What is your rationale for chapters? In other words, how do you arrive at a chapter's end? There isn't any formula really. I am a long chapter writer, myself—but my novel is long, too. I see each chapter as a mini-story within a story, and rather than end on a cliffhanger, I prefer to end each chapter on a note that winds up that chapter's purpose, and provide a short rest for the reader. With any luck the overall story arc will be enough to keep people reading. Am I getting the idea that you're changing POV characters often, and when you do that you start a new chapter? I suppose there's nothing wrong with that, if it works. I'd say write it the way you feel it ought to go. Don't worry overmuch about what other people will think of your choices at this stage. If it feels right to you to produce short chapters, go for it. Later on, if it seems too choppy and the head-hopping is too frequent and too distracting, you can merge chapters or re-think your POV choices. But lot of books have short chapters, so it certainly works for lots of readers. You won't really know if your choices work till you get done and get a few betas to read and react to it. I do think it's a mistake to assume that busy people prefer short bursts rather than an overall build. Some do, some won't. I'm one of those who doesn't as a general rule. I like the notion of sitting down, book in hand, with the expectation that the reading of it will take a while. If I'm enjoying myself, I don't want it to end! And while I'm retired now, that was still the case back when I was working and leading a very busy life. I always looked forward to getting home and getting stuck back in to whatever I was reading. The thing that keeps me reading is immersion in the story and identification with the characters. If I have to break off now and again to go to something else, that certainly doesn't make me quit reading the story for good.
Well, at first I thought about making the chapters to end with a cliffhanger, but I kind of ditched that idea. I instead try to leave them at a moment, where the foreshadowing glows. What I mean is, where reader can see part of the future bit clearer and at the same time has few possible other things what could happen. I think the difference is that the cliffhanger works like "oh wow that happened, wonder what's next..." when I try to get "hmm maybe this continues like that, but not sure..." Hopefully you understand what I mean. Of course I aim that every chapter pushes the story forward or at the least the chapter lays groundwork for the upcoming moments. And yes, I don't change POV's during the chapters. It didn't feel right for me, so taking a safe bet and not doing it. Point about chapter lengths and time people use is good. I guess shorter chapters apply to those, who tend to read in bed before going to sleep.
Well, that seems pretty judgemental! "I'm going to write long chapters; can't be doing with those people who read in bed before going to sleep!"
Ha ha! I'd say go for trying to keep them up all night. Not putting them to sleep as fast as possible.
Wasn't really meant that way. I've heard it many times that people who read before going to bed, say they did read more time-wise because it was easy to fall in "reading one more".
Yep, this has been me with more than one novel! I'm enjoying the story and I don't want to stop, but logically I know I need to get some sleep. If the next chapter is shortish, I will justify staying up later to read it. Then if the one after that is short, I'll go on to that one. I stay up all night doing that, which is of course silly. It's just the psychological commitment of a big chapter, I think. Now I've also just gone ahead and read straight through big chapters even if I do feel like I need to go to bed, if the story is compelling enough. I completely understand what you're saying. When I originally read your post, I was going to cite stories that didn't have any dialogue at all. Jean Craighead George was one of my favorites as a child with her Julie of the Wolves series. The third one didn't feature Julie very often, it mostly just focused on the wolves. It was my absolute hands down favorite book as an adolescent, and there wasn't a single lick of dialogue. I didn't realize it at the time because the story felt so action-packed anyway. Now, looking back, I see the genius of it. I was going to tell you that dialogue doesn't make or break a story, so not to stress too much about it. But it sounds like you've found your mojo so keep going!
If you've got a world and you hate characters, then the obvious solution to try first is to write a story that's got only one or two characters in it. Don't think so inside the box. Be that guy who tries something new and write a story that no one's familiar with.
@Lyrical - Yeah I know the feeling very well. I actually have experienced the other end as well; I wanted to continue the story but looked at the clock and realised I should go to bed. Checking the length of the next chapter, I decided it's way too long and started to sleep. I recall the book was 'Feast of Crows' by George R.R. Martin, who though writes quite long chapter in general (with the main characters). I try to move on with the story with dialogue or thoughts of the character, while the stuff in between is simply 'worldbuilding'. @Flying Geese - I really didn't hate the characters, when I started this thread. I guess it was simple incapability to view things through their eyes, which I think has gotten lot easier now.
