How Long Should A Chapter Be?
As K. Piet and I work through our two works in progress (Stalemate and Mae), I find myself considering chapter lengths. A while back, and author emailed me to ask how long her chapters should be, and my response was, "A chapter is as long as it needs to be." I'm not sure that was much help, but I found myself asking the same question a couple of weeks back.
Stalemate is set up in a very specific way. Each 'chapter' is a move and countermove from a chess game. This means that each section—the move and countermove—are about 800 words each, leading to a 'chapter' that is between 1,000 and 1,800 words, depending on the moves made. It makes for very short chapters, and we worried it might seem choppy. Now, feedback has told us the chapters aren't, but it's still a constant worry in my mind.
On the other hand, Mae (working title only) is more traditional. The chapters average about 2,000+ words each. They flow for us, and each one comes to a comfortable, natural conclusion, and so I don't question their lengths quite as much. It makes me wonder if it isn't the length of Stalemate's chapters, but the fact that we are fitting them into a very specific pattern instead of letting them flow one into another. It goes against how we've been writing thus far, and so it may seem stranger to us than it does to a reader.
Chapter lengths are such arbitrary things. I had one author tell me anything below 5,000 words was a 'short' chapter and that they wouldn't be happy with it. Of course, those I shared that sentiment with thought the same way I did: 5,000 words per chapter would make for a long-ass book, and long-ass chapters. I prefer 2,000-3,000 words per chapter, as anything longer can feel like I'm not making any progress as a reader. I view chapters as progression marks, as places I can stop, set aside the book, and easily come back to. Having long chapters only makes it feel like a chore to read (and I tend to think the author might be a little pretentious and wordy, thus making me less likely to buy another of their books).
Eh, I dunno. Chapters serve purposes. Short chapters tend to make me feel like the book is tight and fast-paced (when well-written, mind you). Long chapters tend to make me feel like the book is tedious and overthinking itself. It's that middle ground I like, that place of good pacing, wonderful dialogue, excellent language choice, and a sense of accomplishment throughout the reading. That's what I want as a reader, though as an author… that sweet spot is hard as hell to hit, and I think—not for the first time—that I'm being too hard on myself as an author and on the books I read as a reader.
In the end, yes, my original advice to that author is the right answer: Chapters will be as long or as short as chapters need to be, and I need to stop overthinking the whole thing. XD
