Number of Pages

[Sophie]

Hey all,

So I have a quandary that has been bugging me for some time and has caused a little friction between myself and other (locally).

Ok, so my dilemma is, as the topic title says, number of pages.

this may sound a rather strange thing, but it is about drafts and end product. Primarily how many pages do you allocate/use as a guideline for chapters? This is more a problem when i used to share in groups, as some say that you should write your document in the size and format of your final piece, and others say leave it A4 and size 12. Which is what i tend to do. Ordinarily I only put in chapters when the mood of the story/story line changes and it seems appropriate. This is generally between 11 or so pages of A4. I publish my stuff on Amazon, and obviously 90% of devices are smaller than A4 so it doubles the number of pages as often they are closer to A5.

Are 20 pages too long for a single chapter? What are your thoughts on this matter?

Thanks in advance

Sophie xxxx

[Mark]

I've had chapters as short as one page, and others over twenty. Depends on the scene being conveyed.

[David]

Hi Sophie, I completely appreciate your dilemma. I have seen this discussed on other forums, and I think the only good answer is that chapters should be the length they need to be.

A lot of people are starting to feel that they should be kept short, because they believe their audiences have too short an attention span for longer ones. But I have never found that to be the case and the few authors I know who have intentionally kept their chapters brief (sometimes arbitrarily splitting up a chapter into several shorter ones) have done themselves more harm than good.

That said- personally, I start to feel my chapters are getting a bit long if they extend beyond the length of a short story (6000 words or so) and I start to examine my motives for the length.

Also, I do my early drafts with a font that gives me a typical trade paperback page count. I find it more satisfying than a business letter layout and also the larger font is easier on the eyes.

[Brian]

I think a chapter should be as long or short as it needs to be. I tend to write shorter chapters because I do them by scenes. Sometimes I will do two scenes in a chapter if the previous scene leads directly into the next or if they are directly related. I also enjoy to read and write books with a faster pace. Shorter chapters can give the illusion of a faster pace. I would worry more about the flow of the story. If the chapter is too long ask yourself if the chapter has multiple scenes and would benefit from a break in between them. If your chapter is too short ask yourself if it leads directly into the next or if the story overall would benefit from combining it with the previous or next chapter.

[Claire]

Like everyone else here, I agree that chapters need to be as long as they need to be. That said, there is a consensus amongst agents that the sweet spot is around 2500 words per chapter. But all of them stress, if the point of the chapter is achieved in less, great. And if you need more, that is great too.

[Neil]

My chapters tend to be a scene or two, and will continue for as long as they need, if it can all stay in the context of a single chapter. They range from 1,500 to 5,500, and I follow this rather than counting the pages. I use Google Drive and although I could count them, chasing words is easier to follow (especially for an overall word count).

To sum it up, it really depends on what's going on at that moment in the story.

[Ann]

A Dance With Fury's chapters are 3500-4500 words each. I try to keep them even as possible but that's just how the story ended up. It worked well for me so I'll try to keep it like that with the next book but it all depends :3

[Carl]

Whatever works for what you're writing.

[Sophie]

Yeah that's pretty much my thoughts on the matter I mean I know in the past I have made a chapter with close to ten thousand words but when I went to shorten it I did struggle. Ordinarily I just write and when I feel a chapter change is due in one goes but when I review for second draft I normal rearrange. Saying that I often have multiple scenes occurring in each chapter so it almost feels like the word count is less of that makes sense.

Thanks for the advice I'm going to have a look back through and see how many I have in the current edition xxx

Sophie xxx

[R.]

I agree with what everyone else is saying. Chapters should be as long or as short as they need to be to tell that part of the story.

I write like a TV show, with chapters being episodes and then split into scenes separated by Roman numerals, but I've had scenes just 4 lines long and others over 5000 words

[J. David]

I've been aiming for about 15 pages a chapter in my main series, but if I go short or need to go long I allow it to do so. You can go mad trying to follow all these pieces of "advice" about everything you are "supposed to do" in your novel. It's YOUR novel. Do what feels right to you, and let the chips fall where they may.

It's art, not math. 2+2 can equal 5, or Q, or banana.