Chapter length for YA?

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Ryan_Sullivan

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Anything goes. It's roughly 4 pages per 1000 words. If you like short chapters, maybe 2000. If you like longer, go for that.

Personally, my chapters tend to be around 4000-4500 each (15-20 pages). But, really, anything is fine.
 

cspradbery

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Personally I have chapters of around ten pages in length, although some are as short as five, others may be fifteen.
 

Momento Mori

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eileenmcilwain:
How many words in length should your chapters be for YA Fiction?

How long is a piece of string?

How many roads must a man walk down before he knows that he's a man?

:D

The answer is that your chapters need to be as long as they need to be in order to get across the information you want to convey.

Some people like heavily structured novels with regulated chapter lengths, others prefer to write one page/two page chapters to keep momentum going. Some people don't use chapters at all, but write it out as one piece with scene breaks only.

Me, I have chapters running from just over 2000 words to just under 6000 words. They all do what they need to do and have the space to do it.

MM
 

shaldna

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As long as it needs to be.
 

Glenakin

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Anything goes. It's roughly 4 pages per 1000 words. If you like short chapters, maybe 2000. If you like longer, go for that.

Personally, my chapters tend to be around 4000-4500 each (15-20 pages). But, really, anything is fine.
Wow dude, that's really good. Is that double spaced or single? Reason I'm asking: I have a 24 paged chapter and it's 14,000 words (more actually, I approximated).
 

Shady Lane

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Most of my books are about 2,000 words per chapter. The one I just wrote was more like 4,000 each. It really doesn't matter.
 

PhoebeNorth

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Yeah, there's definitely no set length.

Something you might consider, which works for me, is not including any chapter breaks in a draft, only marking off scene breaks. Then, when you edit, go back and take notes of moments of tension (which might sometimes happen in the middle of a scene!) and put a chapter break there. It helps sustain tension across the manuscript.
 

The_Ink_Goddess

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ANYTHING.

Literally. Anything.

Elizabeth Scott's LIVING DEAD GIRL has chapters of as little as 20 words.

Laurie Halse Anderson's PROM has chapters of 5ish words.

I prefer shorter chapters myself. Some of them come out at 1,000 words. If not less.

Seriously. THERE ARE NO RULES.

Well. Few rules.
 

Ryan_Sullivan

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Wow dude, that's really good. Is that double spaced or single? Reason I'm asking: I have a 24 paged chapter and it's 14,000 words (more actually, I approximated).

Well, the estimate I used is more about physical book pages, but double spaced 12 point font isn't THAT much different. That seems pretty long for so few pages--single spaced? if so, that makes sense.
 

KTC

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i would have given a smartypants answer to this a while ago. i would have said "as long as it takes" or "seven" or something. but i've been reading a buttload of YA lately...i'm on my 7th in a row...and i'm noticing that the chapters are shorter. and i'm noticing it consistently...not just a slight pattern. the chunks are smaller. i'm reading them because the weekend of the 16th i am doing a 72 hour novel writing marathon and i plan on writing a YA...so I've just been reading them like crazy just to get a feel. the one thing i noticed is that the chapters are almost always and entirely shorter than what i'm used to reading. interesting.
 

KTC

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Most of my books are about 2,000 words per chapter. The one I just wrote was more like 4,000 each. It really doesn't matter.

yours was one of the YAs i read recently. wonderful read, by the way.

and yes...it really doesn't matter. but i think the novel i'm about to tackle is going to be shorter chapters. i know i'm not totally trying to write to a template or anything...but i will be consciously attempting smaller chunks...if it doesn't feel right or natural i'll just give it up and do what i have to do. (-;
 

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It really depends on when the chapter feels finished. Mine tend to run from 2,500 to 3,500 with a few exceptions. How do I decide when to start a new chapter? When it feels right. There is some magical thing in my head that says 'end' and then I just hit Ctrl+Enter and start with a great big heading of chapter __ : :D.

If you are having a hard time with chapter breaks then a good idea would be to write the story without chapters and then go back and make them.
 

Ryan_Sullivan

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Mine remain even simply because I split my book into a certain number and have a goal chapter length so the entire thing turns out the right length in the end. I mean, I'll go over or under by a couple hundred to hit a natural break, but 4200 is my goal for each.
 

eileenmcilwain

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Thanks everyone, that's great!

I'm asking because I got to about 3,000 words and had to stop and think "Is this too short? Or too long?" I have various scene breaks so I can easily cut off at an earlier point, or write another scene and bring up the word count, but I was just curious as to what is the "general" preferred length for YA. Some of the adult fantasy books I read seem to have chapters that go on forever, whereas the YA books seem to have much shorter chapters.

I'll aim for approx 3,000 words per chapter. I like it when the books I read are consistently broken up. Sometimes it gets to the point where I can time my lunch break based on how many chapters I've read haha, and I like being able to do that.
 

Cholisose

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My chapters tend to be on the longer side... I always wish I could write short, snappy chapters, though. There's likely a time and place for both--and advantages and disadvantages to both.
 

The_Ink_Goddess

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i would have given a smartypants answer to this a while ago. i would have said "as long as it takes" or "seven" or something. but i've been reading a buttload of YA lately...i'm on my 7th in a row...and i'm noticing that the chapters are shorter. and i'm noticing it consistently...not just a slight pattern. the chunks are smaller. i'm reading them because the weekend of the 16th i am doing a 72 hour novel writing marathon and i plan on writing a YA...so I've just been reading them like crazy just to get a feel. the one thing i noticed is that the chapters are almost always and entirely shorter than what i'm used to reading. interesting.

Actually, this is a good point. While I was one being smartass up there, I have to admit that this poster is somewhat right. I wrote my post and could think of the books with short chapters really easily. Even the ones that don't have the super-sparse chapters like BEFORE I DIE, which is still *short*. But I couldn't think of any with really long chapters. Please don't all jump on me, because I know that they're out there, but the ones with short chapters came to me easily. Also, I didn't want to say anything because most of the other posters on this list seemed to have very long chapters. Maybe it's more common in fantasy/paranormal? I don't read that at all, so...

Oh, yeah, and -- I tend to take my chapters on scene breaks. If I try to do the internal paragraphing thing (you know, with *s), in a chapter, editing it gives me a headache and goes on forever. When the scene finishes -- I tend to write long(er) scenes, I open a new chapter.
 
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tinkerbell

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Does anyone else write chapters that are wildly inconsistent in length? My second chapter is 22 (Word) pages... and my fifth chapter is 6. haha
 

shaldna

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Wow dude, that's really good. Is that double spaced or single? Reason I'm asking: I have a 24 paged chapter and it's 14,000 words (more actually, I approximated).


Haha. This reminds me of the Council of Elrond chapter, 100 pages, 20,000 words an nothing freakin happens.
 

Green

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Haha. This reminds me of the Council of Elrond chapter, 100 pages, 20,000 words an nothing freakin happens.

Council of Elrond is...er...an acquired taste :).

I do have a question though: are chapter breaks mandatory when you begin submitting your manuscript? It is acceptable to say that you're not quite sure whether or not you even want chapters, and just use scene breaks...or is it better to just make chapters anyways even if they will completely change in the future?
 

neener

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Council of Elrond is...er...an acquired taste :).

I do have a question though: are chapter breaks mandatory when you begin submitting your manuscript? It is acceptable to say that you're not quite sure whether or not you even want chapters, and just use scene breaks...or is it better to just make chapters anyways even if they will completely change in the future?

No, I'd imagine this wouldn't be a good idea. You want to present a novel so polished they could freakin' send it on submission instantly (though, that rarely happens). Assuming everything might change means you're still in a draft phase.

ETA: To clarify, it wouldn't be a good idea to just use scene breaks, unless THAT's how you intended it to be published.
 
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