How Many Words

[Aurelian]

Ok i was just wonderin I've been writing off and on for about a year and a half now and I have over time come to know the value of the word count. My question is how many words do you think the average chapter should be, in proportion to overall size of the book your writing of course.

Any feedback you would give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[myrddin173]

Moving to the Writing Questions Forum.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Ok i was just wonderin I've been writing off and on for about a year and a half now and I have over time come to know the value of the word count. My question is how many words do you think the average chapter should be, in proportion to overall size of the book your writing of course.

Any feedback you would give me would be greatly appreciated.

There's no simple answer to this. Some novels will have chapters that last 1,000 words and chapters that last 10,000 words. Others will pretty consistently fall in the 3,000 - 6,000 range. It depends on what's best for your story. Neal Stephenson's "REAMDE" has "chapters" that break the story up into days (since there are four or five plot threads we're following at all times), and within each day there can be five or ten or fifty different sections, which are not delimited by anything but a blank line and shift perspective between each. Some of those sections last a couple hundred words, some last for thousands.

You really can't go wrong by aiming for 3,000 - 6,000 per chapter, if it's a traditional story, but I wouldn't take that as gospel -- you might find a section which really only needs to be 1,000 words.

 

[Chilari]

There aren't any rules for the length of a chapter. Hell, most of the time I don't even use chapters, just a double line break and continue. I feel starting a new chapter breaks the flow of my thoughts far more thoroughly than line breaks. And I'm not the only one to write without chapters - Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel don't have chapters either, for example. But as far as length goes, don't worry about it. Just start the new chapter (if you are using chapters) when it feels right to do so in the context of the prose.

 

[TWErvin2]

As has been stated, there are not specific rules or hard guidelines for chapter lengths. The only thing I might add which others above haven't stated is that YA novels tend to have shorter chapters than novels targeted at an older audience. But, again, certainly not a 'rule' to follow.

Do what you think is right for your novel. Chapters and scene breaks within chapters--go with what works for the story's pattern and flow.

 

[gerald.parson]

No set rules. Only bit of advice that I have heard and that I can offer is keep in mind books are put down as easily as they are picked up, and most of the time the end of a chapter is where someone will put the book down, so with that in mind (again not a rule by any means) you might want to gauge your chapter length on projected reading times. This is just a logical theory, I have read books with chapters that seem to never end and others that have chapters that barely fill 2 pages.

 

[Caged Maiden]

My answer relates to Gerald's. I tend to put books down when a chapter ends with: and then they all went to sleep for the night. It sort of makes me think, oh yeah, I'd better be getting to bed.
HOWEVER I love it when I just can't put a book down. Some of the best books I've read, I never did put them down 'til I was at the end. Each chapter rolled into the next, and there was just no good place to quit reading.

Sometimes like this:
"The party of adventurers was just finishing their pints in the local tavern. Bruce the barbarian was obviously hammered, telling off-color jokes which made the priestess cringe and redden. Since Dave had flitted off with a wench earlier in the night, that left only the level-headed ranger Kate wondering where Sticky-fingers had gone.

As if to answer her question, the halfling reappeared, hurrying over to the table, an unmistakable look on his face. "Time to go," he said in a hushed tone. Kate's heart sank. "What did you do?" she demanded.
"I'll tell you later, but we need to leave now."
"Well, it's getting late," she said, standing to get the attention of her companions. "I think we should find accommodations for the night."
"What about Dave?" the shy cleric asked.
"He will find his way home. We need to leave now."
Kate gathered her backpack up and lent a hand to the tipsy brute, and the party made to leave.
"Uh," Sticky piped up, "I think we might do well to leave out the back."


It's not really a cliff-hanger, some perilous situation in which the character's life hangs in the balance, but it is a situation that lets the next chapter start many ways, and lets you change a scene easily. For instance:
1.) After a cold night on the floor of a drafty chapel Kate awoke and.....
2.) Heading through the alleys, the sound of pursuers gaining on them Kate and her companions made their way to.....
3.) Waiting at the inn for Dave, who finally turned up after midday did nothing to improve Kate's mood.....


Incidentally, does anyone know what this is called? I wonder if it has a literary term. The classes I have taken were focused on research writing, and I have never taken a creative writing class or anything dealing with fiction.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

There aren't really any solid rules on it but you can just google different articles and find out if it really bothers you. Just try and make your chapter lengths consistent. This isn't really a rule either but I think it would just be sloppy if you had a chapter 5 pages long and then one that was 14 pages long.

 

[JCFarnham]

I wouldn't usually post in a bumped thread of this sort, but I'll let it slid this time haha I pretty religiously aim for 3000 words a chapter for no reason other than that tends to be where my chapters end up breaking. Sometimes I find myself wondering if I'm forcing chapter breaks into my writing unnecessarily, and conclude that I need to write a plot thread through to completion then decide... but honestly all that can be done in editting mode!

 

[sashamerideth]

I wouldn't usually post in a bumped thread of this sort, but I'll let it slid this time haha I pretty religiously aim for 3000 words a chapter for no reason other than that tends to be where my chapters end up breaking. Sometimes I find myself wondering if I'm forcing chapter breaks into my writing unnecessarily, and conclude that I need to write a plot thread through to completion then decide... but honestly all that can be done in editting mode!

I have broken chapters where it makes sense. One work flows naturally into chapters, my current not so much. I am also averaging 3k words per chapter when they work, but anywhere from 1500-6000 when they don't.

 

[The Din]

Just how short can you get away with? I have my chapters end every time it changes between my two POVs, thus there are a few instances where they are under 1000 words (one is barely 300).

Seems like this would be annoying to come across in a novel but I don't want to add filler simply to appease peoples sensibilities. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Standard chapter lengths are one of those "rules" that:

1. Are a good idea for beginners
2. Can be fudged some of the time without raising too many eyebrows
3. Veteran or well-known authors can ignore completely if it serves their purposes
4. Will be distracting to some readers and totally fine with others

If it's really the best thing for your story, you can have a chapter that's 500 or 300 or 100 words. Some books don't really have numbered chapters, and this advice is less relevant; I'm reading the Millennium Trilogy right now (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc.) and the "chapters" are periods of time that might cover a huge number of events from many different perspectives. Each chapter might have twenty or thirty different sections, from different characters' POVs, and they can be really long. Some chapters overlap in time, because Larsson didn't go back to a particular character for a long period. (Those of you who have read The Girl Who Played With Fire know what I'm talkin' 'bout.)

On the one hand, saying "Well, Famous Author X did this, therefore I can too" is a nice bit of writerly hubris, but usually Famous Author X spent years writing other stuff before he did whatever it is. So just keep in mind that leaping into the deep end may not be the best idea if you haven't mastered the shallows yet.

 

[JCFarnham]

Just how short can you get away with? I have my chapters end every time it changes between my two POVs, thus there are a few instances where they are under 1000 words (one is barely 300).

Seems like this would be annoying to come across in a novel but I don't want to add filler simply to appease peoples sensibilities. Any advice would be appreciated.

It wouldn't bother me very much truth be told. I read books when I was younger like Kevin Crossley-Holland's take on the story a young Arthur. In that trilogy some chapters barely scraped passed a 50 word paragraph while others were much longer. It worked firstly because Arthur was writing a journal of which these books were supposed to be, and secondly because each time a new "concept" began [wildly different scene, the passage of time, different subject matter, etc.] he would tend to switch chapter. Back then it was rather a novelty for me [I read the Hobbit almost directly before]. I don't know how I would feel about reading chapters that short and inconsistant now, but I can't say it would piss me off enough to stop reading.

A good thing to think about is the subject matter of groups of scenes. If a couple of short chapters you have all deal with say a reaction to a large scale event from multiple POVs then maybe it would be a good idea to merge these into single chapters. After all a double line break is usually enough to separate points of view.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Well Aurelian, my chapters are usually 7 to 9 pages long and sometimes 12 or more, but I also use very short chapters (just 2 or 3 pages) in certain parts of my novels =)

With my system every page averages 360 words, so that would mean... 3000 words per chapter?? Keep in mind that I write novels that are relatively short compared to other Fantasy works (my longest novel so far is about 93000 words) and after all, how short or long your chapters and books are depends on the style of every Writer.