Worried about long chapter turning off the agents

Chiquita Banana · Feb 19, 2011

This is a problem I may face in the future - I'm only about 2/3 of the way finished with my novel and haven't really done the major edits*, but naturally I'm thinking about selling it.

Anyway, I haven't technically divided up the chapters yet, but the for the first three it looks like the logical, natural place to make the breaks are at 4300, 13600 and 18700 words, roughly.

In the past, my chapters have been about 4000-5000 words and I'm worried that an agent will see a chapter that's over 9000 words and think 'who is this person trying to fool - trying to send me half her book!'

Any thoughts on this? What happens in the 18000 range changes the direction of the story - it's an exciting turning point (if I say so myself) and I really want to include that, but there's a lot of complicated stuff that leads up to it so I don't know how much I can really sacrifice... Hm. Ideas?

*But am currently unemployed, writing 8+ hours a day and have done nearly 60K words since the first of Jan so I fully expect to finish it in the next couple of months.

mscelina · Feb 19, 2011

18k is not half the book. Besides, most agents want to see either the first three chapters OR 50 pages (to the nearest break). You don't need to worry about this; right now you need to concentrate on finishing and revising the book. By the time you go through substantial edits, that 18k mark might be closer to 10k. Regardless, it's too soon to worry about this now.

amyashley · Feb 19, 2011

I agree. I think chapter divides can really vary by genre, by book, by author. Get it written and edited, have your betas read it and then make your final decisions. I doubt that chapter breaks will be what makes an agents decision. That is a very simple thing to alter in the end, like a title.

Chiquita Banana · Feb 19, 2011

Thanks to both who responded!

I probably shouldn't have put 'worried' in the title. I'm not really worried. Just wondering if that chunky chapter would aggravate an agent.

thothguard51 · Feb 19, 2011

Agent and editor normally base their feed back on chapter length on reader responses. As a reader, a chapter that is 18,000 words, (250 words per page = apx 72 pages), is an extremely long chapter for me to wade through. Of course I could make exceptions if the chapter was packed with conflicts. But if a chapter that long is mostly dialogue... it might put me to sleep.

Edited to add, I hate to stop reading a chapter before the end of the chapter. When I pick it up again, I have to refresh myself with where I am at...

But that's just my opinion and everyone has different likes and dislikes in writing, and reading.

amyashley · Feb 19, 2011

I think Op is saying 3 chapters= 18,000. I still wouldn't make any calls until after edits.

I'd agree, but I don't think an agent will NOT offer rep based on chapter length. It might be a suggested change, but it is a fix that is a minor one, as opposed to say changing the POV.

I had a slightly similar issue with my initial chapter but I ended up adding material then splitting at a scene break that was approximately halfway through when I went through editing. I think these things often smooth themselves out, and I wouldn't stress over them so much as I would how good your writing itself is.

leahzero · Feb 19, 2011

If each chapter is divided in lots of scenes, the reader will feel like there are lots of stopping points where they can take a break. Without that, an 18k chapter that marches on relentlessly could be tedious.

freelancemomma · Feb 19, 2011

thothguard51 said:
Of course I could make exceptions if the chapter was packed with conflicts. But if a chapter that long is mostly dialogue... it might put me to sleep.

I'm the opposite. The ONLY way I could get through a chapter that long is if it was filled with dialogue. I'll take dialogue over battle scenes any day.

F.

Chiquita Banana · Feb 19, 2011

Hi all. Yes, just to clarify, I don't have an 18K word chapter - that's 18K for the first three and chapter 2 is over 9000 (for now).

Dialogue vs. action - it's pretty balanced, I think, or maybe I'm just biased cause I wrote it! hehe. And there are loads of little breaks in the long chapter - as well as in the whole book so far. Just did a quick word count and the long chapter is broken up into 6 parts. Word count list is as follows:

2065
1585
929
720
2351
1943

I just want to make sure I can fit the really exciting stuff (that currently hits around 18K) into the first three so that it ends up on an agent's desk. Fingers crossed.

tarak · Feb 19, 2011

The chapters on my completed MS were a bit long - I'm guess around 6000 words each. Based on a suggestion from amyashley (who is fab

), I deleted the chapter headings and used time/date stamps for the various breaks in the MS. It worked very well for me. I have no idea if it would work for the OP, but it's something to think about.

Becca C. · Feb 19, 2011

tarak said:
The chapters on my completed MS were a bit long - I'm guess around 6000 words each. Based on a suggestion from amyashley (who is fab ), I deleted the chapter headings and used time/date stamps for the various breaks in the MS. It worked very well for me. I have no idea if it would work for the OP, but it's something to think about.

This is the kind of thing I did. I really prefer shorter chapters, so each of my scene has a separate title, making the chapters pretty short. It's YA, so I think it works.

Worried about long chapter turning off the agents

Chiquita Banana

practical experience, FTW

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

amyashley

Stunt-Writer

Chiquita Banana

practical experience, FTW

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

amyashley

Stunt-Writer

leahzero

The colors! THE COLORS!

freelancemomma

Chiquita Banana

practical experience, FTW

tarak

for certain qualities of "sane"

Becca C.