Hey guys, I'm writing a mystery/suspense novella and I've gotten the plot out line done but just don't know how to judge how many chapters or word count it should be. Sorry if i sound immature its cause I'm new at writing mysteries so I'm inexperienced. If any one could help me out with this I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks and have a great day!
Some people tend to make their chapters all about the same length, some let a chapter determine how long it needs to be by feel. Personally I'm in the second camp. As I'm writing I just get the feel for when to end a chapter and start the next one. Some go on for dozens of pages, some might just be a paragraph or two. I suppose they get more varied in length when I'm doing comedy.
Why a novella? It's just that novellas can my harder sells. I would think you would be better off aiming for a novel, especially if you're still writing. Either way, chapter length is really up to you. I'm a fan of long chapters like 30 to 50 pages. Five or so of those and you're pretty much done. I just like long chapters from a reader's point of view. I hate short, choppy breaks in the narrative, and I think too many short chapters fall into this. I would say on average you want your chapters to be between 10 (at the least) and 25 pages. I think it's okay to slip in a really short chapter if you want it to pack a punch, but you'll lose that effect if all the chapters are just as short.
A paperback book averages 250 words per page. A novella maxes out at about 40,000 words. That's 160 pages. Say you divide those 160 pages into 10 chapters. That's 16 pages per chapter at roughly 4000 words per chapter. All this assuming you want to start the game from the numerical side of things. I don't think this is very productive. In fanfiction realms where posting one chapter at a time is pretty standard in most fic archives, there's this very strange little religion, the Holy Order of the Perfect Chapter Length. As a topic, it comes up 5 times a day in any given chat group. And those who respond play the strangest little games with the idea of "average". See, they calculate one kind of average, and then use that answer to turn around and deploy a totally different kind of average. Firstly, much time and effort has been taken in these groups to try to find the average chapter length. The answer typically hovers around 4000 words. But that answer is had from a mean average. That's when you take all the examples, add them together, and then divide by the number of examples. In such a situation, it is perfectly possible for a story to have chapters of: Chapter 1 - 3510 words Chapter 2 - 6500 words Chapter 3 - 1990 words (3510+6500+1990)/3 = 4000 Mean Average - 4000 words per chapter. Now look at that mean average and then look at the source data. Is the result remotely illuminating? No. But here's where the real thaumaturgy takes place. The mean average is calculated and then redeployed as a mode average where the writer tries to hit the same number each and every time. This is the very definition of a non-sequitur. A chapter is made of words, not numbers. A book is made of chapters, not numbers.
^ That reminds me of my days on the stopmotion forum. There were people there who wanted to do everything by statistics and math and thought that was all that mattered. They would make threads asking "How many frames should I shoot for a single step?" or "How many frames to walk a puppet from here to there?" Some of us would try to explain that it isn't a matter of pure math, it's more about feel.When you're walking across a room, do you count steps? I know I don't! Yes, it is important to learn some things about timing, and some of it is pretty technical, but ultimately it's far more important to develop the feel for things, which you do through experience—same way you learned to walk in the first place. Stopmotion is one of those weird disciplines though that's half technical and half artistic. In writing most things are more about the artistry, once you've absorbed some decent principles. A walk also needs to have some character to it. Different puppets would each have their own style, and even for a single puppet, sometimes he might be in a hurry, sometimes just sauntering along. And the way they move also needs to show their internal emotional state when that's important. Once we were having a discussion about camera placement and I mentioned 'camera angle'. Somebody actually came in and asked "Which angles are the best?" I think he literally wanted a precise geometric breakdown. I don't mean this to be a rant directed against the OP of this thread at all. @R M, you didn't ask for exact word count or anything, it seems like you just want some kind of idea of what to think about to determine chapter length. I totally get that. Just ranting about those people who think you can solve everything through pure math or science. Math and science are vitally important and necessary each in its own realm, but for certain things such as relating to other human beings (or even animals), and art, feeling is just as vitally important.
It's up to you, I think. Some books have chapters that are short, some long, and most vary within themselves. A chapter isn't really a structural requirement of narrative, like scenes are.
@R M IDK, a Novella is Approx. 50-55k words on average. I will say that I have adopted Lady J's approach to chapter length to average about 3-4k words per. Though it doesn't matter really in the scope of things, since I have read really long chapters 10k+, and really short chapters less than 1000wrds. So, each chapter can be as long as it needs to be, while not taking away from the overall story. Up to you on what you want to do, it's your story.
I've been wondering something similar but I'm a long ways from done so I will be doing multiple revisions before I get to the point where I need to worry about the "perfect" chapter length. However I wonder if the question being asked - "how many chapters or word count should it be?" - might be the wrong question? My thinking is that as the writer, it is entirely up to YOU. BUT........ when you submit the book/novel/story to a publisher, is there a rule that THEY use when judging your work? Do some insist on a minimum number of pages in 12 pt font, double spaced and spread over X number of chapters? Because if your goal is to write a book that sells, you might as well start off by writing the book/novel/story according to the publisher's requirements and rules. So....thoughts? I do know that no submitted book survives contact with the publisher's editors unscathed but has anyone ever been outright rejected because they submitted a book that was too short, too long, etc? Like it or hate it, the publishing houses have to have some type of screening in place to weed out the manuscripts they get sent. Some will automatically throw out the manuscripts that arrive unsolicited, some will only accept manuscripts from literary agents, others will...... Bah, I'm starting to ramble. I just always wondered. Hopefully someone can shed some light.
