, with several breaks in-between. Depends on what I want to feel like or convey.


----------



## Bayview (Jul 31, 2017)

I usually shoot for 3-5K. That's either two short scenes or one long scene, in my writing style.


----------



## bazz cargo (Aug 1, 2017)

I'm still working on my first novel, having a break to work on... I don't have a name for it.

I don't know if it is true but I read somewhere that chapters came about during Victorian times. Most Newspapers of the time ran serials, Charles Dickens started there, and each episode ended with what we call a cliff hanger to entice the reader to buy the next copy. When compiled onto a book they became chapters. A bit of hysterical perspective. 

Good luck
BC


----------



## Non Serviam (Aug 1, 2017)

The Bible is divided into chapters, so I have a suspicion that the idea that chapters started with the Victorians may be fallacious.


----------



## bazz cargo (Aug 2, 2017)

^ ^ I see where you are coming from but I politely disagree, The Bible, like a lot of early religious work is separated into books. The Book Of Job being a particular fascination of mine.


----------



## Non Serviam (Aug 2, 2017)

It's certainly true that the Bible is divided into books.  The books are divided into chapters, and the chapters are divided into verses.


----------



## bazz cargo (Aug 3, 2017)

Non, you are quite right. I did have a combination of bullpoo and weaseling ready to justify my assertion but stuff it, I won't waste your time.

:hopelessness:


----------



## Tella (Aug 5, 2017)

In my personal experience as someone who had to acclimate his mind to reading from age 15 (which is late), I find that the shorter the chapters, the more enjoyable each are. It lets you really relish the compact choice of words without thinking "Oh man I still have like 25 pages to go in this chapter."

Then again, this is not always the case.


----------



## Jan (Aug 6, 2017)

I'm in the process of writing my first piece. I've finished two chapters so far and the first (Introduction chapter) is just a measily 1400 words long, whereas the second chapter ended at 3.9k words. I think having around 4-5k words a chapter is fair enough. It all depends on taste though. If a book is interesting to me I wouldn't mind reading through 10k words a chapter. Each to his own.


----------



## Dadelus (Aug 17, 2017)

Wondered about this myself and it seems pretty clear it's subjective to the author and the piece. 

In my work I aim for making chapters take 20-30 minutes to read out loud (each are like a short story that can be consumed during a commute or lunch break) I aim for 1200 words minimum and generally land around 2000-2500 words per chap.


----------



## H.Brown (Aug 17, 2017)

I thought I had my chapter structure down however in my secons edit I seem to be adding more due to the stories developement. As has already been said chapter length is subjective to the writer, only you know when a chapter has come to its conclusion. We do have to also think about the reader, however I feel that if the plotline and characters are worthy then a reader will continue to read no matter the chapter length.

I have some chapters that are 5,000 words in length and have others that are only a couple of thousand words long, I judge it by the flow of the writing and ifI have told the mini story I want to tell in that chapter.

I hope that this helps.


----------



## Nilsson (Aug 23, 2017)

On an average, my chapters are somewhere around 3.5k. However, they do vary depending on the content. For example, dramatic events/scenes tend to get shorter chapters while those requiring extra focus on setting/mood ends up longer (oh, the woes of cutting fluff!) My rule of thumb is to keep to a chapter length I'm comfortable with as a reader.


----------



## Raleigh Daniels Jr (Aug 27, 2017)

My chapters averages around 1k to 2k words each. Sometimes in between. I tend to write my books short. But not too short, nor too long.


----------



## sunaynaprasad (Aug 28, 2017)

My chapters are usually between 1,000 and 3,000 words.


----------



## AustinFrom1995 (Aug 28, 2017)

When I was in school we were taught that an "average" paragraph should be five to six sentences long. No more, and no less. This has pretty much stuck with me so my paragraphs are about five sentences long. Is this still standard practice, or has the "parameters" of the paragraph changed since then?


----------



## Bayview (Aug 28, 2017)

AustinFrom1995 said:


> When I was in school we were taught that an "average" paragraph should be five to six sentences long. No more, and no less. This has pretty much stuck with me so my paragraphs are about five sentences long. Is this still standard practice, or has the "parameters" of the paragraph changed since then?



Average probably isn't the most useful consideration for paragraphs... I bet my average paragraph is about five sentences, sure. But I bet the mode is one or two sentences, balanced out by some longer descriptive sections.

"Average" isn't too useful in writing, I'd say.


----------



## AustinFrom1995 (Aug 28, 2017)

Bayview said:


> Average probably isn't the most useful consideration for paragraphs... I bet my average paragraph is about five sentences, sure. But I bet the mode is one or two sentences, balanced out by some longer descriptive sections.
> 
> "Average" isn't too useful in writing, I'd say.



So are you saying I should avoid averages? And should I simply just write how I naturally due, in regards to things such as paragraph lengths? Sorry if these questions seem stupid.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Aug 28, 2017)

AustinFrom1995 said:


> When I was in school we were taught that an "average" paragraph should be five to six sentences long. No more, and no less. This has pretty much stuck with me so my paragraphs are about five sentences long. Is this still standard practice, or has the "parameters" of the paragraph changed since then?



First, this is for nonfiction, and is meant only as a guideline. And even that is questionable.

For fiction, you need to go with the flow.

Every new speaker is a new paragraph. That's why one sentence paragraphs are common during dialog exchanges.

Every scene change, character change or time change is a new paragraph. There are so many required new paragraphs that long paragraphs rarely happen naturally. But if you end up with long one, say a description or monologue, then you may want to look for natural places to put in a break (start a new paragraph).


Whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction, forcing a paragraph break every five or six sentences is not likely to work well. Sometimes it's best to put what was learned at school aside.


----------



## AustinFrom1995 (Aug 28, 2017)

Jack of all trades said:


> First, this is for nonfiction, and is meant only as a guideline. And even that is questionable.
> 
> For fiction, you need to go with the flow.
> 
> ...



OK!  Then I will just "go with the flow". Sorry to seem so stupid.


----------



## Bayview (Aug 28, 2017)

AustinFrom1995 said:


> So are you saying I should avoid averages? And should I simply just write how I naturally due, in regards to things such as paragraph lengths? Sorry if these questions seem stupid.



I don't think you should consciously avoid averages or consciously seek to be average--I don't think averages are worth looking at, in-and-of themselves.

I think you should ask yourself what's effective.

Short paragraphs are easy to read, but too many of them can lead to a choppy, staccato rhythm. Long paragraphs tend to slow reading down, which is sometimes exactly what you want, sometimes exactly what you don't want. I wouldn't worry about averages, I'd just look at whether what I'd written had the effect I wanted it to.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Aug 28, 2017)

AustinFrom1995 said:


> OK!  Then I will just "go with the flow". Sorry to seem so stupid.



You seem intelligent to me. You are seeking knowledge.

An individual who spouts contradicting nonsense as though an expert ... well, that's another story.


----------



## AustinFrom1995 (Aug 28, 2017)

Bayview said:


> I don't think you should consciously avoid averages or consciously seek to be average--I don't think averages are worth looking at, in-and-of themselves.
> 
> I think you should ask yourself what's effective.
> 
> Short paragraphs are easy to read, but too many of them can lead to a choppy, staccato rhythm. Long paragraphs tend to slow reading down, which is sometimes exactly what you want, sometimes exactly what you don't want. I wouldn't worry about averages, I'd just look at whether what I'd written had the effect I wanted it to.



Ok, I will just do what I find works best for me.  Thanks. 



Jack of all trades said:


> You seem intelligent to me. You are seeking knowledge.
> 
> An individual who spouts contradicting nonsense as though an expert ... well, that's another story.



Thank you.  I'm not faking it, I am smart, but sometimes I say something stupid. >.<


----------



## Jack of all trades (Aug 29, 2017)

AustinFrom1995 said:


> Thank you.  I'm not faking it, I am smart, but sometimes I say something stupid. >.<



You only joined a little while ago, and already you can quote two people in one reply. I have yet to learn how to do that!


----------



## AustinFrom1995 (Aug 29, 2017)

Jack of all trades said:


> You only joined a little while ago, and already you can quote two people in one reply. I have yet to learn how to do that!



Just click the little quote bubble with a plus next to it down in the corner of the person's post that you wish to quote.  Hope this helps.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Aug 29, 2017)

AustinFrom1995 said:


> Just click the little quote bubble with a plus next to it down in the corner of the person's post that you wish to quote.  Hope this helps.



I wondered what that button was for, but never bothered to experiment. Thanks!


----------



## AustinFrom1995 (Aug 29, 2017)

Jack of all trades said:


> I wondered what that button was for, but never bothered to experiment. Thanks!



You are very welcome!


----------



## Folcro (Sep 2, 2017)

My chapters mainly comprise a single scene, and as Sam said, the scene is over when it's over. From a marketing standpoint, it can help to design your chapters like potato chips: bite-sized and tasty so as to be just as addicting. That's one of the reasons I keep my chapters to a single scene unless the theme of the situation demands one of those three-star breaks.


----------



## Guy Faukes (Sep 2, 2017)

^ there's a face I wasn't expecting to see around


----------



## Folcro (Sep 2, 2017)

Pretty, aint it?


----------

