What's your preference with chapters?

stace001 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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

melaniehoo · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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

NiennaC · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

melaniehoo said:
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 · Sep 11, 2007

rosebud1981 said:
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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

Azraelsbane said:
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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 11, 2007

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 · Sep 12, 2007

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

What's your preference with chapters?

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Look into my eyes

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How novel.

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Penúltimo

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