What's your preference with chapters?

[stace001]

Is it better to have shorter chapters with fewer scenes, or longer chapters with more scenes? Which do you prefer as a reader?

My WIP has an average chapter length of about 1500 words. I'm just wondering if I should combine 2 or 3 chapters into one and just separate them into different scenes, or leave it the way it is. Does it even matter?

[johnzakour]

I write shorter chapters. But that's just me. One reviewer said the shorter chapters were nice because it made the book easier to read on the subway or bus when traveling to and from work and home.

[maestrowork]

For as long as it needs to be. Sometimes short, sometimes long. They're never arbitrary, but they're not fixed either. My longest chapter is about 10 pages, and the shortest is one.

[Azraelsbane]

I have a novel around 90k with 20 chapters. Some of my chapters are 8k with 3 or 4 scenes, and some are only 2k with one scene. It really just depends on what you're trying to get across and how you divide your chapters. There's no reason to have every chapter the same length, unless all your scenes/periods naturally fall that way. I've never really understood the big deal behind chapter length. When it's done it's done.

Of course, I have a thread down that may look as if it asks the same type of question, but my point in that one was more to do with giving a specific MC enough face time, as opposed to general chapter length.

[kristie911]

I prefer shorter chapters but I don't mind longer chapters if they have shorter scenes within the chapters.

[melaniehoo]

My wip has 17 chapters in the outline. As I write I'm putting spacers *** (don't know if there's a proper name for this) between sections where there's a natural break. Some books I've read would make this a new chapter, but since mine have names, I'm sticking with the astericks for now.

In general, I don't like really long chapters, but when they get too short (a la Da Vinci Code, etc) I feel like the author couldn't form a more complete thought and took the easy way out.

[stace001]

In my WIP I have two storylines going at once - the main character and a girl who has been abducted. I have a couple of chapters from my main characters perspective, then one chapter on the abducted girl and what she's going through. I hadn't actually thought of putting chapters together until I transfered all the info onto a new writing program and realised how short the chapters were. At the moment they stop where I feel the scene ends naturally....

[NiennaC]

I usually write long chapters, but I think I need to cut them down. Because, as a reader, I prefer medium chapters - not too short, but not too long.

[stace001]

I realise there's no right or wrong answer. I just thought I'd ask what your preference was as a reader.

Personally I like shorter chapters as I love reading before bed and as I'm usually already tired, I don't like to end half way through a chapter.

[Ravenlocks]

My chapters tend to be 10-20 double-spaced pages, however many words that comes out to be. Usually they're closer to ten pages. I don't know if that puts them on the long side, the medium side, or the short side because I don't know how the manuscript pages equate to printed pages in a book.

[rosebud1981]

I just have four large sections in my almost completed WIP but I don't have what I would call chapters at all.
During the second draft maybe I'll find that I need to break the story down more if it seems a bit condensed, but for now I'm happy with it as it is.

[Shady Lane]

I like to read and write short chapters. Mine are always a little too short, though.

[NiennaC]

Erg, I deleted my last post and then realized I didn't want to. I'm so tired. Anyway, what I was going to say was: I've read books where the chapters are only a paragraph or so long.

[Azraelsbane]

Wow. As much as I think it doesn't matter, you guys are making me antsy about having a couple 8k chapters... Then again, they have scene breaks...

[melaniehoo]

I start to dread my book when the chapters are too long. I started the Scarlett Letter last night and almost tossed it aside when I saw the prologue was over 50 pages with no breaks! I know I shouldn't skip it so I'll force myself through it, but ugh.

[glassquill]

As a reader, I can't say that I've taken note of the length of chapters. If the story is fascinating, I'll just keep turning the pages until I run out of pages to turn. :)

[Azraelsbane]

I start to dread my book when the chapters are too long. I started the Scarlett Letter last night and almost tossed it aside when I saw the prologue was over 50 pages with no breaks! I know I shouldn't skip it so I'll force myself through it, but ugh.

Thanks for giving me an example of a successful book with a long prologue. I've been wondering about that. My prologue is 6k, though there are 3 scene breaks in it...but still. LoL

[Ravenlocks]

I just have four large sections in my almost completed WIP but I don't have what I would call chapters at all.
During the second draft maybe I'll find that I need to break the story down more if it seems a bit condensed, but for now I'm happy with it as it is.
I didn't put any chapters in mine in the first draft. I'm adding them in now as I revise. Breaking it into chapters is mechanical work for me, and I find my writing flows better if I don't worry about them in the first draft.

Of course, that's not exactly what you're doing.

[Vorteil]

My chapters are usually somewhere in between 1k and 5k. I try to separate them as I write, but I often change that during editing anyways. It's really not something I notice when I read, unless the writer used some specific, unusual way of starting and ending them.

[mkcbunny]

As a reader, I don't have a preference for a specific length. It all depends on what's appropriate for the kind of tale you're telling. Fast-moving stories need breaks so that the reader can come up for air. Slower-paced books may have longer chapters that cover a specific period of time. Cormac McCarthy's The Road doesn't have any chapter breaks, just scene breaks. That seems fitting for the tale at hand; it conveys a sense of ongoing adventure.

My chapters tend to be around 10-15 pages. The shortest is five, and the longest so far is 17. I stop when I hit the line that's the right ending for that arc. Sometimes the next chapter begins in the same scene; the chapters just begin and end where I think it feels right for the reader to stop.

[HopelessDreamer]

I write chapters in the middle of the road, usually about twenty pages. I don't mean to, it just somehow works out that way.

[melaniehoo]

Thanks for giving me an example of a successful book with a long prologue. I've been wondering about that. My prologue is 6k, though there are 3 scene breaks in it...but still. LoL

You're welcome! As you say, it's a successful book which is why I'll do it, but I feel like it's homework.

I read a memoir about OCD that had ZERO chapters, annoying. You'd think she would have really checked that, no?

[Ava Jarvis]

Terry Pratchett's books usually have no chapters. His scenes constantly flow with no natural large breaks (something that he has broken recently--or has he?--as well as earlier (for example, the Gnome trilogy).

I try to go from hook to finisher to delineate my chapters. Raising the conflict (any kind of conflict, from feelings to outright fights), then bringing it down to a slightly higher level than before, and then raising it again. The finishers are the equivalent of partial stops (as in poetry within stanzas, rather than full stops), though they lead into the questions that drive the next chapter. Within any chapter there are multiple scenes, the equivalent of commas maybe, or semicolons sometimes.

That seems to be the way that most people end up doing it.

[Wolvel]

In my finished wip (now in edit stage) I have around 60 chapters. Now before anyone wigs out I use the chapters to break apart my scenes. I usually have two ongoing scenes per chapter and since I have multiple scenes I use the chapters to seperate as well as leave the cliffhangers in place to keep the reader guessing and wanting to read more to find out what happens.

[maxmordon]

I have a chapter every 20 pages or so; indicating a stage of the story. The end of the chapter is kind of a cliffhanger

[mkcbunny]

I like the cliffhanger or "what's next?" chapter ending style, both as a reader and writer. One of the things that, I think, made even the more bloated Harry Potter books captivating was that Rowling tended to leave chapters in places where the reader really *needed* to know what was forthcoming.

As a kid, I was Oz-obsessed, and one of Baum's great tricks was ending chapters with not only cliffhangers, but actual questions. I always wanted more than I could stay up to read.

[Varthikes]

I try to keep my chapters no more than 10 pages. Occasionally I may go over. But, I try not to.

[JimmyB27]

Terry Pratchett's books usually have no chapters. His scenes constantly flow with no natural large breaks (something that he has broken recently--or has he?--as well as earlier (for example, the Gnome trilogy).
His publisher made him put chapters in the kids books, and Going Postal has chapters too.

Life doesn't happen in chapters— at least, not regular ones. Nor do movies. Homer didn't write in chapters. I can see what their purpose is in children's books ("I'll read to the end of the chapter, and then you must go to sleep") but I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults.

[DeleyanLee]

Do what Koontz so often does: He has 3-5 chapters in his book, but each chapter has numbered subchapters that are much shorter and don't necessarily start on the next page. LOL!

Truly, though, chapters are an artifical structure imposed on the book. Do whatever feels best for your style and the flow of the story.

[Shane Fitzsimmons]

It doesn't really matter. For people who don't have a lot of time to read, chapters and scene breaks are definitely helpful. I personally don't care when I'm writing. I have a detailed outline of what the chapter is setting out to accomplish. When it's accomplished, the scene/chapter is over. Writing any other way is just asking to hurt the integrity of the book.

[CaroGirl]

As a reader, which is, I think, your original question, I don't mind long chapters, but in that case I prefer more frequent scene breaks. I can stop reading in the middle of a paragraph or page (particularly if it ain't that exciting) but I like to stop at the end of a chapter or scene and I do have other things to do. Get groceries, do laundry, pick the kids up from school (doh!), go to sleep.

[JohnDavidPaxton]

My personal enjoyment as a reader is when ever chapter, no matter how long or short, captures a thought, theory, idea or emotion. It can contain nine scenes as long as all nine scenes are moving in the same direction. It's when each scene goes to another character and seems to serve another purpose that I wonder why they weren't divided at the natural breaks.

I write rather long chapters. The first version of mah bookz was about 120,000 words with 21 chapters. If I'm doing my formula correctly that's that's about 30 pages per chapter, or 15 Dan Brown chapters per one of mine.

At one point I was down to 86,000 words and 22 chapters. So much shorter on average and I think it's better for it. However, since I have so many natural breaks within them, I would not at all be adverse to making it 40 - 50 chapters, I just thought of chapters that way, scenes that way, when I was writing it.

[Dave.C.Robinson]

I tend to do about 6 or 7K chapters. It's what fits with my style. Sometimes I'll do shorter, but rarely below about 4K. Fifteen chapters feels about right for a novel.

[John61480]

I'm currently writing in scenes. I have 63 scenes outlined and each scene seems to be averaging about 1,500 words.

I've already figured out the first few chapters of the WIP by adding these scenes together.

Hopefully I'll be able to sit at a similar chapter average of 5K.

[stace001]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I appreciate it.

So basically, its up to me :). I think I'll leave it the way it is, and after my beta readers have taken a look, I might ask them if the chapter length bothered them at all. Thanks again.:hi:

[jennifer75]

My WIP has an average chapter length of about 1500 words.

Isn't that like, a page and a half? :)

...ok, I went and checked mine, 5 pages. If it works for you, so be it. I don't think anybody is going to say "this chapter is entirely too short, I'm not continuing...". :) I like to begin a chapter somewhat satisfied from the previous. That's just me. Cliffhangers are nice though, so do what ever works.

[jedimaster107]

chapter one of my wip is over 8k. I had one chapter that was like 75 pages double space. I broke it down into smaller chapters.

[BrokenSword]

My chaps tend to be on the long side, based on the numbers here, in the 3-4K range but I use the scene markers (**) as well, which I suppose could be new chapters. Since I've got too many already, I'll stick with the markers.

Used to be I'd like to read and finish a chapter before putting the book down but now I merely try to end on a note which is not in the middle of an action scene. So, I'm not that particular but do wonder at 1 page chapters...

[Julie Worth]

...but I like to stop at the end of a chapter or scene and I do have other things to do.

I like short chapters for this reason. Knowing that they're short I feel safe in starting the next one, even though it's late. I think, just one more, and then another one. So short chapters entice me to keep reading.

[JimmyB27]

It doesn't really matter. For people who don't have a lot of time to read, chapters and scene breaks are definitely helpful.
I can understand scene breaks - you don't necessarily want to stop in the middle of something - but why chapters? Why do you need to be told by the author where to stop and take a break?

[ishtar'sgate]

I don't make a specific plan but my chapters tend to be longer at the beginning of the book and shorten up as the pace quickens toward the end of the story.
Linnea

[GeorgeK]

For as long as it needs to be. Sometimes short, sometimes long. They're never arbitrary, but they're not fixed either. My longest chapter is about 10 pages, and the shortest is one.

same here except the range is 1-50, whenever there is a shift in characters or major change of scene

[Chasing the Horizon]

I prefer long chapters (20+ pages) as both a reader and a writer. And I hate cliff hangers at the end of a chapter. If the plot and characters are interesting I'll be reading the next chapter as soon as I have time, so it's just unnecessary, and if the chapter cliff hangs it often makes it harder for me to pick the story up again when I come back.

[Doogs]

I think it depends on how you define a chapter.

I have 15 chapters. They vary in length, but probably average around 10-15,000 words. Each chapter is then broken out into a number of scenes. In the opposite direction, my chapters tend to cluster together in groups of three, dividing the story into fifths. For my story and my writing style, the hierarchical structure works quite well.

A quick example:

Section (scene) - MC confronts a group of soldiers who are conspiring to go AWOL
Chapter - MC holds the remnants of the army together in the wake of catastrophic defeat
3-Chapter Block - Despite repeated defeats, Rome presses on its war with Hannibal.

[Chasing the Horizon]

Doogs, I think of my stories in the same way, though I call the chapter blocks sequences and they vary a little more in length (2-5 chapters). These aren't actually marked in the MS in anyway, so readers don't necessarily see the divisions, but I find it very helpful with structure and pacing.