Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Since several of us have commented about James Patterson, I'll use him as an example. Kindle reports "When the Wind Blows" as 419 pages (my paperback edition is 468 pages). It has 127 chapters.
If we accept 350 words per page as an acceptable average, and use the Kindle page count that gives us:
3.3 pages per chapter
1155 words per chapter
In this thread we are seeing fairly universal acceptance that Patterson's books are examples of very short chapters. Take the "very" intensifier into account and I suggest an average under 6 or 8 pages (2000 or 2500 words) constitutes short chapters.
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That makes sense. My average chapter length over three books is about 2,500 words. (2,800 2,100 2,800) If I'm under 2,000 it feels short and anything over 3,500 starts to feel long.
I like reading books with shorter chapters, or at least breaks in the chapters, so I feel comfortable starting "one more" before meeting some obligation.