Chapter differences between books?

ether · Feb 11, 2010

This may or not even be important, but.

Say you have a first book and it contains 30-ish chapters. If you have a second book in that series, should it be around the same chapter/page count or not? Should it be more? Less? Does it even matter and am I being stupid?

I ask because YA Book 1 has about 30ish chapters. Granted, I imagine a lot of trimming will be done and I might try to combine some chapters since some are really short.

With the sequel, I tried something a little different with my writing process: I outlined everything chapter by chapter, and while each chapter seems like it will be longer than in Book 1, it's leaving it with a lot less total chapters. Should I try to split up some of these chapters, maybe?

Like I said, potentially stupid question, but I'm curious. :<

BriMaresh · Feb 11, 2010

Each book is its own animal. It's like trying to treat all your children exactly the same. As they are not, it doesn't work.

Marzipan · Feb 11, 2010

Nope. Don't worry about it.

ether · Feb 11, 2010

Good to know, thank you.

DrummerGirl · Feb 11, 2010

When I read sequels/trilogys, I never consider chapter lengths of the previous work...

My single book has chapter differences

In Part One, they're all between 700 and 1 500.

Part Two averages aournd 300 words.

Part Three averages 2 250.

I'm hoping it's not too weird

Good luck.

ether · Feb 11, 2010

DrummerGirl said:
When I read sequels/trilogys, I never consider chapter lengths of the previous work...

My single book has chapter differences

In Part One, they're all between 700 and 1 500.

Part Two averages aournd 300 words.

Part Three averages 2 250.

I'm hoping it's not too weird

Good luck.

Thanks! That helps.

I think in book one, I averaged 2500 a chapter. I'll probably be more up to 3500 in the second.

Poetoffire · Feb 12, 2010

It might be jarring as a reader, but right now, do whatever the hell you want. That's a conundrum to sort out when you've finished revising book one and you've finished writing book two.

shaldna · Feb 12, 2010

It depends. If I have read three books out of a series and they all have really short chapters then I will probably struggle with the thrid book which has chapters of 3000 words.

But, as was stated, you sdhould treat each book as an individual, but keep in mind the environment of the series as you write.

In other words, don't worry so much about chapter length, but more about flow.

Chapter differences between books?

ether

BriMaresh

New kid, be gentle!

Marzipan

ether

DrummerGirl

Capturing the Castle

ether

Poetoffire

Professional Cynic

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.