How Big??? Chapter Sizes

[Perpetual Man]

As mentioned elsewhere on the Forums I've been going through a lot of my old work, and something I have been aware of for a while is how long some of my chapters seem to be.

A fellow Chronicles member was kind enough to read a chapter, and something they mentioned was how long the first chapter was (Off the top of my head) I think about 13,500 words.

I'm more than aware that a lot of authors do have a high word/chapter count - Peter F Hamilton springs to mind, and on the other hand there are some writers that have really short chapters - L E Modesitt Jr. for example.

But what is better short or long?

I have a tendency to start writing a chapter and stop when I know I've reached the end, but can this be too long?

When I read a Hamilton book, I have to admit, on a number of occasions I reach a point in the chapter and think 'why did he not end the chapter there?'

Shorter chapter certainly makes a book easier to read.

But are long chapters better or shorter ones?

All this really hit home, as I was going through some old material I realised that long chapters has been part of the way I write since the very beginning. I kept turning pages just now, and it went on and on and on... I can't say how many words yet, but I'm about a third of the way through it and have a rough word count of 8,000

(I have not even started to sort it, and am sure I'll savage it when/if I start editing, but even to me this first draft looks scary!)

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I always go with my instinct and my own range from 600-7000 words.

As a reader I like about two-three thousand words it is meaty enough to get into but not so long I get fed up with it or gets inconvenient.

 

[Anne Lyle]

The only way to know for sure is to get some beta-readers - if they complain that your chapters are too long, then maybe you need to divide them up. Or have a look at a few recently-published books in a similar sub-genre to yours. For example, thrillers tend to have v short chapters, whereas epic fantasy tends to have quite long ones. Mine are in the middle ground, about 3500-4000 words long.

I always think that a chapter should be a self-contained entity - a chunk of the story with some kind of narrative arc. So it really depends on your writing style as to what the optimum chapter length is.

I wouldn't sweat it too much, though - this is the kind of thing an agent or editor can advise you on, if the rest of your writing is good enough to snag their interest.

 

[Colbey Frost]

A chapter is a scene, so if you think of it like that it might help you break it up (if it needs breaking up). Your 13k chapter might need all that as part of a big scene... but I suppose it depends on the content.

 

[Coragem]

A few ideas to throw around:

1) If you read GRRM, his chapters often begin with a hook (dialogue, action, something tense). Often, they then slow down, become more reflective. Finally, they round off with some sort of climax or cliffhanger. Each chapter, as such, is rounded and feels likes a self-contained unit. This sort of thing wouldn't work with very short chapters.

2) There's a greater danger of losing or confusing a reader with very long chapters.

3) I always begin a new chapter if I'm doing a big jump in location or time. I think that's a pretty good rule.

That said, personally I let the story dictate. If there's one scene in one place with the same character POV it would seem contrived to stop, so I'll keep going (though normally not for more than 8,500 words). On another/rare occasion, if I have a very powerful / emotional scene (e.g., just 1000 or so words), I might feel that deserves to be a chapter on its own.

Finally, I think it's quite a personal thing. On average my chapters finish up 6000-7500 words, but I think that's just my personal rhythm.

Coragem.

 

[Mouse]

Ah Perp, bear in mind the person who told you that has a chapter in her WiP which is only 369 words long, so take it with a pinch of salt.

As others have said, you sort of just know when it's time to go to a new chapter. Yours was like a long introduction to all the characters, so it worked. I'm sure there was a couple of places where it could've been split though.

 

[The Judge]

I knew we'd discussed this recently, only it wasn't as recent as I'd remembered (where has the year gone??) http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/537147-chapter-structure.html

For me, 13,500 is far too long for a chapter unless the writing is incredible, even if it is broken down into a number of smaller scenes. I know if I'm reading a published book I get depressed if I scan forward to see how much is left of a chapter and there are pages still to go -- I lose the will to read on. I don't look ahead if I'm engrossed though, so the very act of looking shows the writer is beginning to lose me.

I average at about 3500-4000 words a chapter, and I've never gone higher than 7,000. Even if something is all one continuous scene, I'll break it in order to let the writing breathe.

 

[Mouse]

I know if I'm reading a published book I get depressed if I scan forward to see how much is left of a chapter and there are pages still to go -- I lose the will to read on. I don't look ahead if I'm engrossed though, so the very act of looking shows the writer is beginning to lose me.

I pretty much always scan ahead to see how long I've got left until I've got a break, even if I am engrossed. And yeah, I feel all 'urgh' if I have pages left to go.

The book I've just finished reading didn't have any chapters at all, but broke scenes with a little symbol, so I looked for those instead.

 

[allmywires]

Yeaaaahhh I don't really like chapters. I divide into 'chapters', which are really segments, at their shortest about 10k, usually. I do scene breaks with '*'. As others have said, when reading I would look ahead to see the end of the chapter if I'm going to put the book down, but a scene break would do just as well for me.

 

[Venusian Broon]

TJ & Mouse beat me to it.

I've never had the thought when reading a book:
'Darn, that chapter is just too short by far.'
('cause generally I'd be reading onto the next chapter already)

But I've definitely had:
'This chapter has been going ages, when on earth is it going to finish?'
and been quite dispirited by the far off finishing page. Although sometimes this has been caused by the end of the chapter sneaking through without me noticing, so I'm really on the next one without knowing.

So I'd tend to aim for shorter, rather than longer, although of course there are alot of factors that'll come into it. I prefer quite a wide range of lengths, anything from 1000-5000 per chapter at the mo'

 

[Perpetual Man]

I have to admit that when I read a book with shorter chapters I do tend to read the book quicker, as it is easier to pick it up and think, oh well there's only three pages in this one, I'll read that, oh and the next one is only six... So end up reading for or five chapter, whereas I look at a book that has longer chapters and give up for the night when I realise that the next one is 50 pages long. (With this in mind I'm pretty much certain that I've read more pages in a book with short chapters in one night than there were pages in a long chapter simply because it was easier to think I'll just read another - if that makes any sense.)

But going back to me, I think quite a lot of my material comes with long chapters, and it seems to be just the way I work, but I'm not sure it is best. There is another member of the forum who is currently reading something of mine and it will be interesting to see what they make of it...

As an aside the young adult book I wrote had no long chapters at all, not a conscious decision it was just the way it worked.

 

[SciFrac]

I agree with Judge too, 13k sounds way too long for me. I've heard 3-4k is ideal, and each of those need their own arc. Even with my favorite books, real-world time is a constraint, so if you give me a natural break I'm more likely to pick it up sooner. Those long ones better show a killer progression of story or I'll put it down.

 

[Tecdavid]

I think that opening chapter of yours, most especially, should be broken up a bit. The first chapter (or in other cases, the prologue) is what will draw a reader in, and it’s that chapter which will shape their first impression on the story, so if they see that it goes on for pages and pages, they might put it right back on the shelf and instead browse for things that start up a little softer.
But it isn't too hard to remedy. It's really just a matter of inserting 'Chapter 2: Electric Boogaloo' somewhere between those pages, at a point it could be welcome. You don't even need to change the way you've written anything! (Unless you intend to use the hooks and cliff-hangers notion Coragem mentioned)

 

[Bowler1]

Depending on the section my chapters do of course vary. But, I like to bear in mind the night time readers and what will send someone off to sleep. Ignoring the snooze element in my sooo boring writing, I love short chapters at bed time just before I nod off.

So I'm tucked up in bed, I have one little chapter to go and I get to the end of a good little section. I flip to the end of the next section, it's a short one so I read on. So I think short little chapters encourage the reader in. Big long sections, I put the book down and head off to the land of nod. So generally I section off at 3k words.

Just my little thoughts.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

One publisher I saw this year was specifically asking for short chapters, as that is what the market wants. Food for thought. Mine are generally an absolute max of 3000

 

[Abernovo]

I tend to average around three to four thousand words, with a bit of leeway either side - I don't believe in rigid formats. Some chapters need more, other less.

If I'm writing and find myself more than about 12 pages (1.5 line space) in a chapter, and still not finished, I have a pretty good clue that I'm waffling and need to get the word machete out.

I've read a few books without proper chapters, just scene breaks and page breaks. So long as there are breaks in the flow, manageable chunks for reading, what they're called doesn't matter so much.

 

[hopewrites]

As I mentioned somewhere else, I don't read chapter titles, well, I also don't notice when the chapter changes.
I guess I should try to...

 

[Juliana]

Mine seem to come out between 1200 and 1600 words, with around 1400 being the average. Didn't plan things that way - I was originally shooting for around 2000 words per chapter but my writing seems to naturally 'take a breath' around the 1400 mark.

However, my stories are a) for pre-teen readers and b) action/adventure which would mean shorter chapters anyway. I compared with Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, out of curiosity (as I was reading him at the time), and his chapters average at 2000 words.

 

[nightdreamer]

The only guideline that I go by is that a chapter in a book parallels a chapter in the story: a series of closely connected events that make an easily digestible and classifiable "chunk." I'm sure a few of mine have gone over 10,000 words, but some have been only a few hundred. It all depends on the point that I think that current episode is finished and it's time to move on to the next. On the other hand, I've agreed with Venusian Broon on several occasions back when paperbacks ruled because I found it convenient to use chapter demarcations as an indicator when it was time to quit and go to sleep. In today's Kindle age, that doesn't seem to be as much of an issue.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Right a quick bit of research on my own material:

What I would consider my favourite thing I have written to date, the first 6 chapters:
17,945
14,023
18,199
18,742
18,273
14,098
Giving a total of 101,280 words for the first six chapters only. Now this is something that has not been seriously edited and I figure that perhaps two whole chapters could go but obviously from what has been said here these chapters might be a little long.

My latest WiP first 6 chapters:
13,546
4,839
3,896
1,641
1,258
4,301
Giving a total of 19,481 words.

The thing is if I give myself a total to aim for I would feel constrained, either stretching things to meet the total or trying to get things squeezed in. I know what has to happen in a chapter and writ until it is done.

One of the things that I was told by virtually everyone who read my previous attempt was that although it ultimately drew you in, the first chapter was too slow and needed to be faster.

And that was what I attempted in this current WiP, an opening battle, action from the word go. but it seems to me that it is all one thing.

Maybe I'll go back when I get to that stage of the process and try and split it up, but that's why it is as long as it is. I think.