How long is 'too' long for a chapter?

[Naruzeldamaster]

I'm a huge believer in 'it ends when it ends' for chapter/scene length.
But the bad thing about that is, some chapters have more than one proper 'scene' in them, and some scenes have more dialogue than others.
As a result my chapter lengths hover around anywhere from 8K to 15 K words per chapter.
Sometimes I feel like my scenes run 'long' but I'm not sure what to cut from them. A lot of my characters are plenty chatty. (which is my biggest weakness I think)

 

[pmmg]

I think in general, chapter length of most novels average at about 3000 words. The range is usually 1500-4000 words.

But that is meaningless, cause it may not fit your story well at all. For my own writing, my format does not really have chapters. But I do have a lot of scenes. Each scene is generally 700-1000 words in length. Some are shorter, 300 words, and some longer. I am not sure the longest, but I would guess 6000 words or so.

However, I suspect there is plenty that could be cut if you wish to shorten them. 8000 words of dialog have to have some fluff in them.

 

[Finchbearer]

It’s your book, you make the rules…

However if you’re asking if your chapter lengths are too long then I suspect that you have that feeling anyway. In your writing there must be natural breaks and ebbs and flows? Why not break those moments by ending a chapter and beginning a new one?

There is a reason why War and Peace is a slog. Sometimes it works to have longer chapters sometimes it doesn’t. My personal preferences for reading is 1000-4000 words in chapter length, although 4000 is pushing it, and 400 pages for the entire book so around 100,000k words overall. I therefore aim for this for my own writing.

Don’t forget there can also be small breaks within chapters, say if the story switches to a new character POV, or the writer takes the reader out of POV writing to show us the bigger picture.

 

[Prince of Spires]

It doesn't matter. There are bestsellers with chapters 250 - 500 words long, and bestsellers with no chapters at all. A chapter is simply the author telling the reader "a new bit is starting." All that matters is that your writing is good.

Of course, if you're asking the question, it might be a symptom that you think something's wrong with your writing. If that's the case, then examine that. An 8000 word scene sounds on the long side. But it's hard to say anything for certain about it without having seen it. Even more so because an 8.000 word scene in a 200k word novel is very different than in a 60k word novel.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I think in general, chapter length of most novels average at about 3000 words. The range is usually 1500-4000 words.

But that is meaningless, cause it may not fit your story well at all. For my own writing, my format does not really have chapters. But I do have a lot of scenes. Each scene is generally 700-1000 words in length. Some are shorter, 300 words, and some longer. I am not sure the longest, but I would guess 6000 words or so.

However, I suspect there is plenty that could be cut if you wish to shorten them. 8000 words of dialog have to have some fluff in them.

That's the weird part, I re-read the entire thing last night.
There's absolutely some dialogue that could be cut, but the odd part of it is that it doesn't 'feel' like fluff if that makes sense?
The main point of the chapter is to show the personality of the female lead, from varying levels of her own interest. The idea is to give the reader a good perspective of how turbulent she is. (not in a bad way, but she is unpredictable)

There's an opening sequence that I could maybe cut, and that alone might chop off a good 2K words, but I am unsure if it needs to be cut or shortened or not. (Because again, to me personally it doesn't feel like 'fluff' the chapter just feels a bit longer than it should be) I will probably post the thing for review later and ask for feedback.

 

[pmmg]

Well. You may be right. No one knows it better than you.

Id have to see it to know differently. My red pen has been known to run out of ink . Maybe when its ready you can post something up or send it to me.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Well. You may be right. No one knows it better than you.

Id have to see it to know differently. My red pen has been known to run out of ink . Maybe when its ready you can post something up or send it to me.

I will likely finish the chapter tonight (really only just a little bit and 'closing the chapter' narration left) and post it for review. I am still unsure what I could potentially cut though. It's at least 4 K words shorter than the initial draft of the chapter, but I dunno why it feels long. Maybe I'm just using it as an excuse to procrastinate writing the second chapter ._.;

 

[pmmg]

I recommend you skip polishing it, and start writing the second chapter. We can look at what to cut when its finished.

 

[Renè Williams]

I am currently trying the tactic of treating each chapter like a sort of episode, or thinking to myself, if this were serialized, where would I start and stop? It doesn't always work perfect for me and I change things around but it's become a good personal tool to guide myself when i'm wondering if it's too long, or so short it messes with pacing

 

[PunkRoar]

Sometimes, the chapter becomes boring and useless, that's when you know it's too long. If you reread it one more time and you don't get boring, it's not long. It's abount the content not the number of pages.

 

[ReJaymes]

While there are general ranges of chapter/novel length, there is no set rule. Epic fantasy can have chapters averaging 5,000+ words. Others can have a chapter with only one word. Though it may be good to keep in mind that if the story isn't progressing or grows boring, long chapters can turn readers off. If a scene if particularly long, you can always make it into its own shorter chapter that way readers don't feel bogged down.

 

[Joe McM]

After editing my book many times, I noticed that the length seemed to affect the pacing of the story. Many of my chapters have multiple scenes. I realized that breaking up a long chapter gave me a psychological breather, for want of a better way of explaining it. That said, I have both short and longer chapters.