Chapter Length

[VydorScope]

How do you choose when to put chapter breaks in? I have heard they should be consistent, but beyond that there appears to be no rule of thumb?

[G J Lau]

The way I look at it, each chapter should accomplish something specific in terms of moving the plot forward. However long that takes is how long it takes. I prefer shorter chapters myself, but I don't think there is any hard and fast rule. Some of my chaprers were a couple of pages; others were much longer. Overall, I tried to keep them about the same length, trying to give the reader a lot of break points, especially for those who may be like me and fall asleep reading at night.

[jbcohen]

Some of my writer pals would offer this advice: think of your book as a play where there is a sceen change thats is where you put a chapter break. There should be no breaks at all within the chapters in any way. Ocasionally the tale will have a series of several events happening to different sets of characters at the same time. In this case the within chapters sceen breaks are permissable however the chapters should be a consise block of time in the tale.

[VydorScope]

@jbcohen: So then say if John and Bob are main characters... but they are in 2 different locations... John is in a bar playing poker with dogs, and Bob is down at the beach. As luck would have it they are both attacked by ROUSs and have to fight for their lives. John dies, but Bob makes it by utilizing his deadly star fish throwing skills.

Is that two chapters then, or one?

@G J Lau: Yea, thats pretty much what I did with book 2. So at least if I am wrong i have company.

[mr ploppy]

Either at a scene break or at a cliffhanger. But there's no real reason why you need to use chapters at all.

[peterjmerrigan]

Many authors don't bother with chapters any more. Personally, I do prefer having chapters as it breaks the narrative up. You can have scene breaks within chapters if the narratives are linked or they are happening at the same time (so in VydorScope's example above, if they were both attacked at the same time, it can all be in one chapter, intercut between each).

As for length, a chapter, in my view, is only as long as it needs to be

[crich70]

I tend to think that on average 8-10 pages is a good length for a chapter. Of course you want to have something at the end of each chapter to entice the reader to keep on reading too.

[dworth]

As long or as short as you need it to be. Don't write extra content just to pad out a chapter to a certain length, it'll slow your plot down and bore the reader. If a break is needed at a suitable point (either to change character viewpoint, indicate the passage of time or whatever) then end the chapter. I've seen some well known authors use chapters of less than a page. Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld novels, famously didn't use them at all until quite recently, though there were line breaks in the text.

[VydorScope]

In my books I used them for scene changes. So in my example above, that would be two different chapters. I also try not to let chapters get far out of time sync, but you can only tell one thing at a time so there can be some time shifting.

However if the events are not connect (like in the example) the exact timing on them might not matter at all, so if the reader assumes the second chapter happens after the first it will not impact the story. If the timing is important I might start the chapter with "Mean while..." or some other clear indication of time.

If a chapter is less then say 700 words, I start questioning whether or not the scene should be there at all. I have a few places where I let a short chapter go, but for very specific reason. I just was wondering if I was being reasonable or not

[Andrew Ashling]

I tend to write long chapters, between 8k to 11k words.
I usually let the dynamics of the story decide, e.g. unity in place, time or characters involved. I divide them into 4 to 8 scenes according to the same criteria.

[Mikael Aizen]

The world has to be introduced, conflict established and either resolved or intensified, characters identified and changed in some manner all in the scene/chapter at the minimum. Whatever your wordcount is to establish those things isn't important, but in general I tend to see for novels that 2k is a minimum for effectiveness. Above that could be anything.

[kmadsen08]

I enjoy leaving my readers at cliff hangers. Length depends on what happens. Some are really short others are longer

[Ransom]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

think of your book as a play where there is a sceen change thats is where you put a chapter break.

That's exactly correct. It's all about a new scene whether it's five pages or twenty five.

[Harper Kingsley]

I have this weird thing where for "Of Blood" I didn't use chapters, I just posted a time stamp and the name of the character whose POV it is.

For "Heroes & Villains" I used more traditional chapters.

Currently, I'm trying to figure out if I want chapters or not in "The Panic Pure." I've been going full-on Jim Grimsley with it and just breaking up the various scenes with star breaks, but there's no chapters anywhere.

I guess the chapter question has more to do with how you feel like writing your work and how easily you think it will be for the reader. Also, if you have a really short scene that's not really part of a chapter, but that you really want to put in there, you can always add an "INTERLUDE" break

[Ransom]

Also, if you have a really short scene that's not really part of a chapter, but that you really want to put in there, you can always add an "INTERLUDE" break

Exactly.