How long should a chapter be? Does it depend if you use a chapter title and get the point across? Or do you use a certain set number, like five pages per chapter? I could use some insight on this, since I have difficulty deciding. My chapters tend to be very long.
A chapter should be as long as it takes to get across a particular idea. A change in point-of-view is also a very good place to change chapters. I find my chapters are very episodic. When my characters have completed whatever immediate goal is before them (or, for that matter, been thwarted), that's when I end a chapter.
For me, it doesn't matter how long it is as long as the chapter has some relevancy to the story. If it has something to do with a major plot point, then the chapter should be fairly long. Other than that, scottcolby has a point on what you should do in that situation.
My chapter lengths are scattershot, but I try to shoot for a certain maximum, and that depends on the story, usually. You don't want to chop your story up too finely, unless it jumps around a lot. I've made two-paragraph chapters before, but it was relevant to the story to do it that way.
I think it really just depends. I mean, oftentimes for myself there's a "natural" place for a chapter to end, such as whenever the scene closes, so to speak. One method I haven't yet tried, though i'd like to, is sort of what Stephen King often does. He'll have "subchapters", so to speak. Like, chapter 1.1, 1.2, etc.
I break between 5000 and 8000 words. Anything shorter or longer than that means that I'm losing focus.
all my chapter's are between 500 and 15000 words, that's quite a big difference but honestly it all depends on the situation
Have you considered using simply story breaks instead of chapter breaks? Why do you break for chapters at such odd times?
the majority of them are between 3 and 6 thousand words, it's just one out of every 10 or so chapters are special and are better done extremely short or long. Quite a few writers do this actually. anyway what's a story break lol?
I use "story break" as a synonym for "section break." It's where you leave a couple of lines of space to indicate that you're shifting time, place, or POV. It's for little breaks that might not require a full chapter break.
I don't know if I can reproduce it online, but there's a special mark for it. § Does that work? Huh. Can't tell. Some people use three *'s centered to delineate a section/story break §
I prefer to use three of the *'s and centering them. At times I will have at least three to four of them in a single chapter alone since it revolves around the main characters and a secondary character who plays a role in the upcoming scene. I don't want to start a new chapter for each time a secondary character comes in.
there should be no blank lines in a ms... necessary line breaks in mss have # or *** placed in the center of the line... other than that, all should be double-spaced, with no breaks... that's the standard format for submitted work... some publishers may have their own preferences, so don't forget to check their guidelines and follow them to a tee... love and hugs, maia
