Novel How do you determine the length of chapters in your story?

Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by agentkirb, Sep 14, 2011.

  1. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Doesn't matter to me. I've read a few novels recently that didn't even have chapters. I don't really care if books that have chapters have them short or long. Just break where you feel like it makes sense or is effective in the story.
     
  2. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    The good reason might be as simple as that was the natural place for a new chapter.

    Why do so many new writers obsess over chapter length?
     
  3. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    The first draft of my novel had chapters between 8k and 12k words. Maybe some people think that's too long, but to me it isn't. These chapters were long enough to tell their parts of the story, to get their jobs done. I think it would be wrong to put more chapter breaks in, so that there are three times as many chapters, but the chapters don't make any sense as fictional units.

    I like long chapters.
     
  4. Solitude

    Solitude New Member

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    Depends on the type of story. If it's one that takes place over multiple settings or switches from the story's past to it's present, then I tend to do about 1,500 words or less. They're more like 'sections' than actual chapters. If it's a story that's fairly consistent as far as the setting goes, then it tends to be about 2,500-3,500 for me. I don't plan it to be like that, but it usually turns out that way.
     
  5. agentkirb

    agentkirb New Member

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    I'm probably a different type of writer than a lot of people on here. The short version of the story is that I got into writing from doing a lot of technical stuff rather than creating novels or short stories. If you've ever seen an opinion article on like ESPN.com... I liked writing stuff like that. So my stuff isn't as descriptive (something I'm trying to work on) and it's more analytical. And so sometimes that's how I approach writing. There's the actual content, but then you start breaking down what makes a story good. Stuff like paragraph length, chapter length, how much dialogue is in your story. And then there's the stuff that actually matters like plot, character development, etc.

    This thread has served it's purpose though and I thank you all for your responses. I know now that this is just me over obsessing over something and it's not an unwritten rule when it comes to making a multi-chapter story.
     
  6. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    i've wondered about that myself... would love to see some answers...
     

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