Lots of short chapters, yes or no?

[Dr. Drib]

The longer the chapters, the shorter the book. I read this somewhere in a very long book that had short chapters.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The longer the chapters, the shorter the book. I read this somewhere in a very long book that had short chapters.

Certainly the pace of the story would be quick that way.

[toddhicks209]

Originally Posted by gmw

My current project is told from the perspective of three different characters (well, four, but one sort of hands over to another). These perspectives interleave to reveal details over the same sequence of events (mostly).

Normally when I do this I simply use a context break (- - -) within the chapter, and choose my chapter breaks independently. I may still end up doing that anyway, but...

As it happens I have, while writing this, been assembling the pieces such that the each perspective has its own chapter heading (just the character name). This is convenient because it means you don't have to take special care to make certain the reader knows who they are with when you change perspectives (not usually a big deal, each character is sufficiently different that it is normally obvious, but it is still a consideration). It has occurred to me to wonder whether it might be acceptable to publish it like this - with lots of short chapters.

Several chapters would be very short, two or three pages, a handful at just one page. Other chapters would be of a more reasonable length (a dozen pages or more). But since it now appears this could turn out to be a 400 page book, it could add up to a very large number of chapters (perhaps 60 or even more). I currently expect the story to have at least 4 parts.

It's not a decision I need to make until I have a complete draft, and that will be a while yet. Also, later in the story, as my characters come together more, the separation may prove to be impracticable anyway. But the question remains:

Is it acceptable to produce a novel with a large number of short chapters? What are the downsides for readers?

I think it's acceptable. As for downsides, I don't see any.