Shortest, longest chapters

The Lonely One · Oct 24, 2008

How long is your longest chapter? Shortest?

I was thinking of an interesting chapter in one of Bradbury's works that said simply: Nothing much else happened the rest of that day. (Or some such thing.)

I just wrote a chapter that said:

"(MC) and (secondary character) and his rocket ship slipped through an invisible hole in the Earth's sky: a secret doorway as old as dust, and what lay beyond much older.

And they were gone."

I suppose that's awfully short, but it was my solution to clearing up an "in-between" of two scenes without disrupting the flow of surrounding chapters.

So what's the longest you've gone without a chapter break? The shortest chapter? Curious for comparison purposes.

Cheers.

kuwisdelu · Oct 24, 2008

My longest? Oh, somewhere between 20-30 pages, I think.

My shortest? It's a tie between...

“Sunburnt tears and honeydew.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t talk tonight.”
“But—”
End transmission.

and

"My name be Lucas Arcessit, and love be fucked me up"
"Hello, Lucas"

both weighing in at thirteen words.

Toothpaste · Oct 24, 2008

I have a chapter that is nine words long.

But I don't really do extra long chapters, usually my longest is around 2500 words.

DisenchantedDoc · Oct 24, 2008

Short chapters are not unheard, even by verbose "literary writers":
"My mother is a fish" -- Faulkner, As I lay Dying

In other words, if it works for you, use it.

Feathers · Oct 24, 2008

I feel so much better now! I was getting worried because my chapters were so short; 1,900 - 3,500 words. I guess maybe that isn't as much of a problem!

I think my shortest chapter ever was around 1,000 words, and my longest may have reached 10 - 15K. I used to write very long chapters, but as I said, I've slowed down some.

Out of curiosity, how do you guys keep the flow smooth when it comes to chapter length? I try to have a few long ones, then a few short ones, and then maybe one long one and a few more short ones, etc. I'm curious if it's a little overdone or not.

-Feathers

Telstar · Oct 24, 2008

The Lonely One said:
How long is your longest chapter? Shortest?

So far, my shortest, besides the prologue, is 1850 words.
The longest is the one i finished yesterday (4400).

My average 2500-3000, according to my excel sheet.

alyssalynne · Oct 24, 2008

My shortest is about 2200, my longest about 4500

redpbass · Oct 24, 2008

My longest so far is about 15 pages, and my shortest is about 1 1/2.

Danthia · Oct 24, 2008

I aim for about 2500 words per chapter, and that varries 1000K either way. I like to keep them around the same length for pacinmg reasons, but if widely varried lengths fit your book, then do what feels right.

I do however, think that if all of your chapters were around the same size, having a one-sentence one would feel weird to me. Since so much emphasis was placed on it, I'd expect it to mean something really important. But if this was common all the way through, I wouldn't think too much about it.

Feathers · Oct 24, 2008

I read in some writing-craft book - maybe The First Five Pages? - that chapters should vary every once in a while, and then you should vary that pattern on a larger scale. I thought it was pretty interesting.

-Feathers

tehuti88 · Oct 24, 2008

I'm just going by memory, and basing this on my "better" works (i. e., the stuff I don't mind showing off online and am not currently rewriting!).

My shortest chapter is probably around 5kb (I guess about 850 words).

My longest chapter I believe is probably over 100kb (over maybe 17,000 words).

Granted, the shortest was written some years ago when my writing style and understanding of the story I was writing were much sparser, and the longest is in a different series where the chapters regularly run upwards of over 60kb (over 10,000 words). So it's kind of apples and oranges here. In the series featuring the 5kb chapter I nowadays try to aim for chapters around 20-30kb (3400-5100 words). Thankfully, around 20-30kb seems to be how long most of the chapters want to turn out to be!

With the other series with the longer-running chapters, I really never have any idea how long they'll run. I just let them come out as they will.

I doubt I would ever do a single-sentence (or paragraph) chapter because that's just not how I write. Something that short, I can make into a scene. *shrug*

Feidb · Oct 24, 2008

I used to write longer chapters, but they ended up having too many scene breaks in them, and that another big "no no" of the ever-present writing "rules." So, I decided to take the (almost) James Patterson approach.

I noticed that when I was reading (a lot of it during commercials), I could read a short chapter or scene more completely, than a long one where I'd have to find my place in the middle of a page at the next commercial. Even when not watching TV, I found I liked the shorter chapters better, so I started doing them. They now average at four pages, double spaced, 12 point font. However, they can go up to 8 pages or down to 2 pages. If it's less than two pages, then I feel I need to add a little more or combine it with another chapter, or eliminate it altogether.

I'm not a big fan of James Patterson's stories, though I don't hate his work, but he tends to write first person which I do hate. However, his style of short chapters has stuck with me because of the way I usually read.

This reminds me of a Spanish writer (by Spanish, I mean from Spain, not just Hispanic). His novel was one paragraph and the only punctuation was a period at the end! Sorry, don't remember his name or the title of the book, but when I lived in Spain, I heard a few stories about it.

dwellerofthedeep · Oct 24, 2008

My longest was probably 6000 or more words, but in general my second novel had really long chapters. I haven't put in chapter breaks for my current novel yet, but I'm trying to keep them shorter to improved readability. I don't like not being able to see the end of a chapter when I'm reading.

Varthikes · Oct 24, 2008

My shortest chapter was a page (12pt Times New Roman font, 1.5-line spacing) for a novella/novelette. I have yet to go shorter than that.

My longest (so far) was 17 pages. Though, that's likely to change with my current novel-in-progress.

cooeedownunder · Oct 25, 2008

My chapters tend to be around 4,500 (running consequitively from scene to scene) but I am tempted to break them into smaller chapters.

Calamity_Jones · Oct 25, 2008

Danthia said:
I aim for about 2500 words per chapter, and that varries 1000K either way. I like to keep them around the same length for pacinmg reasons, but if widely varried lengths fit your book, then do what feels right.

I do however, think that if all of your chapters were around the same size, having a one-sentence one would feel weird to me. Since so much emphasis was placed on it, I'd expect it to mean something really important. But if this was common all the way through, I wouldn't think too much about it.

Me too. I have two that are 6500, and two that are 6000, but the rest are all 2500-4000. The really big ones are those with like 4 PoV changes in them, so even though they are long, they are still broken up into 1500-2000 ish word segments.

Don't think I could write a chapter that was less than a page long... My shortest is 1834...

MagicMan · Oct 25, 2008

Mine vary from 5 lines to 12,000 words. A chapter for me has a beginning, a purpose, and an ending. The length doesn't matter.

Smiles
Bob

Maryn · Oct 25, 2008

I'm not a big Stephen King fan, but in the past I read him a lot. He has a one-word chapter in Misery that's extremely effective.

So in essence, I'm all for whatever works.

Maryn, real edgy

dwellerofthedeep · Oct 25, 2008

I've had some one page scenes, but I don't think I could ever write a one word chapter, or even a one sentence chapter. I just don't see how I could make that work. (I've only heard of a few of these, I think, and I have read fewer of them).

ChaosTitan · Oct 25, 2008

My chapters (somehow) end up being relatively similar in length. Usually between twelve and twenty pages (12p Times, double spaced).

Ugawa · Oct 25, 2008

Wow, i was getting worried because i thought 1500 words was too short. My longest chapter so far has been about 3000 words.

XX

RJK · Oct 25, 2008

You made me curious so I put the counts of my last WIP into a spreadsheet. 25 chapters work out as follows:
Sum 82963
Avg 3318.52
Min 1004
Max 9086
There were 4 chapters < 2K words and 6 chapters > 4K words, 2 > 5K words

Diana W. · Oct 25, 2008

The shortest chapter I've ever seen is two words. So it's been done and published before.

darrtwish · Oct 25, 2008

My longest chapter is about 2500 and my shortest is about 250.

blacbird · Oct 25, 2008

My chapters range naturally between about 2000 and 4000 words. I've never front-planned that, it just works out that way. But if I had a good organic reason to make one shorter, I definitely would. I would hesitate about making one much longer than that, though.

caw

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