Long Chapters vs. Short Chapters

After much deliberation on the matter I’ve decided that for several reasons, I’m not going to be going the serial novel route (at least for my current work-in-progress). Too many variables that still need to be considered. But I am going to be breaking the novel up into several parts consisting of (at least for now) three chapters each. But I’m curious about something… 


Which is better, long chapters or short chapters? 


Currently my chapters range the mid two thousands in word count, which at this rate to make my final word count goal I’d have to have roughly 45 chapters. Or… I could have 24 chapters at about 5,000 words a pop. For reference, 5,000 words is around 10 pages single spaced which isn’t as much as I would have imagined, but that shrunken down to 6×9 for trade paperback, we’re looking at maybe 15-20 pages per chapter. It isn’t particularly uncommon for well known authors, 11/22/63 (which I’m currently reading) has fairly long chapters, but it’s broken up into scenes which helps break up the chapter more than just one long monotonous chapter. The Casual Vacancy took a similar approach to the way in which the longer chapters were broken up. 


On the flip side however, Holes and the Da Vinci Code were both broken up into multiple short chapters and in some ways I almost think that made these books easier to consume.


What about you? Long chapters or short chapters? 



 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on July 13, 2013 08:10
No comments have been added yet.