Chapter Length.

[Lith]

There have been a couple threads around here about word count/page count ratios. I think the average answer was 300-400 words for a printed page. A program like MS Word will do about 500 words/page, TNR, 12pt. Handwritten averages are more like 250 (per side of the page). So if you're writing it all out by hand, be prepared to fill up two or three standard notebooks. Or more.

My chapters currently run just over 2,000 words, very consistently. It's generally a day's work, called a chapter. Initially they were hard breaks, but with practice, I've been able to coincide them much more often with natural breaks in the story. Every story has natural beats to it, often many of them, where it's convenient to break for a chapter. I've also found naming the chapters useful in giving them a topic to work with. But the important thing is to practice different things till you find something that works for you. And there's no real substitute for that practice.

And that practice will also tell you whether your story is too long or short.

 

[power to the J]

My chapters currently run just over 2,000 words, very consistently. It's generally a day's work, called a chapter. Initially they were hard breaks, but with practice, I've been able to coincide them much more often with natural breaks in the story. Every story has natural beats to it, often many of them, where it's convenient to break for a chapter. I've also found naming the chapters useful in giving them a topic to work with.

Chapter names can add a lot to the experience, IMO, and I think that if there are chapters, there should be names, no matter what.

Also, as far as what you said about practice, I want to add that it helps to look at books and pay close attention to where they break and where they begin.

 

[Pyan]

Terry Pratchett doesn't seem to suffer any disadvantage by not actually using chapters....

 

[Cyricus]

Terry Pratchett writes very modern/avantgarde kind of sub-genre of fiction.
Thank you, power to the J, for sharing with me this link.

I don't do chapter names. I don't know why... maybe I don't want that reader expects something special from my chapter, lol. So I've named 'em: "Prologue; I. Chapter; II. Chapter; ..." But it is off-topic here. :/

 

[power to the J]

Terry Pratchett doesn't seem to suffer any disadvantage by not actually using chapters....

Well, Terry Pratchett is the man so he doesn't count. You do bring up a good point though.

But, with Pratchett as the exception, I'd say that a lack of chapters takes away from the experience. I couldn't get into The Road because of its chapterless approach. Carrie is another book that was annoying to read because it had no chapters.

 

[Green]

Chapters aren't necessary, as Pyan rightly points out with his Pratchett example. Nothing is necessary, except that whatever you are doing is in service of the greater good.

About chapter names - I always hate them. I hate spoilers, and no matter how tenuous the link between the chapter content and its name, I always feel like its a spoiler. It's a bit weird really, because I love to know where a book got its title from (Memories of Ice being my all time favourite), but I hate to know where a chapter got its title.

Horses for courses and all that.

 

[Culhwch]

I don't necessarily hate chapter names, but I'm more on Green's side of that argument. Certainly in my own writing I don't use them, and that's probably down to the fact that I can never think of a good title, let only god-knows-how-many chapter titles... At the moment my favoured method is to use un-numbered chapters simply headed with the place name of where the chapter takes place.

 

[power to the J]

I think chapter names add an extra element to a chapter, even if it's a chapter name that makes no sense. Personally, I take all of my chapter names from dialog in the chapter, so a chapter could be called "The Blinding Sun" but be about a snow storm. That might make me seem weird or odd, but it's just what I do.

 

[Sapheron]

Chapter names, if anything make a story more memorable, rather than better while you're actually reading. I use them sometimes, but other times I can't really be bothered or can't think of a good one.

 

[j d worthington]

As has been said by others, there really is no hard and fast rule on either chapter length or on using (or not using) chapter titles. Frankly, the best thing is to tailor your practice to fit each tale. Some will have fairly short chapters, others quite long. Moorcock, for instance, has a chapter in The Brothel in Rosenstrasse that comes out at something over 60 pages, iirc; while Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass has one that is only a brief line.

Essentially, when it comes to chapters, a story will normally define a chapter's ending by it being a dramatic pause; sometimes this will be a "cliffhanger" ending that the tale (or chapter) has been building up to at that point; sometimes a transition from one scene of action to another, or one character's POV to another, etc.; but it is usually defined by the internal logic of the tale itself -- so no arbitrary numbers are set as a rule.

On the subject of chapter headings: Again, it should be by the requirements of the story. Some chapter titles are descriptive of the general gist of that chapter; some are a quotation that has been broken into segments, so that the entire quotation is gradually revealed over the course of a subset of chapters (or an entire book or story); sometimes they are statements made in ironic contrast to the text, whether on the level of story, tone, message, etc. And not all stories require such -- in fact, with some, it is a distinct disadvantage, a distraction, and unnecessary. (One note being: if you're going to have chapter titles, it helps if you put as much thought into them as you do into making your text as a whole as good as possible.)

While there are hard-and-fast rules for submitting material, when it comes to actually writing a book (or story, etc.), the "rules" are more "guidelines", and much more flexible, allowing a greater leeway for artistic freedom and self-expression. So the best advice is to not set some such arbitrary rule for yourself as something that can't be broken. At most, set it as a guideline for general practice, but something which is always open to change depending on the needs of whatever story you are telling at the time.....

 

[Cyricus]

Some of you people here mention the structure of your chapter(s), something like ending chapter as the scene ends. So, many of you write chapters that consist some action, one scene.

But is there anyone that has 2 or more "storylines" (although one is main, of course) in the same chapter? Like, more main characters, and more points of view (each NPC in my book has it's own point of view). But, unlike G. R. R. Martin's ASoIaF, I have more "parts of the same chapter" (you know, 'in the meantime', separated with symbols '* * *') and more scenes in one chapter. Okay, it is logical, for my chapters are long.

How do you guys (who write similar type of chapters) separate the action, begin and end those separated "parts of the chapters" and its' actions/scenes?

 

[Pyan]

A lot of people who do this mention the name of the main character in the location you've switched to. When it's done in the first sentence of the new point-of-view part of the chapter it seems to work quite well.

 

[The Pelagic Argosy]

I frequently like to refer back to books I've read to look up favorite lines, reread favorite scenes, etc., and I need to check my facts when I discuss a book online. In which case, chapter titles are very helpful. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[WriterDoug]

If done properly in a story that can benefit from such, I think chapter titles are a great idea. They can function as brief "teasers" for the reader of what is to come in the following pages, and they work especially well for stories that jump around in time, but there are certainly exceptions to any rule.

I also find chapter titles to be tremendously helpful for recalling sections of a book, for when the reader finds it necessary to dig up information at a later date. If the novel or series contains a Table of Contents, then this will further facilitate that process.

For the guy(s) asking about knowing when to intelligibly divide chapters and/ or scenes, I will never profess to be absolutely certain either, but I can at least throw in my two cents on the matter.

I generally have scenes that just float around in my mind, and (hopefully) the connecting of them all creates a novel. Though maybe not vital, for me each of the scenes must present a problem and a resolution, so that each scene is essentially a short story in itself. Sometimes these problem/ resolution combinations may be carried over from or to other chapters, but they are assessed in a different light so as not to be redundant.

I also wish to emphasize that a conclusion for each scene does not necessarily equal a clean break; I have had situations in my own writing where a chapter is actually ended abruptly by a surprise intervention of dialogue (for a boring example, a messenger running up) or a physical confrontation/ attack. This can then segue into the next chapter rather easily, or the writer can take liberties here and jump around in time, which is probably both cruel and to my liking.

My only other immediate thought is this: make sure every scene and every chapter serve some purpose in developing character or advancing the plot of your story! If a particular section does neither, strongly consider eliminating or reworking it to make it satisfy one or both of the above requirements.

Other than that, it pains me to say that chapter and scene breaks should just "feel natural" to the author and do not necessarily call upon hard and fast rules in order to be properly executed. I am often reminded of Stephen King's The Shining for the simple reason that this lengthy book contains a very brief chapter (maybe only half a page or so) amidst a number of other chapters that consist of numerous pages.



Cheers,
WD

 

[chopper]

How do you guys (who write similar type of chapters) separate the action, begin and end those separated "parts of the chapters" and its' actions/scenes?

i'll do this if the parts of the chapter are linked in some way. for example, one half deals with the Fifth of Ash, who is preparing to meet the other arriving Fifths. the other half deals with two of her stewards, who are up to their neck in shifty deals and really ought to be making their way to the ceremony.

or: one half has the Mark fleeing from armed pursuers, as seen from the Hero's POV. the other half then sees the pursuit from the POV of the leader of the pursuers.

point, and counterpoint. if you flip from one side of the story to another that is totally unconnected, i think you risk losing the reader. just my view, anyhow.

as for breaks in the action, they happen where they happen. they can be used artificially within a single POV to illustrate the passage of time.

if you write a plot synopsis (of 2 sides of typed A4), you should (not guaranteed ) be able to create a separate chapter for almost every sentence. (well, it's working for me at the moment, heh)

length of chapters? again, it stops when it stops. my writing style isn't going to give me many sub-5000 word chapters, so i don't worry too much about the length.

has that covered everything? ah -

chapter headings - i like em. pains to think of, but a good reminder of what i'm doing inside the chapter, and also makes any given point of the story easier to find as they're all saved individually on the PC.

 

[Lith]

Jumping around in space in the middle of a chapter can be fine, given a break mark, such as a *** or a location listing. It's something I've consciously avoided as a writer thus far, to simplify things. But as a reader I don't mind it.

I was halfway through my last manuscript when I started titling chapters, because I came up with a killer pun to describe one scene (well, a pun-rhyme THING), and having one chapter title, had to go back and title the rest of them. It was easier than I anticipated. They're all either puns or faintly ludicrous and pompous sounding, which fits very well with the off-kilter tone of the story. My current one is single-word chapter titles, to reflect the simplicity of the Old West, and each word doing double or triple duty in the meaning department. It'll come out to an ambiguous simplicity which I'll be rather proud of if I can make it work.

When I first started doing chapter titles, I did it purely for my own entertainment, and if it didn't work for some reason, I could take them out. In fact, I had planned to take half of them out, as the chapters are rather short otherwise. But soon I found it a good way to focus the beginning and end of each chapter.

The half-page chapter can be quite fun, if it's put in the right place and not over-indulged.

 

[power to the J]

The half page chapters is one of those things that you can only use once or twice or else it starts getting annoying. If chapter after chapter is that short, I personally start getting agitated (Don't ask why) so I avoid it when I'm writing like it's a plague.

 

[flynx]

In my second published short story (not f or s/f) these are the 'statistics'.

The book is slightly taller than the average paperback (about an inch taller than discworld paperbacks).

4000 words in MS Word. 8 MS Word pages. (ariel 10) which in the printed book makes 15 pages.

There are two page breaks of asterisks which could be called chapters I suppose.

The first is 173 words.
second 2,900
third 917

These breaks were all 'scene changes'.

I know Pratchett doesn't use actual chapters but he does have page breaks (a row of asterisks) and these are usually scene changes or plot switches.

In much the same way as readers don't like large blocks of text, in my opinion they also don't like having somewhere that they can read up to. Your reader (in the case of paragraphs) likes to be able to take a breath occasionally and (in the case of chapters) likes somewhere that they can put the book down or go make a pot of tea or just have a break from an enthralling roof-top chase. Bearing this in mind you have two ways for making chapters or just page breaks. One is to insert something relevant (plot switch) the other is to bring a section, like a roof top chase, an intimate moment or useful background for instance, to a close.

So as a rough guide a page of MS Word (5-600 words depending on paragraph length) is approximately equal to two paperback pages.

Chapters or page breaks are about equal to the length of a piece of string.