Chapter Length

[Philip Overby]

I know this must have been posted somewhere before, but I wanted to start the discussion fresh for newer members and such.

I know this one of those really subjective topics that depends a lot on style and such, but I was just wondering what is your average chapter length? I find that mine vary from 2,500 words to 5,000. I know some writers prefer longer chapters (especially in fantasy), but I notice a lot of authors I like tend to do shorter ones. My writing isn't always heavily descriptive also, so that may attribute to my shorter chapters. My longer chapters tend to have scene breaks in them.

I get that writing it until it feels finished is the best advice and all, but just wanted to get a general sense from the forum.

Also, when you're reading, do you tend to like longer chapters or shorter ones? I read in short bursts most of the time, so I'd say I probably prefer both writing and reading short chapters, but I don't mind reading a long one if I really like the writer.

Mostly I'd like to get a sense of what your average chapter length is (just an estimate) and what your general feeling is about shorter or longer chapters, both writing and reading.

Thoughts?

 

[BWFoster78]

I find myself liking shorter chapters more and more. Of course, I like fast pace without a lot of description, so...

My chapters are averaging in the 1000-2000 word range.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I'm a bit wordy and I like my descriptions and I guess it's reflected in the length of my chapters:

Chapter 1: 7,754
Chapter 2: 4,854
Chapter 3: 6,258
Chapter 4: 9,109
Chapter 5: 5,451

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

As far as reading is concerned, I don't really care as long as it feels right.

For writing, my chapters tend to range from 2000 to 8000 words, with an average around 5000. I will say though, if they get much over 8000, I look for a way to break the chapter into two.

 

[teacup]

Mine are usually around 4-5k, though at least one has reached 7k words.
I suppose a big reason why I have kinda long chapters are because I usually have 3 POVs split throughout any one chapter (some are just 1 pov, or 2, though.) So naturally, with everything going on with each POV, the word count would probably be expected to go up rather than having just 1 POV per chapter. Though now that I've checked, one of my 7k chapters is just 1 POV, albeit with a lot going on.
Another reason why my chapters are this length is simply because I write until I hit a natural chapter break. If one comes 4k into a chapter, and I've covered everything I wanted to cover, then 4k it shall be. If it's 9k, then 9k it shall be. Part of me does wish that I naturally wrote short chapters, though, but I do like mine as they are.


Short chapters do have their advantages. They are usually faster paced and can keep a reader reading more, especially if used with a hook at the end of each chapter. I think The Hunger Games books are a good example of this. I didn't care much for any of the characters, but the short chapters with the hooks just made me keep reading to see what happened next.
I do generally prefer shorter chapters, but that's just because I hate stopping mid chapter, so with shorter chapters I can get to the end of one and stop reading easier, say, if I'm tired and am reading before sleeping.

 

[Philip Overby]

I just looked at my WIP and it looks like my average is 4,000-5,000. I only have one that goes over 6,000. This is a first draft though, so there's a chance that some chapters may be extended significantly and some may be the opposite.

The reason I thought of this question is because I'm doing a 52 First Chapter Challenge. I'm going to try to write several first chapters within the year of potential new projects just to see how many I can get that are interesting. My first two weeks, my first chapters have been 2,500 and 1,500 words. I guess those don't feel too short for me especially as first chapters. I tend to like shorter first chapters myself and then "meatier" ones as I go on.

In any case, in the interest of pacing I didn't want super short chapters interspersed with super long ones, so I guess it's working out the way I want so far.

 

[James G Pearson]

Mine is around the 1600-2000 mark, though depending on what's happening, it can easily go over 3000. I try not to write long chapters or have too much description. A leave most of it to the imagination of the reader.

 

[Steerpike]

As a reader, I don't really care how long the chapters are or even whether a book has chapters. When writing, I start a chapter when it seems natural to do so, and don't concern myself with the length. Some chapters are relatively short, others fairly long.

 

[Ireth]

Mine tend to average out at about 3500-4000 words. I like keeping them consistent when I can.

 

[MVV]

My chapters are averaging in the 1000-2000 word range.

Same here.

 

[Penpilot]

The range of my chapters is 800-4000ish worlds. The 4000 word upper end is an artificial cap I impose on myself. If a chapter exceeds 4000 words, I look to break it into two chapters. Usually my chapters average out to around 2500 words per. For me, that's a nice length were there's enough room to do what you need and not over stay your welcome.

Personally, I don't have a chapter length preference when reading, because I'm not afraid to put down a book mid-chapter. But I do take into consideration the chapter length before start a chapter. Depending on the time, I might not start the chapter because I know I won't finish.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I tend to think more in terms of pages rather than words - probably as a result of learning to write on a typewriter, who knows? My chapters tend to run anywhere from 8 - 25 pages, depending on what's going on and how long they need to be - and the 25 is only so far, I may get longer. Since our chapters tend to be a bit episodic I go with a natural flow and don't think in terms of "I need to keep this at x length." I'm a very natural writer and put most of my brain sweat into making sure our world is accurate and realistic while still being entertaining, and not so much into artificially structuring our format. This means that maybe our hooks are super-gripping (or non-existent) or maybe we don't have thriller-length chapters, but so far it's worked well for us. No one has yet said, "This was great - you just had too many words in this chapter."

 

[Ophiucha]

I have a dreadfully bad habit of having full-length novels that have like... five or six 'chapters'. One might more accurately call them 'parts'. I would say each scene ranges from 800 words to about 4,000, unless it is a rather climactic scene (which would probably be split in two at a good cliffhanger spot if I were dividing them into chapters).

When I'm reading, I don't tend to notice/care how long a chapter is since I'll stop at any double spaced or *** break provided in the text as I need to, but I admit I'm not keen on very short chapters. Like, those one paragraph ones that take up less than the whole page? Just the formatting of it jars me a little, takes me out of the reading for a moment.

 

[Philip Overby]

Not that this is a super important topic or anything, but just wanted to get a sense of what others were doing. Yeah, sure, it depends on each author, story etc. etc. but I've noticed patterns in my own work that I wondered if others have as well. From a general sense, I find that fantasy chapters tend to be long. For me, I see chapters as a way to say, "OK, time for a break." I'm not a marathon reader so I guess I write for people who aren't the same.

Anyway, thanks for the comments so far!

 

[buyjupiter]

I'm not a marathon reader so I guess I write for people who aren't the same.

I am a marathon reader. For example, one of the A Song of Ice and Fire books takes me about three or four days to get through if I really focus. That said, it's much easier to stay sucked in if you're doing short POV chapters and you leave it on a cliff hanger for the best POV and then are an absolute evil [insert your choice curse word here] and don't get back to that POV for fifty pages. There have been lots of times where I'll need to do something and I'll bargain with myself about how much more reading I can do before "x" has to be completed. (Usually, it's sleep that suffers.)

And I suppose that's one of the things about chapter length: how many times does a POV shift within a chapter? If it's more than once, I think it should be broken up into different chapters to convey the shifts more clearly. (I don't know that doing it GRRM style with every POV getting its own chapter is the absolute best way of doing it, but it does work.)

My chapters tend to be in the 3-4k word range, end on cliffhangers, and if they shift POV they only do it once.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Not that this is a super important topic or anything, but just wanted to get a sense of what others were doing.

Same. It doesn't all have to be super serious technical stuff all the time. Sometimes it's nice to just show off different things; "this is how I do it".

I don't shift PoV at all in my story and so far I've only started a new chapter where I felt that a significant enough amount of time has passed since the previous scene - like between days or after a long trip or something along those lines.

 

[Philip Overby]

I am a marathon reader. For example, one of the A Song of Ice and Fire books takes me about three or four days to get through if I really focus. That said, it's much easier to stay sucked in if you're doing short POV chapters and you leave it on a cliff hanger for the best POV and then are an absolute evil [insert your choice curse word here] and don't get back to that POV for fifty pages. There have been lots of times where I'll need to do something and I'll bargain with myself about how much more reading I can do before "x" has to be completed. (Usually, it's sleep that suffers.)

And I suppose that's one of the things about chapter length: how many times does a POV shift within a chapter? If it's more than once, I think it should be broken up into different chapters to convey the shifts more clearly. (I don't know that doing it GRRM style with every POV getting its own chapter is the absolute best way of doing it, but it does work.)

My chapters tend to be in the 3-4k word range, end on cliffhangers, and if they shift POV they only do it once.

I grew up reading the Dragonlance books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and they always tended to split the party up and have them doing different things. I always loved that for whatever reason and it did give me more of an incentive to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. Not sure that method works for everyone, but it certainly did for me. The same goes for Martin's works.

However, as of late, I'm not able to do that as much. Maybe it has something to do with not having a comfortable place to read for a long period of time. Most of my reading is not done in hour intervals or anything. In the case of Martin, I could read for hours in some cases, but other books I tend to inch through more often than not.

 

[wordwalker]

I do 4-6K chapters, but differently. I only do one POV, but I divide my story up so that most chapters have a major event of one kind or another, and then construct each around buildup to that. I've found it's a great length for sweeping readers in.

I have a lot of faith in the idea that readers average 7.5K-15K reading at a sitting, so I like to think my chapters are perfect for encouraging them to hand on through a second one, and then either follow the thrill ride for a third or put the book down another would be too much of a good thing for now. There's more than one way to be evil.

 

[stephenspower]

When I started writing the novel that I should be polishing instead of reading this forum, I was also curious how long other authors' chapters were to gauge my own. So while in the library one day I grabbed 8 books from the near-at-hand new release shelf and paperback stacks: a James Patterson, a Janet Evanovich, Da Vinci Code, The Shining, a technothriller, a woman's historical, Redshirts and one I can't remember. Patterson had the shortest chapters at around 520 words. Evanovich had the longest at around 3100. King's chapters were broken into subchapters that came out at around 2500 words. Overall average: 2106. Da Vinci Code nearly hit the nail on the head at 2104.

Of course only after I finished my first draft did I see my error. Those are 2100 estimated words. An actual word count, like your computer gives you, would be 16% less, I figured out. So a better count for bestseller chapters would be 1750 actual words per chapter.

With this in mind, I'm doing what King does in The Shining: Chapters made up of 2100 (plus or minus 400) word subchapters, which are then broken into several to many pov sections to keep things rolling for both the reader and for me while writing. Essentially I applied a game design theory my chapters: a series of small challenges (finishing sections) leading to a boss (finishing the subchapter) leading to a big boss (finishing the overall chapter). My subchapters are all over the range I set for myself, which is probably good, but on average across whole chapters they're coming in between 1900 and 2100 words.

Hopefully this will all have the effect I felt while reading the Da Vinci Code: the story will move so fast readers won't be able to slow down and consider how much of it's nonsense. Personally I like the limit because then I can't ramble on. I have to be concise.

 

[JRFLynn]

Goodness, my chapters range from 15-25 pages more of less. The last one I finished was 16.5k, with usually 2-3 POV changes. I have no idea if that's reasonable, just going with it, and it's probably going be edited down in later drafts.

Yet, in other projects it's around 2k.

So it varies depending on the story.