Chapter length

[MWagner]

My chapters vary from 1,500 to 3,000 words, with most being right around 2,000. Each chapter is a character POV, and features one to three scenes/sequels. Because I have five character POVs, and a lot of story to capture in my novel, I'm hesitant to linger for much more than about 10 pages (2,000 words) with one character.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

A normal chapter for me is 2-3,000 words. However they go as low as 545 words and as high as 6,000 words. I paraphrase Forrest Gump and for me a "Chapter is as a chapter does." The very short ones tend to be short very emotional scenes that I feel to add more would take away from that moment. The big monster is part of an event that now goes over four chapters - the big one in the middle is the battle, and there just wasn't a good place to break it. So far nobody that's read the full book has ever complained about the length of it and I was braced for that feedback.

And feedback to my very short first chapter to my story about a suffragette teen has had mixed feedback - but I feel like there needs to be a break between the flowery genteel Edwardian and her kneeing a policeman in the knackers, spitting in his face and kicking off her shoes so she can run faster.

 

[Void]

Just like a lot of others who have posted, my chapters tend to be around 2000 words.
Since I embarked upon my current career, I find it really difficult not to drone on and on at people (since that's what I do all day every day!) so trying to keep the chapters down to bite size chunks of action helps me to (well, I hope) refrain from the worst of my mad waffling.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Ray I think every author benefits greatly from writing the end earlier. By having an idea of where the story starts and finishes I think it helps pace and structure the middle.

I only know I've written the end when the story stops writing. Pace and structure are for the rewrite Plus I pace and structure every chapter which prevents saggy middles.

 

[Michael Coorlim]

Depends. I try to time my chapters to end where it would be least convenient for the reader to put the book down, rather than tying it to word count.

 

[JoanDrake]

Michael Stackpole has rather a defined opinion on this. He puts it at about 3500 words. This is just enough, according to him, that if you are about to go to bed you will look ahead and, seeing not that many pages, decide to go to the end and then stop for the night. However, your momentum can easily carry you far into the next chapter and then the scenario repeats. I had thought that idea to be rather oversimplified until I found out it actually works. Whoda thunk?

 

[millymollymo]

My longest chapter comes in at just over 4000 words, my shortest 1400. Overall they hover around the 2000 area. Brandon Sanderson/Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' chapter, 'The Last Battle' meant I abandoned the "I'll finish this chapter, then bedtime." rule. The chapter must have been a fifth of the book! A chapter is as long as it needs to be, even the very long ones!

 

[DrMclony]

My chapters tend to be around 2.5 or 3k, though in my first book, which was written when I was much younger, they fluctuated from around 1k to around 25k. Now, some people liked that, but I didn't really enjoy it in quite the same way I do my more recent work.

 

[Warren_Paul]

My longest chapter comes in at just over 4000 words, my shortest 1400. Overall they hover around the 2000 area. Brandon Sanderson/Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' chapter, 'The Last Battle' meant I abandoned the "I'll finish this chapter, then bedtime." rule. The chapter must have been a fifth of the book! A chapter is as long as it needs to be, even the very long ones!

Although to be fair, Brandon Sanderson could have easily split that chapter up into multiple ones, but I guess he kept it as one big chapter for the sake of impact.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Michael Stackpole has rather a defined opinion on this. He puts it at about 3500 words. This is just enough, according to him, that if you are about to go to bed you will look ahead and, seeing not that many pages, decide to go to the end and then stop for the night. However, your momentum can easily carry you far into the next chapter and then the scenario repeats. I had thought that idea to be rather oversimplified until I found out it actually works. Whoda thunk?

I wouldn't like to shoehorn my book into it.

As a reader I only take 2-4 hours to read a book anyway so it's rare I pay attention to the chapters beyond they signal the next bit of the story.

 

[HareBrain]

Mine average just over 3,500. The longest in my WIP1 is 8,500, but it contains several POV/scene breaks, so I think it still passes the "just this bit then I'll sleep" test. (As a reader, I make no distinction between chapter and scene breaks when choosing when to break off.)

So why didn't I just use those scene breaks to cut that chapter in two or three? I'm glad you asked. I think it's because, though the POV sections are quite varied, they come together at the end and make the chapter a satisfying whole. That wouldn't be the case with either piece if I'd split it. Which is just saying what others have said, that a chapter is as long as it needs to be.

 

[Tim Kinder]

I'm with Michael Coorlim on this. I always write until I feel I've reached a natural but extremely suspenseful break point. I try to dare the reader to put a bookmark on the page.

This does have a drawback however, my Beta readers, who get copies as I'm writing, start to hound me for the next installment almost immediately. Oh well. I try to look at it as a good problem.

 

[beardedwordsmith]

I really think it can be whatever you like. Just stop when you feel you've come to the natural end of a scene, like in a movie, or a significant moment in the plot, or when a lot of time needs to pass.

 

[JG Martin]

The chapters in my PA books tended to vary greatly between 1,000 and 2,500 words because it did shift POV frequently to tell the story from an opposite or tangential viewpoint. But the fantasy books I am working on now are running around 4,500 to 5,000 words. The breaks usually come when there is a transition from one place to the next and I didn't want to bore the reader with a detailed description of the journey or like beardedwordsmith said, there was a natural break in the action.

 

[Toby Frost]

Oh dear. I've been assuming 5,000 words per chapter was fairly short! Like JG Martin, I've worked on the basis that 5,000 is about right for an "episode": something happens, the characters deal with/experience it fully, and then there's some kind of change where it seems appropriate to go to something else.