Length of Chapters

I would suggest Justyn, that the actual length is less important than the content. I have read books that gripped me so much I was oblivious to divisions, I just HAD to keep reading until I finished.

I would agree with Mississippi, but there is a benefit in having short chapters - a lot of people read "I'll just finish this chapter" and if the chapters are short, they tend to think, "oh I'll read another one" and thus get immersed in the book, whereas if they are long, the feeling they get may be "When's this chapter going to finish?" If a book is really gripping, it won't matter, but in general my preference is to short chapters, particularly if they are going up electronically.

i'm trying to write a novel at the moment, Justyn, and i find that my chapters tend to expire at 2000 words max. i don't know why this is. i just seen to run out of breath. in point of fact, writing beyond 1000 words is like dragging a dead body for me.

Phew! Its nice to know that other people have the same worries. All of the chapters in the novel that I am writing at the moment seem to be somewhere between 1500 - 2000 words and I was worried that they were a bit short. Most of the books I read seem to have really long chapters, and I was beginning to wonder if I hadn't taken on too much with writing a novel and should stick to short stories. Andrew, your point is very good, and I'd never really thought of it before, but often when I'm reading a book before falling asleep, it becomes a real battle to concentrate enough to get to the end of a long chapter, but if the chapters are short I'll think 'just one more' and end up finishing the book.

Given that there are between 300 and 350 words to a page in a book, a 2000 word chapter is 6 pages, which does not seem very long. There would be 50 chapters in an average length novel of 100,000 words. I prefer to see a chapter break when there is a natural break in the story - a change of POV for example or a time shift. I detest some books where, having reached the end of a chapter, I turn the page only to find the author has picked up where he left us 10 seconds ago. What was the point? I think it also depends on the genre. Bodice rippers and crime are often much shorter books, 50 -60,000 words, and could withstand shorter chapters. Young childrens stuff also should be in short chunks I feel, although Phillip Pullman - who writes for the older teenage market, has about 15 chapters in The Subtle Knife (I just checked) which is, at a rough guess 115,000 words long. There are plenty of breaks or segments within each chapter though as Justyn mentions above and this is how I prefer to see books written. I agree with Andrew when it comes to the internet. I think it must be the constant scrolling but I cannot concentrate on long pieces enough to do them justice. And finally, I read something somewhere recently that authors tend to produce about 1500 - 2000 words a day which is possibly why each segment is that long. It gives them a feasible target for the days work and a leaves a current plot line to pick up on the next day; unlike a chapter break which should be the end of a major section of the work and may leave them less inclined to pick up pen again. So, yes Justyn, circa 2000 words is fine for a segment but, IMHO far to short for a chapter, subject to genre and o/a length of the piece of string.

In my book, which is quite a complex one, i break off chapters when it seem right, despite how many words there are. But roughly, i find each chapter is about 4500 words long. I'm actually thinking of cutting them into two, as this does seem a but long. But i don't think that, as an 'author', you should let chapter's dictate how a story progresses. If you come to a natural break, then chapters are fine. But stopping mid flow, simply to pick up again in a different chapter is, as Stromy Weather puts it, pointless. What do you peeps think is the right length to attract an agent; short (so they can read and edit it quickly) or long (so they get alot of story to judge and enjoy)?

Interesting feedback so far. I personally like the say 1500-2000 word segments, though they could be segments within a chapter, rather than official chapters. This staccato approach makes the writing more gripping for me than it might be otherwise, though it will certainly not save something that is awful in the first place. I also find that I am writing 1500-3000 words per day, which tends to make me think that is a good length for a chapter LOL. The real judge of that is the reader, of course, but until I have one, I'll have to go with my own instinct, and take into consideration other's experiences.

I think it is a traditional piece of writing advice that at least once every six pages, there needs to be something there that will really grip the reader and make them need to continue reading. So writing in 6 page chunks is not a bad way to get started. If you can do it the Chandler method, so much the better. Look at the page, there should be something wonderful on each and every page. And when you read his stuff, it is clear that he followed this, you can find something on every page that you want to read out to someone else and say "You've got to read this". (Of course, this approach did lead to years of alcoholism, so it comes at a price. )

I'm going to argue with myself now since there is no one else about at this time of night ... apart from f word kids above my head (see sleepover thread). My wife recently bought me a book in the hope, I presume, of actually writing as opposed to dallying in the forums. It is called Writing A Novel by Nigel Watts. I'm currently trying to get to grips with Stasis, trigger (disappointedly not a horse), quest, surprise, critical choice, cilmax (hah!), reversal and resolution. So I leafed forward today to the small, very small, part about chapters. this is what Nigel Watts has to say: "the average novel is about 80,000 to 120,000 words . Doorstoppers weigh in at around 200,000 words.Unless you are working in genre fiction, there is no set length within these extremes." ..... blah blah blah "What about chapter length? .... you can have very short chapters, or very long chapters, or indeed no chapters at all. The average number of chapters per novel is is between 20 and 40. The number isn't important: the main thing is regularity. if you have one chapter of 3000 words and the next one of 6000 words, that might cause a problem for the readers (who after all, are the final arbiters or your novelistic decisions) ..... readers are becoming increasingly toleristic of diversions from the norm, as the novel is being stretched in very different shapes. Break the convention by all means. The only question to ask is: does it work?" he also includes a bibliography of recommended reading, none of which i have read yet due to being an idle fart but several of those listed have been recommended to me before including "writing a novel" by John Braine and "aspects of writing" by E M Forster. I hope you find this useful justyn. I'm still struggling to understand the dammed book let alone write anything. all is quiet. i might sneak off to bed now.

Stormy - I bought that book. The advice seems good, but then you look at some of the extracts of his fictional writing. Boy, it sucks.

I suppose it's for others to decide, but I don't think I have too many problems with chapters. Just checked and they seem to run to about 1000 words on average. Now, this may seem daft, but it's paragraphs that vex me. One problem I have, amongst others, is a stupid reluctance to break down character speech into paragraphs. In fact, some of my paragraphs almost run into chapters. Does anyone else suffer from this? (Just noticed this posting is in one lump.)

No, feckers, I have the opposite problem. the virgo in me forces me to break things into neat chunks - especially speech. And yes, Andrew, his examples are often dire. Putting himself up against joyce was choice. Still a long way to go though. I read about arcs yesterday so at least I understood Tom's post in another thread.

Ah, stomy, not sure how to read your post - is every line a chapter?... Oh, and just checked my chapters again and they actually vary between 1000 & 3000 word so earliy posting was incorrect (didn't check the right ones that time).