How to Determine Chapter Length...
I have seen this question arise on many occasions, so I figured I would give it a shot. (I am happy to answer other questions about writing if you ask me on my author page.)
Is there a hard and fast rule? No. But there are a few guidelines that might be helpful.
The writing critique group scribophile.com states in their submission guidelines:
Keep in mind that Scribophile works with a variety of writers, and while some are professional to a fault, others are starting fresh. And we as readers have a greater attention span for a well-written bit of work that has already undergone this sort of scrutiny. Nevertheless, the guideline is valid.
Most books published today have an average of 10 pages per chapter. (I have considered quite a number of published books and calculated word counts and page numbers.) This is not an arbitrary number. While many say that the average word count is 250 per page, I have done enough calculation to know that the number is actually closer to 300. Indeed, Impulse, my debut novella, averaged 307 words per page and was quite standard. What do all of these calculations mean?
Traditionally published novelists also average 3000 words per chapter. That really isn't a coincidence. The very presence of chapters is designed to pace a book properly so as not to overwhelm readers.
If your reader doesn't have a lot of time, she may appreciate reading your story in shorter increments. Of course, if she is an avid reader, reading multiple chapters at a time may not be uncommon. But these readers generally will not be turned off by chapter breaks, whereas readers with less opportunity may be turned off from a work with rare chapter breaks.
Now, that being the case, there are other factors besides time which come into play, but these are related to time in important ways. What are these factors? I believe you will find that such matters as genre and target audience come into play here.
Say, for example, you are writing an epic fantasy. Many who are drawn to an epic fantasy readily acknowledge a willingness to spend a great deal of time reading. After all, most epic fantasies are very thick books. Take Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Most of the prologues in the Wheel of Time books are longer than most books. Robert Jordan built a fanbase who simply expected this sort of thing. So he had no need to write based on industry standards. (And as already stated, there are no hard and fast rules.)
Considering your target audience, if you are writing for grade-school-aged children, these will likely read at a slower pace. So chapter and middle-grade books may differ greatly from what is expected. I remember reading Louis Sachar's novel Holes. It sticks out in my mind as one of the few that broke the guideline, averaging perhaps 1500 words or 5-6 pages per chapter.
So, if the rules are meant to be broken, how can you determine chapter length for your stories? Consider a few factors.
1) What is the central theme of the chapter? Some writers use chapter titles. Others do not. But even if you choose not to, having a clear concept of your chapter theme will give you a basic guideline. What do you hope to achieve?
2) It is a tried, tested, despised but honored practice to leave a reader in suspense at the close of a chapter. Note that ending a chapter while the action is revving up is better than ending a chapter while the action is winding down. Revving up action means your reader has a good reason to return to see the next plot-hook unfold.
3) You do not always need to end in suspense. Some chapters are better for character development and world building, so vary your pacing. Whatever the case, make certain you leave your audience feeling good that they chose your book, each step of the way.
Beta testing your story will certainly help you with this. Ask for advice from a good friend who will be objective. (I know, finding a good friend who will be brutally honest isn't easy. But it's worth it. As you're starting out, your good friends will likely make up a large part of your target audience.)
You know what you have in mind as you write a chapter. So ask your beta reader, "Is this chapter ____ enough?" and "If you could change one thing about this chapter, what would it be?"
I hope this bit of advice will help you in some way. And since we learn best from one another, how do you determine the proper length for a chapter? What questions are good to ask beta readers? Please share your comments below.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in the sci-fi series Forgotten Princess, available now from a variety of on-line retailers, including amazon.com. Deception, the second book in the series, will be released in July.
Is there a hard and fast rule? No. But there are a few guidelines that might be helpful.
The writing critique group scribophile.com states in their submission guidelines:
After many years we've found that the longest length of writing the average person can critique in detail and in one sitting is about 3,000 words. That's the longest—not the minimum, or even the average.
Keep in mind that Scribophile works with a variety of writers, and while some are professional to a fault, others are starting fresh. And we as readers have a greater attention span for a well-written bit of work that has already undergone this sort of scrutiny. Nevertheless, the guideline is valid.
Most books published today have an average of 10 pages per chapter. (I have considered quite a number of published books and calculated word counts and page numbers.) This is not an arbitrary number. While many say that the average word count is 250 per page, I have done enough calculation to know that the number is actually closer to 300. Indeed, Impulse, my debut novella, averaged 307 words per page and was quite standard. What do all of these calculations mean?
Traditionally published novelists also average 3000 words per chapter. That really isn't a coincidence. The very presence of chapters is designed to pace a book properly so as not to overwhelm readers.
If your reader doesn't have a lot of time, she may appreciate reading your story in shorter increments. Of course, if she is an avid reader, reading multiple chapters at a time may not be uncommon. But these readers generally will not be turned off by chapter breaks, whereas readers with less opportunity may be turned off from a work with rare chapter breaks.
Now, that being the case, there are other factors besides time which come into play, but these are related to time in important ways. What are these factors? I believe you will find that such matters as genre and target audience come into play here.
Say, for example, you are writing an epic fantasy. Many who are drawn to an epic fantasy readily acknowledge a willingness to spend a great deal of time reading. After all, most epic fantasies are very thick books. Take Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Most of the prologues in the Wheel of Time books are longer than most books. Robert Jordan built a fanbase who simply expected this sort of thing. So he had no need to write based on industry standards. (And as already stated, there are no hard and fast rules.)
Considering your target audience, if you are writing for grade-school-aged children, these will likely read at a slower pace. So chapter and middle-grade books may differ greatly from what is expected. I remember reading Louis Sachar's novel Holes. It sticks out in my mind as one of the few that broke the guideline, averaging perhaps 1500 words or 5-6 pages per chapter.
So, if the rules are meant to be broken, how can you determine chapter length for your stories? Consider a few factors.
1) What is the central theme of the chapter? Some writers use chapter titles. Others do not. But even if you choose not to, having a clear concept of your chapter theme will give you a basic guideline. What do you hope to achieve?
2) It is a tried, tested, despised but honored practice to leave a reader in suspense at the close of a chapter. Note that ending a chapter while the action is revving up is better than ending a chapter while the action is winding down. Revving up action means your reader has a good reason to return to see the next plot-hook unfold.
3) You do not always need to end in suspense. Some chapters are better for character development and world building, so vary your pacing. Whatever the case, make certain you leave your audience feeling good that they chose your book, each step of the way.
Beta testing your story will certainly help you with this. Ask for advice from a good friend who will be objective. (I know, finding a good friend who will be brutally honest isn't easy. But it's worth it. As you're starting out, your good friends will likely make up a large part of your target audience.)
You know what you have in mind as you write a chapter. So ask your beta reader, "Is this chapter ____ enough?" and "If you could change one thing about this chapter, what would it be?"
I hope this bit of advice will help you in some way. And since we learn best from one another, how do you determine the proper length for a chapter? What questions are good to ask beta readers? Please share your comments below.
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella Impulse, the first book in the sci-fi series Forgotten Princess, available now from a variety of on-line retailers, including amazon.com. Deception, the second book in the series, will be released in July.
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Now I don't think Faulkner is a great model for what readers will find readable these days, or maybe even when he was writing. But I do think chapters follow their own internal logic, as determined by the story. It simply would not make sense to break some of Faulkner's work up in shorter chapters; they are that long for a reason. In other work, for a different audience, with a different purpose, the chapters will be (generally) shorter.
In our case, the chapters vary all over the place: some are 15+ pages (maybe 20) and some are only 2 or 3 (5 to 10 is probably average). It may not be terribly helpful, but we tend to think of our work as a musical composition. Some movements serve to introduce the next movement (ending in suspense), but some need to resolve fully, because a new theme is being introduced next. We tend to have a lot of scene and POV shifts (think "Pictures at an Exhibition") that introduce a variety of themes which we try to bring together and harmonize as we approach the end. (The opinions on how well we do that vary.)
So I'd opine that the only "rule" is match the chapter length to the nature of the narrative. A tightly plotted, fast-moving narrative will have shorter chapters. Something like Faulkner or the Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet" with have chapters 50 pages long or more. (And you probably won't get through one in a sitting, and that's probably a good thing.)
Or to fall back on the musical metaphor, it's not the length that matters, it's the harmony.