Chapter Length?

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Jordygirl

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Okay, question.

How long should chapters be for YA? Does anyone know this? I talked to one writer who said the normal chapter is at least ten pages long, but that seemed kinda long to me. She writes sci-fi/fantasy, so I thought maybe chapters in those genres are longer. Any ideas for the length of chapters?

Also, I never divide my books up by chapters as I'm writing them, I wait until later. Is this a bad thing?

So I guess my questions are
1. How long are you chapters?
2. What genre are you writing?
and 3. Do you write chapter-by-chapter, or wait until the story is done to divide it up?
 

blacbird

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First, in your writing, you need to think of counting words, not pages. Second, chapter lengths are highly individual in most writing, although there may be some customary generalities for YA. Third, the best place to find out what those might be is to go to your local library or bookstore and examine some typical YA books.

caw
 

seun

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How long is a piece of string?

I had a piece on my desk earlier for some reason. I'd say it was two inches long. Does that help?

As for the original question, I'd say it depends on the individual book. Read through a sample chapter and see how it goes. You'll hopefully be able to spot where the scene breaks and end should go.
 

NowCutThatOut!

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The only thing that matters is to keep it fairly consistent. You could write a book with 4 chapters, or one with 400, as long as the reader understands why the chapter break is taking place.

I normally just shift chapters every scene, or when the view shifts to avoid headhopping. It's easy enough to fix in a second draft if the formatting doesn't seem right.
 

Soccer Mom

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Mine are about 10-15 pages long for YA. A long chapter for me is 20 pps. I realize it's not what most will say to you, but I DO write for word count and page length. The story doesn't dictate length for me. I do, because I dictate the story. I decide how much or how little to give in the way of subplots and character development.
 

Monkey

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I like short chapters.

I also like each chapter to have a certain "feel"...I don't know how to describe it, really. Sometimes I have page breaks within a chapter; other times I use that opportunity to go on to the next chapter.

Usually, 3,000 words is my minimum chapter length. Sometimes I go longer, but not usually more than 6,000.

I write fantasy.
 

Will Lavender

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Chapters should run no more than one and one half pages!

Sincerely,

James Patterson
 
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