Chapters & Word Count Planning

[Justin]

So as I was out for a walk today I thought about my next book and how I'd plan it out and write it. Usually I write a certain amount of words for each chapter and then I start the next. While I do check on my word count from time to time I don't usually have a set count in mind.

It brings me to my questions. how do you go about writing your book? Do you have a certain amount of words you want your chapters to be? Do you write each chapter out or do you just keep writing until you've finished and then go back and drop your chapters accordingly? I myself think of how many chapters I want and usually stop around a range of words before getting started on the next chapter.

Just curious as to how people go about planning their chapters and word counts.

[Tara Woods Turner]

I'm nonfiction so I definitely plot out each chapter but I don't worry about word count.

[Graeme]

I'm a heavy, detailed planner.

My chapters vary in length substantially, both on scene count and word count.

Currently shortest chapter is 3 scenes, longest is 20+ scenes.

I average around 780 words per scene, and my current book is estimated to be 103K.

I translate that into page count for a paperback at 250 pages given font type and size - this tells me what template I need to use for cover design.

[[deleted user]]

I've struggled with word count. I'm not sure how to explain my scenes and everything. I think about it, daydream it, recall certain dreams, inspiration, and write it out.

[[deleted user]]

I don't bother with word count. First, I write a draft plotline (with approximate dates, times, places and basically what will happen), split in chapters. Then I use that draft plotline to start seriously researching the data and historical/technical/biographical info I will need in order to write my new book (I do mostly sci-fi and historical fiction, but am now also dabbling in erotica mixed with urban fantasy). I may even buy a few more books in order to supplement my reference books (always a good excuse to shop for more books). Once I have everything I need, I start writing my book, chapter after chapter. I never start writing a new chapter until the preceding chapter is finished, so that I don't risk ending with inconsistent/disjointed chapters. When it is done, with what I wanted to say put down in writing, then it is done, be it after 150 or 900 pages.

Question for Justin: why be so preoccupied with the word count? Chapters don't need to be of the same length: they simply need to say what is needed to be said for that chapter and its particular setting. Trying to balance word counts between two chapters sounds like a good recipe to kill inspiration.

[Jeff]

As someone who is a new writer, you guys have provided a wealth of knowledge. IMHO, I don't think there is one right or wrong way. I focus on word count a bit, but I also jump from character to character and scene to scene quite a bit. my novel isn't linear, but it had to make sense lol. Right now I am just trying to get words on the page. Thanks to everyone's insight.

[Bernard]

I never bothered about word count per chapter or scene. At one moment, I simply asked myself what I wanted to see happening in the next chapter but soon in the beginning of my writing, I preferred letting the overall plot design I had built and the characters I choose to use in any given scene decide what I would write.

Since my novel is in a diary format, some chapters only have on paragraph, the idea haven been well offered to the reader. In other chapters, I wrote some 200 pages.

Chapter or scene length is not a relevant issue as far as I'm concerned. Bringing the story forward with a continuation of new and intriguing elements are, in my humble opinion, the most important factors.
Cheers,
Bernard
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[Bernard]

TheLongWait wrote: "As someone who is a new writer, you guys have provided a wealth of knowledge. IMHO, I don't think there is one right or wrong way. I focus on word count a bit, but I also jump from character to cha..."


In my final draft, I had some 530 pages and over 190 000 words. When editing it, I cut out over 100 pages and brought it down to a litlle bit over 126 000 words.

Word count has been a way for publishers to set their optimal printing cost per category or genre given the response they may have got from reader surveys. So let your literary agent, publisher or even better, yourself, decide what your story demands of you.

[Ian]

I plan the course of my story in high level terms, and get more granular as I write. It's not really pantsing because I have an outline in mind, but I certainly don't plot out at the level of chapters. It's more like seeing a structure emerge from a thick fog - bulky outlines, then finer detail.

As a result I certainly don't map out chapters in advance, but I tend to look for good (i.e. cliffhanger) or natural chapter breaks. I used to end a chapter when something had got nicely tidied up. Now I try to leave the reader guessing what happens next.

For previous books, I put a lot of thought into chapter breaks and lengths as I went. As a result, when I reached a certain mass of words I would be looking for somewhere to start a new chapter. For my current WIP I took a different approach. I have the whole first draft written but even now not all the chapter breaks in place. It's mostly a series of scenes that I'll finalize chapter breaks near the end of the editing process.

I found this helped free me from the tyranny of the chapter, and is making it easier to shuffle things around and balance out the different POVs in play. I wrote a more detailed blog post about the process a few months ago here.

I do aim for a certain word count for each chapter. Anything less than 2k words feels a bit short, anything more than 4k feels long, but as long as it's somewhere in that range that's OK for me.

[Nik]

Ian's process description sounds familiar -:)
I also usually start with a global outline in mind: where the story starts, where goes and where it should end, but improvise how to get there in each chapter. I also try to have chapter endings with a hook for reading next.
I'm more concerned with daily count to have some pace, as I work towards the first rough draft and return back to it after it's finished to finetune and accomplish things during 3-4 iterations..
Usually aim at 60-80k words for an action thriller, however the length is less important, imo, than wholeness and natural pace.

[[deleted user]]

I have to confess that, on more than one occasion, I had a sort of revelation about a new plotline while I was halfway done writing a new novel, a revelation (or bright idea) that then made me deviate from the originally planned storyline significantly. I never regretted doing such changes then, so I would say that, if you feel like doing major changes to your storyline while you are writing your novel, go for it!

[J.J.]

With my Freedom Reigns series, I let the first book dictate the length of the rest of the series. With Dione's War, I was determined to top 300k words. The story was so expansive, I had no problem.

After Dione's War, I decided I wanted to keep word count at about 75k. Prisoners of Utopia and They knew both blew past it and came in at 97 and 99k, while Are there Heroes in Hell? came close topping 80k.

Setting goals like word and page count helps you focus the story, but end of the day, don't get locked into the number so badly that you hurt the piece. Some stories need the extra space to be told, while others will end up with too much filler if you try to push things.

[Ian]

Me, I ignore word count other than to watch how I am going so I try not to get bloated. My key is, what am I dying to achieve in a given chapter? How many different aspects (which will be in separate chapters) are essential to the lot? Having decided that, I ask what additional material do I need to bring out character. The final word count is what it is, but editing may either add or subtract from the draft word count. Subtracting involves weeding out bloat; adding means making sure the correct characters come through.

[Justin]

One big reason I asked this question is because I plan on writing my first series. I feel a series needs to be substantial so I have a total word length in mind for the first book which of course means planning out word counts for each chapter. Although it's more of an estimate than a sure thing I feel I should do some planning of it.

[Michael]

I extensively planned out each chapter for my first novel, as I am doing for my second.

I did some interviews with readers as to word count and found a soft spot. I then planned each chapter around that soft spot.

I fell a little short of overall word count that I wanted (80,000) - I came in around 73,000. (60 chapters 266 printed pages)

But more important than word count, I found that chapter length is far more important.

I try to keep my chapters to 1200 words per chapter. It keeps the story moving at a fast pace. Readers usually hate getting bogged down in unnecessary details and wordy chapters. The one comment I love to see in reviews is "page-turner."

[Bernard]

I think the main concern a writer must have is to use the best words he can find to push the story forward and not the number of words in a chapter our in his book. Puting it to the extreme test, does word lenght matter?

Word counting can be useful when it comes to staying within the words per genre or when a deadline must be met, but otherwise I never heard the use of word count per chapter as being a fundamental element of writing technics.

Then again, whatever works for you is the way you must follow regardless of any other way one may come up with.
My Ripper Hunting Days