I haven't gotten to the point of contacting an agent or publisher. I'm still on Chapter 3 and am obviously nowhere near being ready for publication yet. I just wanted to check early on, just to avoid having to change the organization of all the chapters later down the road. Thanks!!
I know this probably falls under the cliche question of "how do I write a novel to be full length" but I was wondering if anyone else has the same problem as me, or how people deal with it. I find myself writing extremely short chapters. When there is a chapter length requirement, I just write multiple of my short chapters with a little *** in between. Are there ways to train yourself to write longer chapters? Or is it more of a personal style thing? And also is it a deadly sin to write short chapters?
A chapter can be 1 word long or it can be thousands of words long. When it comes to my chapters I like to keep them varied but not to long or short. Often sort of treating them as short stories almost. Usually starting something and concluding it before the chapter is done. The next chapter would pick up after it. Hmm hard to explain for me. sorry.
As a reader I really don't care about chapter lengths. When I do check out the lengths of chapters, well that's a sure sign that I am getting bored reading it. I believe a chapter should be as long as it is required. This may not sound like a very helpful advice but it's the truth. It will serve you good to worry about the contents of the chapters (is the chapter correctly expressing the ideas you want to express?) rather than worry about the lengths.
there's no 'requirement' for chapter length... james patterson routinely writes 2-3 page chapters and michener wrote book-long ones... and both were/are extremely successful, best-selling authors... your chapters should be only as long [or short] as they need to be, in re their content... period!
Since I haven't read all of the responses in this thread, I may be repeating somone else's remarks. If so, sorry. Chapter breaks are not generally as arbitrary as they may seem. A chapter break is not dictated by its length. It is dictated by its content. Think of each chapter as a scene in a play. (Okay, a rather long play.) When the scene or time frame changes, you have two options. If it is a short scene or time change and the focus of the action is basically the same, you may just want to double space or add a # or whatever to indicate a brief shift in time or space and continue with the same chapter. If, however, your scene shift is from ... say, Stockholm to New York and/or the time shift is a month or a year later, this should be broken into a new chapter and you move on to ACT II (or III or XII). Sometimes, a chapter is as brief as a page or less. At other times, even in the same book, a chapter may run thirty pages or more. Don't focus on how many words you need to put into a chapter. Concentrate on what is going on in the chapter. That should be what dictates where your chapter breaks fall.
I have chapters that run for pages and pages (and pages), whilst I have a few short ones - one of which is approximately 200 words. There are far more important things to consider than chapter length, my friend.
wordsmith... to 'just...double space' makes no sense, as the whole ms should be double-spaced... and if you meant hit the 'enter' key twice, that would not be proper ms format, since there must be no empty lines between paragraphs within a chapter...
It all depends on how you write. If you look at any james patterson book (the ones that I've read anyway) then you'll find that all the chapters are quite short. Harry potter is an example where all of the chapters are much longer. I was reading "Life of Pi" a few months back and the chapters were all completely irregular. My point is that it doesn't matter, just find something that suits your writing style. For example if you write fast paced books you probably want shorter paragraphs
Length of chapters Are there any guidelines for deciding the lengths of chapters? Can they vary within the book or should you try to keep them similar lengths? For my example, I have a first chapter that has a time skip in the middle, the characters age 5 years and there is a different POV. I am not sure whether to keep it as a single chapter or divide it at the time skip. If I divide it, both will be shorter than the rest of the chapters. There is also a second time skip at the end of that, which I am afraid might annoy the reader unless I keep the skips all within the first chapter. So what do you think?
there's no need for any... chapters can be as short as a single word, or as long as some books... it's up to the writer and the demands of his/her story... ...they should vary somewhat... 'trying' to keep them all the same length is not a good idea... let each chapter be as long as it needs to be... ...time skips or pov changes don't have to mean going to a new chapter... that's what line breaks are for... ...take a good look in any 6 books by 6 different authors on your bookshelf and you'll see how differently writers treat their chapters...
I agree with many others that there isn't a standard. I think it is down to the writer how many words are in a chapter. Some books I read have extremely short chapters, others go on and on. I think it's based on how you write, how long that section of the story is itself and the audience your aiming at.
