Chapter structure

[Teresa, Ewok Defender]

How do you feel about the shorter chapters? Does it make it easier or harder to read for you?

[Aaron, Jedi Master]

These are short but not nearly as short as the ones in Lockdown. I do like shorter chapters though. I like the sense of ongoing accomplishment. Like checkpoints in a video game.

[Teresa, Ewok Defender]

Aaron wrote: "These are short but not nearly as short as the ones in Lockdown. I do like shorter chapters though. I like the sense of ongoing accomplishment. Like checkpoints in a video game."

I would agree with you there. Its like you just got an ACHIEVEMENT!

[John]

That's kind of my thinking as well -- I prefer writing shorter chapters unless the scene requires otherwise. As my writing has gone along, my chapters have been getting shorter -- just as in comics, my panel counts per page dropped. You figure out how to tell the same story with less.

[Brian]

I'm only a few chapters in right now, but I enjoy it. It keeps the pace moving, and makes it easy for me to have a natural stopping point when I might only be able to read for a few minutes here and there, like today.

[Teresa, Ewok Defender]

Brian wrote: "I'm only a few chapters in right now, but I enjoy it. It keeps the pace moving, and makes it easy for me to have a natural stopping point when I might only be able to read for a few minutes here an..."

I agree with this sometimes during the day I get a short break and I can read some. I liken it to playing an epic Final Fantasy game where I have to be able to devote hours to at one time vs. an iPhone game I can pick up play for a few and then put down. The shorter chapters make it more convenient for me.

[6d7073]

I like the shorter chapters. I don't seem to have the time to sit and read for any length of time these days. I have found in the past that the short chapters leave a lot of white space in the book and without any statistical data allow the page count to remain normal but the word count may fall. I am reading the digital version so not sure how think he book is physically. JJM - how does the word count compare to your other SW projects?

[John]

The manuscript was identical in length to Kenobi when I turned it in. We added a couple of scenes to Kenobi, whereas I tightened New Dawn. So New Dawn will come out a little shorter, but only by a few thousand words.

[Jeffrey]

I like the chapter lengths in AND. I think it really enhances the overall pace of the story. I finish each chapter a little breathless wondering what's going to happen next, which makes the story a lot of fun to read.

[Rob]

I love the shorter chapters. It is a nice literary method of the screen wipes we get in the films. Plus my free time for reading is very short and sporadic so it makes it easier to pick up where I left off.

[Bruce]

The chapters are a perfect length. I'm reading another novel with longer chapters and wish to finish the chapters sooner when I'm short on time.

[Travis]

The shorter chapters actually wind up making me read more in each sitting because I finish one and think "just one more won't take too long" and before I know it I've read for an hour! Sort of like the old Civilization mentality of "just one more turn" leading you to play until sunrise.

[John]

Well, as someone who has lost three quarters of his adult life to playing Civilizations I through V, I know what you mean. (Just beat V on "King" level for the first time last night.)

I stick with chapters of this length in my next novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Takedown, coming out in January.

[Rg]

I agree with everything said previously. Haven't experimented but I hypothesize that if you had two books of equal word count or better yet, two versions of the same book, one with short chapters and one with long chapters you would finish the short chapter version in a shorter amount of time.