Chapter length standards and preferences?

Harlequin said:

I always stress about my chapters being too long when they break 4k. I'm glad other people routinely go longer (it's reassuring).

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I'm in the same boat. My average chapter length is similar to what BethS mentioned. 4k is so rare for me that when it does happen I usually end up merging the chapter with another one (and then worrying again that my chapters are too long).

I always thought that if you went above 5k, you would be breaking some kind of standard norm. Good to know that isn't the case.

Robert Jordan has some chapters that are 15k long! Okay, so fantasy and he's a bit older, but still. The point is it didn't matter that much on the end. I can't, on recollection, recall any of his chapters feeling particularly long or short. They just "were".

Harlequin said:

I can't ... recall any of [Robert Jordan's] chapters feeling particularly long or short. They just "were".

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We have to capture our readers from word one and keep their interest to the very last word. If we've done that chapter ends are just a tiny blip on their consciousness as they keep on turning the pages.
Chapters are containers for scenes, which are the real dramatic heavy lifters. Chapters are useful to us as writers, to organize and re-organize our scenes.

We can organize our scenes in several ways. One is to put scenes into "segments" to use a screenwriting term for several related scenes. A segment might be made up of the several parts of a chase as seen from the viewpoints of the chasers and the chased.

Another way to organize segments is if our novel covers several years in the life of our main character, as they go through different phases of their life. In one of my novels my MC joined the military and got several kinds of training, meeting and handling several challenges. That was one chapter. Next she spent an overseas tour, again several challenges. That was chapter two. As a civilian more challenges, and a third chapter. And so on.

But whatever works. James Patterson puts a single scene per chapter, making for dozens of chapters. Works for him.

I don’t think chapter length matters as much as being consistent, meaning each chapter is about the same length, at least in regard to MG or YA anyway. Of course no chapter is going to be the exact same length, but if it’s consistent I think it helps pacing.

Mary Kole at kidlit.com explains it much better than I can...
https://kidlit.com/2017/06/05/childrens-book-manuscript-chapter-length/

Quiet Melody said:

I don’t think chapter length matters as much as being consistent, meaning each chapter is about the same length, at least in regard to MG or YA anyway. Of course no chapter is going to be the exact same length, but if it’s consistent I think it helps pacing.

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Or make it feel monotonous. I dunno--with sentences, paragraphs, and scenes, variety of length is generally desired. Maybe with chapter length variety isn't as crucial.

And maybe it's different for kidlit, though I can't say I agree with her assessment that having long chapters means you must have huge dumps of information or something.

Chapters, like scenes, need to be as long as they need to be. However, I like to provide convenient breaks for the reader (something I appreciate in a book), so I keep them to between three and four thousand words. This is my personal preference, but everyone is different - so go with your gut.

The best use of chapters, I’ve seen described, is for pacing. Mary Robinette Kowal has given some awesome talks on this topic.

This is especially important in thriller and suspense novels, where you can tease readers into reading on.

In longer works, like fantasy, they serve as useful markers for: “put me down now”

P.K. Torrens said:

The best use of chapters, I’ve seen described, is for pacing. Mary Robinette Kowal has given some awesome talks on this topic.

This is especially important in thriller and suspense novels, where you can tease readers into reading on.

In longer works, like fantasy, they serve as useful markers for: “put me down now”

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Or a marker to relax your hold on the book, and go - "Wow. That was good. What on earth happens next? Then a glance at the clock - Jeez- is it that time?"

Or a ready made opportunity to put it down - and never pick it up again.

Each to his own.

Bufty said:

Or a marker to relax your hold on the book, and go - "Wow. That was good. What on earth happens next? Then a glance at the clock - Jeez- is it that time?"

Or a ready made opportunity to put it down - and never pick it up again.

Each to his own.

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Agreed - I do a lot of that first one you mention

A sentence expresses a sentiment. paragraph is supposed to represent a complete thought, more or less (obviously that applies less well to dialogue). A scene describes a complete arc of events.

A chapter, to me, is also a complete thing. A collection of themed thoughts and events, almost. Or at least that tends to be how I organise it. Pacing and so forth comes into it as well, of course, as it does for everything. But in a nutshell, I put in chapter breaks using hte same logic as I do for sentence breaks and paragraph breaks, just scaled up.

Quinn_Inuit said:

I think you'll find this analysis useful: http://creativityhacker.ca/2013/07/18/analyzing-chapter-lengths-in-fantasy-fiction/

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That was a really insightful article, thank you for sharing!

My chapters tend to range between 5-6k words, and this thread had me panicking a bit lol. It's hard to parse how long what you're writing actually is in the making of it. Glad to see those word counts are fairly average for the genre.

I do like to put in lots of chapter breaks, though. As others have said, it's something I appreciate when reading: a convenient place to pause. Especially in larger chapters, a bit of a breakdown makes them less tedious. My scenes are usually around 2k words, so most chapters have at least two breaks in them.

I lost count on my words for my chapters. I forget to break the chapter all the time.

maggiee19 said:

I lost count on my words for my chapters. I forget to break the chapter all the time.

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It's got more to do with reaching a Chapter objective than the mere breaking of chapters.

I try to "go with the flow" per se and clean up when editing.