Fiction Book Chapter Length

As a reader, I dislike chapters longer than 20 pages, no matter how long is the book itself. I'm one of those "ocd freaks" you speak about (although that may be considered a bit insulting towards people with real ocd, cause it's an actual illness and I don't have it - I just like finishing chapters when reading), so yeah - I get irritated by really long chapters even when they're good. It is purely subjective, but as a writer I feel that there's also an objective part to it - a chapter is meant to show a certain part of the story, a scene if you will. And just as with movies, a scene shouldn't be unnecessary long and dragged out.

It varies heavily by the story, too.

Chapters are units of meaning. They should have a purpose and a focus. Once those have been completed, start a new one. That might mean you use a chapter break for a scene change, a location change, or just a big climactic moment.

Of course every reader will have preferences, but you can't know those in events, so do something that makes sense for your novel and the way readers will read that novel. This is where betas can help. In general, keep chapter lengths a bit shorter for high-pace action. Broaden them when you want the pace to slow. But 85% of pacing is in the sentence-level writing, so know how you're writing a particular "chunk" and then break the chapters up as that changes. Again, unit of meaning.

Mostly, it's up to you. Some books don't use chapters at all. Some number them. Some name them. Some use scene breaks. And so on. It gives you control over where readers might stop. That's a powerful thing.

Readers need places to rest and pull together what they've read. That can be scene breaks or chapter breaks. Just personally, I don't like to go more than say 10 pages without a break of some sort.

When I'm reading a really, really, really good book, I don't even see the chapter breaks. I'll promise my spouse I'll stop reading in bed at the next chapter break only to realize I blasted through it two chapters ago when additional grumbles are emitted from beneath the pillow beside me.

As a writer, though, I try to keep them to about 4,000 to 5,000 words. They're more of an annoyance for me than anything; I think in scenes, and I don't quite see the point of splitting things up into larger chunks. (Maybe as a consequence of the chapter breaks being so completely lost on me when I read...)

Like JJ I think in scenes. I'll dog ear my page (if it's my book), or put the book face down at the end of a scene, if I need a break.

Some scenes have breaks in them, such as when a character exits or enters a scene, or the action changes course such as a flight turning into a fight, and so on. In that case I like some indicator such as a blank line in the middle of a chapter, or the end of a chapter.

When writing I indicate a blank line with the proof-reading symbol #, placed in the center of the page.

It really isn't the length but how you use it. Slow pacing is slow however short the chapters, and tight, engaging writing works however long the chapters are.

I've always thought chapters really shouldn't exceed 7500 words which is the market max length for a short story, anything past that is a novellette. Once you get into that territory for me as a reader, then you may as well just do what Anne Rice did in Interview with a Vampire and write the story in parts instead. Parts give more freedom than the traditional chapter anyway, and allow for longer narative arcs within the overarching one. I prefer when a writer chooses one or the other, but not both. Never both unless it's a chapter within a part, which is in my reading expirience the best way to combine the two approaches.

When writing they tend to be around 2500-3000, but I've had ones as short as 500 and as long as 6,000, I think.

I don't really notice when I'm reading, and I often fall asleep in the middle of a scene even if it's good. Really long chapters or scenes can be wearying though. People like pauses.

This is a pertinent question for me. I tend to write very long chapters—as long as 7,500 words, but more often in the 5,500-6,500-word range. I know that's probably too long, and I've attempted to counter the issue by making liberal usage of scene breaks. My chapters have anywhere from three to six scene breaks each, and I never go more than 2,000 words between a scene break (more often it's in the 1,200-1,600-word range).

So how does the "too long" calculus work on a setup like that? If you're a reader who feels compelled to read to the end of the chapter (a perfectly normal impulse, really), do scene breaks even work as stoppage points?

^ I view scene breaks as mini chapter breaks. I think as long as you don't have a 7k scene, you should be all right!

Mine tend to fall between 2000-3500 words, but some are shorter and a few are longer. I start to look for ways to split a chapter if it gets longer than, say, 4500, because that's the point where I generally start to feel antsy while reading a novel.

To some extent it depends on the scene structure and the pacing of the story, but there is something psychological about a chapter. To me, they're the author's way of telling me that a segment of the story has been advanced, so if one is too long, it feels like they're dragging things out.

How long is a piece of string?

Eric Long said:

My goodness, I am almost at that 7500 mark for just the first chapter.

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My gut feeling is that had better be an extraordinary first chapter. Then again, I just (tried) to read a new doorstopper fantasy from A Big Five publisher, and I cannot get through the first chapter. It's too damn long, I hate all the characters, and it's too obviously culled from someone's RPG days. Which, okay, I played and loved D&D too. But this book? Urrrrgghhhh, it makes me stabbity.

So if your first chapter starts off with compelling characters, a good hook, an obvious conflict (even if it's not The Conflict), and your writing sings...yes, you can probably get away with a 7500-word first chapter.

Eric Long said:

My goodness, I am almost at that 7500 mark for just the first chapter. It is almost complete, but does it seem about right for using word font 12 (times new roman atm) to only have 13 pages? I am expecting at least 17 by the time I am ready for the next chapter, but dang... I feel like the books that I have read have chapters with 25 pages or so. I hope my mind and memory is exaggerating, it is a novel but I still wouldn't start with a monster sized book for my first book.

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Like many others have said: scene breaks go some way in mitigating the issue of chapter length. As far as it being only 13 pages, have you got the formatting right? Have you double spaced your text? Inserted indents to the first lines of each paragraph?

Eric Long said:

My goodness, I am almost at that 7500 mark for just the first chapter. It is almost complete, but does it seem about right for using word font 12 (times new roman atm) to only have 13 pages? I am expecting at least 17 by the time I am ready for the next chapter, but dang... I feel like the books that I have read have chapters with 25 pages or so. I hope my mind and memory is exaggerating, it is a novel but I still wouldn't start with a monster sized book for my first book.

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Word count is a much more useful metric in a manuscript than pages. Given that, 7500 words of 12-pt Times New Roman should be at least 25 double-spaced letter-sized pages, so either your word count is way off or your formatting is extremely non-standard. What the page count for that number of words would be in a publication layout is anybody's guess -- there are way too many variables that the writer has no control over for the writer to worry about that at the time of writing.

Eric Long said:

My goodness, I am almost at that 7500 mark for just the first chapter. It is almost complete, but does it seem about right for using word font 12 (times new roman atm) to only have 13 pages? I am expecting at least 17 by the time I am ready for the next chapter, but dang... I feel like the books that I have read have chapters with 25 pages or so. I hope my mind and memory is exaggerating, it is a novel but I still wouldn't start with a monster sized book for my first book.

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You're probably single-spaced. Multiply 13 by 2 and see what you get.

Bear in mind that word processor pages don't translate onto bound book pages in the same dimensions so you're actual word count for the book is sometimes found using a different method, described thoroughly here.

As with most technical questions, write the book. Things like word count and font are very, very, very easy to change when you have a draft you plan to submit. And since every publisher and agent has slightly different submissions guidelines, that's exactly what you'll end up doing anyway.

^This.

There are books that are long. There are books that are short. Neither of these are dealbreakers in any way if the story is good. Pace the story well. Write in a way that keeps readers wanting to read. So: strong stakes, motivation, engaging characters, more doing less talking, masterful manipulation of complex tension, etc.

A chapter can be 10,000+ if it's serving a function. Dead words and overwritten prose will be problematic whether your chapter is 500 words or 5000.

Roxxsmom said:

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there is something psychological about a chapter. To me, they're the author's way of telling me that a segment of the story has been advanced...

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Considering scenes, parts, and chapters, I realize that I don't have a firm idea of the purpose of the chapter break. I tend to break chapters with changing POV and with the completion of some abstract piece of story-arc that I have in my head while writing. Not sure how that works for readers and would like to hear how others decide where to break a chapter.

Eric Long said:

What is about standard by your definition, or what would you recommend? Others feel free to chime in too! (keep in mind this is for word [2013 to be specific])

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Standard manuscript formatting is not dependent on any specific tool -- it's the same for Word 2013 as for any other method. The basics: Single-sided, double-spaced, non-italic 12-pt font, paragraphs indented rather than line-spaced, margins at least 1" on all sides (the default margins in Word are fine). Scene breaks get an extra line between, marked with a centered # or the like to indicate it's a deliberate break. Chapter breaks get a new page. Page numbers go on the top right corner.

Fonts used to be the source of much grief and diatribe. The old-fashioned specify a non-proportional font like Courier. Nowadays that's normally not required but a serif font like Times New Roman is often preferred over sans serif like Arial.

VeryBigBeard said:

...word processor pages don't translate onto bound book pages in the same dimensions...

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Unless you do as I do: set the page size, spacing, margins, etc. to look the same way the typical book format which I'd like to see my book appear in. When the book is done I run it through a typesetting routine and print out the book via a POD service. I find a lot more errors both low-level (typos & word choice & etc.) and high-level (plot & pacing & etc.) by looking at a good simulation of a book than the double-spaced etc. format agents & editors want to see.

Then when submitting I change formatting to match whatever they want to see. My word processing program makes this the work of a few minutes, because I use Styles to format every book, not manually entering spaces & tabs and so on.

In the end, do what works for YOU first, then what works for others.

By my readings, I'd say for a chapter length, the ideal length is no more than 25 pages at most. But even so, this is an arbitrary number I've just noticed.
As has been mentioned in this thread before, the key is to have breaks in long chapters.

This thread is more than two years old. There have been more recent discussions on chapter length I'm pretty sure It's one of those topics that come up a lot here.

Seriously, how do folks find these old, buried threads to reply to? I ask because when I want to find an old thread I remember had a really good link or argument about something, I often have trouble finding it, even with the on-site google search.