Psychology of chapter lengths?

With my current WIP, this is my first time I plotted it through. It's supposed to have 13 chapters, but I've noticed how huge my chapters are getting. Chapter four was 25 pages alone. I also agree that I like shorter chapters and since I'm writing YA, shorter chapters seem standard (or at least from what I've read).

When I'm done writing the first draft and maybe even the second, I will chop some of the longer chapters in half and see where that goes.

Hmm...if I'm reading something for enjoyment rather than research or work project, I tend to read in bed at night and just stop mid chapter whenever I pass out. The books that seem to make me really reflect on the chapter length are the ones that switch back and forth between different character POV or different timelines for each chapter.

Depends whether there are section breaks too. I read plenty of books with long chapters I don’t mind because the narrative frequently rests for a time or scene jump during the chapter. An enormous chapter covering a singular place and time takes a lot more endurance to get through.

As a writer, trying to set my pacing--- "Creation of the Gods" was a novel first published sometime during the late 16th/early 17th centuries. It's about 1,000+ pages in translation, and consists of 100 chapters. And the end of each chapter ends with a cliffhanger-- "If you want to know what happened next, read the next chapter" or some variant thereof. Each chapter is very bite-sized-- about 10-11 pages-- but it has a good flow. It was a nice lesson on pacing-- having the events/action in one chapter build on the events/action that came previously; each chapter is a critical part of the big story; but make the individual chapters easy to devour so that it never gets tedious to not find a good stopping point. (Haven't we all read books that felt like they were just padded to make a certain word count? Or where nothing happens for 10 chapters, while they wait for Climax, and then suddenly, Everything Happens Out of the Blue?)

As a reader--- when I stop reading, it's either because I'm at a chapter break, a section break, or I got bored and I'm finding myself reading pages without registering a single thing about what I just read.

I think the trend is to shorter chapters. Around 3K words seems to be plenty. That's about ten pages in a fairly dense book. 2K or even fewer also seems to be okay.

If you think about it, you're really writing in sections, not chapters. In theory, each section could be a chapter, but sections can be as short as a couple hundred words, so you usually have to combine. Sometimes it's obvious that a certain section should start a new chapter (completely new setting/time/POV), sometimes it's obvious a section should end it. When that happens, chapter lengths will vary. I like it when the last section poses as many questions as it answers, but it's not always possible

The risk of trying to cater for everyone and giving readers somewhere we think they may wish to put the book down is that they may not pick it up again!

I wouldn't want them to put the book down until they'd finished reading it.

Folk can stop reading whenever they want to. Bookmarks are cheap.

Bufty said:

Folk can stop reading whenever they want to. Bookmarks are cheap.

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Yeah. This.

Bufty said:

Folk can stop reading whenever they want to. Bookmarks are cheap.

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This.

I've stopped reading books, because the story or the characters didn't work for me, or because it wasn't immersive enough, but never because of the chapter length. One of my favourite books is about 300 pages and has 4 chapters.

I'm the opposite with streaming; I very rarely stream TV shows because it's a big commitment, knowing there are X number of seasons of X episodes each. A movie is over in 70-100 minutes, typically.

With a book I stop where I want to. The only time I notice chapter lengths is when they're too short, which makes the book feel really choppy (even if the pacing is actually good).

Long chapters, short chapters, no matter their length, I always fall asleep while reading a book, even if I'm engaged in the story at the moment. Sometimes I can get through quite a few pages before the eyelids drop, other times I only get through a few pages. Doesn't matter how tired or awake I am at the start, reading makes me sleepy. What's the psychology in that?

It's also one reason why it takes me days or weeks to get through a book.

I like shorter chapters in a paper book but I've noticed that on e-readers I can easily stop anywhere at the bottom of the page without paying much attention to chapter breaks. If I can't flip forward, it seems chapters don't matter! Must be some sort of an illusion

My target was to average about 3,000 words per chapter. That seemed to be a pretty good length for me.

Since we're talking about the psychology of chapters, it seems there are two camps; short chapters for those who need a stopping point, and doesn't matter for those who don't. No big push for long chapters.

Tepelus said:

What's the psychology in that?

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Might simply mean you're sleep-deprived. Something to consider anyway.

Scenes, not chapters, are the main dramatic element of a story.

Chapters are merely containers. They collect together scenes or summaries of scenes that are important but not important enough to "show" them. Sometimes they contain major segments of long scenes which stretch over two chapters.

Chapters are more a convenience for authors than to readers. If we're keeping reader interest chapter breaks will be a mere blip in our readers' consciousness. They simply turn the page and keep on reading. The very most they notice is a convenient place to turn the book face down (or to insert a bookmark) so they can take a trip to the bathroom or to make a snack before hurrying back to our book.

I plan my books to come out to 100,000 words plus or minus a few thousand words. Each chapter contains scenes/scene summaries/scene segments that make up some unifying part of the overall arc of the story.

In one book my heroine is going to the Air Force Academy. For each year I devoted a chapter to the first and second semesters and to the summer of the year. So there were four x three chapters in the middle of the book. Three chapters set up the entry into the school and one winds up the experience. So 16 chapters in all.

I like to break up each chapter with a scene separator. Some authors like a single line with three asterisks like this *** in the center of a blank line. I prefer to center two characters like this <> which looks like a single diamond symbol. This gives my readers good places for temporary pause points in the chapter.

I'm an improviser but usually have at least a vague plan of the overall story arc. One example is the four years of my heroine going to the Air Force Academy. Or my latest work in progress, the third book in my Space Orphan trilogy. In it my heroine travels to various parts of the solar system and has mini-adventures at each place.

Basically, chapters are tools for us to organize our thoughts as we write a book. Or re-write it; sometimes after the book is done it reveals an overall story which we didn't anticipate. Then we may have to shuffle scenes into different chapters. Or change the scene order. Or expand or shorten scenes. Add or subtract scenes. Using chapters as organizers can make the rewrite process easier.

My chapters on my current WIP's are all 3,000 words. For a 100,000 word novel, that's about 33 chapters.

I don't have this problem with long chapters, but I do have this problem with eBooks. I don't have any way to easily gauge how much I have left to read.

As far as writing, I try not to think of it by chapter, but scene to scene. It just so happens that generally, the end of the chapter constitutes the end of a scene. The only exception is the climax of the story where the final scene usually lasts between two to four chapters so then I just try to break it up with hooks or revelations at the end of the chapter. I don't worry about chapter length too much until I'm on my second or third draft. Just too many other, more important details to consider first.

jjdebenedictis said:

I don't have this problem with long chapters, but I do have this problem with eBooks. I don't have any way to easily gauge how much I have left to read.

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I use the Kindle feature of showing me how many minutes (based on my reading speed) are left in the chapter, and how far I've come, percentage-wise, through the book itself. I find both of those very useful.

I have long chapters... BUT, one of my to do items is to restructure my chapters. I average about 8500 words per chapter. My longest is 12,500 words. YES I KNOW, it's long; the whole book is long. My plan is to reduce the chapters in size to around 5000 words per chapter.

Obviously it all depends on what makes sense. My rewrites and self-editing will change things up considerably.

I read for 2 hours before I go to sleep every night, and I much prefer to stop at the end of a chapter. So, I guess I write for myself, and keep my chapters somewhat short and consistent in length (3600 - 4200 words).

jjdebenedictis said:

I don't have this problem with long chapters, but I do have this problem with eBooks. I don't have any way to easily gauge how much I have left to read.

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Oh, yes, this! I'd much rather have a paper book, that I can tell at a glance how much is left.

jjdebenedictis said:

I don't have this problem with long chapters, but I do have this problem with eBooks. I don't have any way to easily gauge how much I have left to read.

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Agree!