Inside Scoop

[14] The Length Of A Chapter

How long should a chapter be?

 

Vicky_nfs: Depends on many factors

I don’t think there’s a certain rule that states how long a chapter should be. Each story needs a different approach, is written in a different style and has different amounts of action, progresses at a different speed… I think all of that proves that you can’t make rules about the length of chapters.

With my stories, I sort of always end up with about the same length. Well, depending on the story, I either have chapters with a length of about 2500-3000 words or 4000 words. Those numbers are not my ‘goals’ when I’m writing, I just sort of always end up with that many words.

Sometimes a story doesn’t function with long chapters; I’ve read books like that. When a story is quite ‘heavy’ – whether it’s filled with action or just extremely emotional – I think shorter chapters are more suitable. Whereas very ‘light’ stories – humor or a happy romances – can work perfectly fine when the chapters are somewhat longer.

Also, the writing style is very important as well. When a story isn’t written a very appealing way, I’m sure many people will give up on the story itself if it has really long chapters – no matter the genre. On the other hand, when something is written in such an amazing way, it doesn’t really matter how long the chapters are – in such cases the chapters almost never seem long enough.

Then again, it doesn’t depend entirely on the story itself and the writing style. As a writer I think it’s important to take your readers into consideration. If you’re writing a book for adults, I think somewhat longer chapters won’t hurt, while the younger your readers are, shorter chapters are probably more useful. Age isn’t the only important factor, but when you suspect most of your readers don’t like long chapters, I think it’s best to try and shorten them a little, and the other way around.

And lastly, certain chapters simply need to be either long or small. Sometimes a longer chapter is necessary, or at other times a particular chapter will work better if it’s short. It really depends on the story, the scenes and the pace of a story, the ‘mental weight’, and a whole lot of other things.

 

Emmiie: It’s completely up to the author.

There are many things to take into consideration like, is it a short story? Do you want the chapters to be long or short? Are you going on word-count or pages?

For me, I normally try to aim around 5,000 words for my Wattpad uploads. But sometimes there are obvious cliffhangers or closing points that just feel like the ‘right’ place to end a chapter. So it depends, really.

Personally, I think the “best” Wattpad chapter size for a novel sized story is around 2,000 words, because that makes around four Wattpad pages. And I think when it comes to sitting down and reading a story, especially when you’re ‘reading on-the-go’ I think that four Wattpad pages is a nice size. It’s not overwhelming. And it gives you enough to enjoy and get into the story. Of course, this can be annoying when you’re really getting into the story and it just stops, but it also can keep readers interested.

I wish I could stick with 2,000 words, but I find that once I start typing I just can’t stop (especially with The Not So Secret Life of Helena Callahan and Love Me Dead). So 5,000 words, which makes around seven pages seems like the average stop point for me (but some readers find my longer chapters overwhelming—and a lot to read in one go).

But really, at the end of the day, I think everyone should write as much or as little as they want. There’s really no rules as to how long/short a chapter should be, so I recommend making your own rules up (as you go) and writing your heart out. That’s always worked for me.

Writing is really a learning curve, for everyone has their own writing style and different ways of going about writing. So do whatever works for you. And never give up on your dreams, no matter how impossible they might seem.

 

Leigh19: It varies.

A chapter should be a good few pages for sure, I've never heard of a one-paged chapter. I think a chapter should be like an essay; have your beginning statement, work on your body and have a conclusion. The body itself should have 3 parts (or events) in it because there's no sense in having an eventless chapter (or what I like to call a filler). At times fillers are useful or necessary to sort of bond characters or give more depth to one but you're not going to want all of your chapters like that.

Lengthwise for a chapter, I personally aim between 4-7 pages because I don't like having an upload shorter than that or drag on longer than that. However, it always depends on what you're trying to convey to your readers throughout the chapter. If you've done what you wanted in fewer pages or need something to tie up loose ends than a shorter chapter might be handy. Sometimes it takes longer than that to get to a certain mark in your story, thus a longer chapter is necessary.

I always aim to reach certain points in each chapter but sometimes I find myself ending it before I've gotten to where I wanted to be, which annoys the heck out of me but the beauty about chapters is there's no set limit as to how many you can have.