Day 10 – Book and Chapter Length

Busy, busy day, so I don’t have much time to write this blog. Brian asked a question in the comments of a recent post about the optimal length of a chapter. Obviously, that depends on the author, the story, pacing, and a myriad of other things.

That got me thinking about writing style and book length and all that jazz.

Personally, I like fast-paced books. That should be pretty apparent if you’ve read my stuff. What makes a story move along is the question. A lot of action helps. Duh. Punchy dialogue is good. Short chapters seem to make a big difference too.

When reading a novel, I feel like I’m flying through it if I’m crunching through chapters. Even though I know the length of two different books might be the same, I have a skewed perception of my reading speed because of the shortened chapters.

I’ve found the same holds true for sentences and paragraphs. Because I like a quicker reading style, I write the same way. In my second drafts, I actually go back through and simplify some of my language. Using a dollar word when a nickel word will do is no-go for me. If I can squeeze a page worth of description and dialogue down to a short paragraph, I will.

Flowery prose is something else I avoid. I want the reader enthralled with the story, not trying to decipher what in the hell I’m trying to say. When I do use it, there is a specific reason, such as an intense or gory scene that I want to stand out. Changing the wording around a bit can create an unnerving emphasis.

This is just for me, of course. What works across various genres changes too. I don’t read literary fiction, romance, etc.

I change the style up through different series, too. The Asher Benson books have very short chapters. The Hunger uses chapters about twice as long on average. Some of that has to do with pacing, some with the difference between first and third person perspectives. It seems to work for the different stories, though.

As for book length, my novels range from 300-350 pages. Some are less, some are more, but that’s the average. A lot of that has to do with the way I unravel stories. I blast through all three acts using cliffhangers and character deaths, making 300 pages about as far as I like to go before things get too repetitive.

The cost/benefit ratio is important to me, too. I could spend a year writing a 1000 page book. But how much do I charge for it? Three times as much as an Asher Benson book? Will it sell at all if it’s priced at $9.99 vs the $3.99 I typically charge? I doubt it. I could write three books in the same amount of time, charge more in total, and make a bigger chunk of change. Getting several books out makes readers happy, too.

In summation… I write 300 page novels, with consumable prose, short chapters, and lots of action. And it pays the bills. I haven’t had a real job in 7 years now.

Anyway, this is a very surface level discussion about a deep subject. But I’m out of time. I didn’t even get into whether readers are more likely to take a chance on a new author if the book is long or short. There’s a whole discussion about the differences in sales between novels of differing length in regards to ebooks vs. paperbacks vs. audio. And there’s a big difference, believe me. We’ll jump into that as I’m going through the publishing process with Decayed.

Let me know what you prefer as a reader or as an author. Girthy novels? Short stories? Novellas? Does it differ between genres? Between paper and audio?

Today, I wrote 1444 words (roughly 6-8 pages) in Decayed (The Hunger #5), bringing the total to 72578 (in the neighborhood of 300 pages).

See ya tomorrow.

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