1. BlitzGirl

    BlitzGirl Contributor Contributor

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    Novel Is there such a thing as too many chapters?

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by BlitzGirl, Sep 3, 2018.

    I'm not interested in being published, so this is more of a personal question, and something I'm just naturally curious about. Most of the chapters in my current story are maybe 10 pages long each, especially if they were to be single-space Times New Roman with no other fancy formatting. But as I've been typing up my hand-written chapters, I keep making more chapters. As in, finding ways to break up the hand-written chapters into two so they flow better and have more logical beginnings and endings. But that's resulting in my chapter count to skyrocket. I got 35 hand-written chapters so far (story isn't even finished yet), but already the first 18 hand-written chapters have been made into 22 typed chapters. Which of course means my story will easy have over 40 or 50 chapters by the end of it.

    I'm really used to reading published books that stick to 20-30 chapters total. Is this because there is some "rule" about how many chapters long a story must be? Just curious.
     
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  2. Dragon Turtle

    Dragon Turtle Deadlier Jerry

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    No, there is no rule. Too many excessively short chapters can be an issue--it can feel like constant interruptions. But 10 pages single-spaced sounds like a decently long chapter to me. (I think. I'm used to dealing in word count, not page count, since page count is so variable.) Sounds like you're just writing a long book.
     
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  3. BlitzGirl

    BlitzGirl Contributor Contributor

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    Each chapter of mine has varied between 2.5k and 5k words each, if that means anything. I'm not even meaning to make the story long. Just a very differently-paced story than I am used to writing.
     
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  4. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Moby-Dick has 135 chapters. I can't think of a book with more, but that doesn't mean you can't have one. Fifty chapters isn't that many. Put in as many as you want.
     
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  5. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I suspect the bible probably wins that contest .. unless we limit it to novels
     
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  6. Ashley Watters

    Ashley Watters Member

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    You could make parts (eg. Part I, Part II, etc) with say 10-20 chapters (whatever is a natural break). Each part would begin with chapter one. This would also allow you to create fresh energy for the next group of chapters.
    Just a thought.

    When I read, I usually ignore the list of chapters. I just want to find out what happens next. A lot of chapters would not deter me.
     
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  7. John-Wayne

    John-Wayne Madman Extradinor Contributor

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    Nah... can't be that many... :p ... looks it up. 1,189... Well, shit. :superlaugh:

    Also, OT. Again it goes back to flow, what ever works for your book, I use both chapters and scenes. so in most cases my chapters are a couple thousand long because of the scenes. and I break into a new chapter when it feels natural to do so. By books also use Parts. So each Part tackles a specific story arch or event going on, what is part of the larger entire event of the book.
     
  8. John-Wayne

    John-Wayne Madman Extradinor Contributor

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    AGreed, as I mentioned in my post. I use Parts>Chapters>Scenes to pace it. and hopefully the breaks are natural. :)
     

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