Hatrack River Writers Workshop: chapters and length

This is topic chapters and length in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :

What is the average chapter length of most novels?

OK difficult question, what about your average length. Do chapters vary or is there a pattern to what you do, and what is too long and/or too short for a chapter? (speaking as an average)

I have found on my WIP that my chapter length (quite coincidentally) is always almost 4500 words right on the button. And I'm curious how average that is, is it on the shorter or the longer end? I'm not sure.

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

This doesn't answer your question at all, but I'm offering it up anyway.

I noticed while reading all the HP books in sequence that anytime I paid attention to chapter length, it took me almost exactly 15 minutes to read one.

Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :

I have no idea, but ... My wife and I just finished reading Pullman's The Golden Compass. The chapters were too long. When we read books with shorter chapters, it's easy for us to get into them and read much later than we intended. With the long chapters of that book, we would finish early not wanting to invest so much more time (though the time would have been equal with a short-chaptered book.)

Thus, my new personal axiom: chapters are like pills. The big ones are harder to swallow.

[This message has been edited by lehollis (edited September 07, 2007).]

Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :

I just read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and most of the chapters were at least 20 pages long. It was okay, though, because they moved fast.

In my book I try to keep to ten or less. As a reader I like to get to stopping points so I can judge whether I can get another chapter in or not. Twilight didn't have that.

Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :

I have no idea what the statistics are overall, but I've seen books where the average chapter was less than 5 pages in length (< 2,000 words), and others where chapters tended to go about 30 pages (~10,000 words).

I find myself preferring shorter chapters since I often read in short spurts and it's nice to get to a clean stopping point.

My own chapters (sample size of one draft novel) run from about 1,500 to 4,000 words.

Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :

I found something interesting by James D. Macdonald.

His words:

quote:
How many pages in a chapter?
This is as close to a meaningless question as you can get. It's like "How many letters in a word?" or "How many words in a sentence?"
I've seen novels with chapters ranging from a fraction of a page to the entire book being one long chapter.
Listen: Words are symbols for ideas or concepts. Sentences are made of words. Sentences convey thoughts through the relationships among the words. (A fraction of a word may be a sentence.)
Paragraphs are made of sentences. The paragraph is the smallest unit of meaning in a novel. The meaning comes from the relationships among the sentences. (A fraction of a sentence may be a paragraph.)
Scenes are made out of paragraphs. There are no fractional paragraphs. The meaning of the scene comes from the relationships among the paragraphs that make up the scene.
Chapters are made out of scenes. There are no fractional scenes. The meaning of the chapter comes from the relationships among the scenes.
How many pages in a chapter? How many scenes do you have, how long are they, and how do they relate to one another? At the point where one scene doesn't relate to the one that follows, put a chapter break.
The reader's mind can hold only a limited number of things at once. The reader's interest keeps moving. You should strive to make the source of information be the same as the source of interest.
And that's how long a chapter is.

From the Absolute Write forums.

Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :

MacDonald is a very sensible man.

edited by me to keep me from looking like quite as much of a maroon as I actually can be.

[This message has been edited by debhoag (edited September 13, 2007).]

Posted by rcorporon (Member # 2879) on :

This may sound snide, but my chapters are exactly as long as they need to be.

They range from 1,000 - 7,000 words, with some longer if needed.

I don't get too hung up on how many words / chapter, really, just tell your story.

Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :

Interesting comment--did you intend it to be snide? I'm curious. I assume you're a good enough writer that you can create the intended tone in your writing. Or do you think it sounds snide, despite your efforts to avoid it?

Anyway, just because you don't get hung up on it, a new writer (or even a more experienced one) might still get curious about length.

I don't think asking a question because of curiosity is the same as "getting hung up" on it.

Posted by MrsBrown (Member # 5195) on :

dee-boncci said:
"5 pages in length (< 2,000 words), and ... 30 pages (~10,000 words)"

2000/5 = 400, 10000/30 = 333

Is this 5/30 pages in a printed hardback/paperback? I am curious, what the average number of words per page tends to be for those formats. Anyone?

Posted by Grant John (Member # 5993) on :

I'm going to throw a different perspective in. As a teacher I find that students are more likely to read books with short chapters. For instance, one of my classes was reading Soraya the Storyteller, while not a fantastic book it has really short chapters (every second one goes for only 3 or 4 pages) and we got it done in a week.

Another class is reading Dragonkeeper, which has really long chapters, sometimes 22 pages. They really struggled to read the same amount of pages as those reading Soraya.

So it depends on your reader, I will read a Terry Pratchett book with no chapters, though it is harder than it should be, but my students would flip out without those little victories that chapter ends give them.

Grant

Posted by I am destiny on :

I agree that a perfect chapter length is what a writer writes, however, I am curious what others write. I myself write between 2-20 pg. chapters in TNR sz 12. Each chapter just feels right when I write it. I admit rarely do my rough drafts have chapter breaks. I just write, and then in my re read I break it up.

I dont have trouble stopping reading where ever I need to stop. But it sounds like that is not so common... Maybe it is because I have 6 kids and I have to be able to stop when the 4 yo comes in w/ a bloody nose.

interesting question tho'
~Destiny

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Mine of late have been running twenty to thirty pages. And while reading a lot of books, I'll read one chapter, then stop for a while, and pick it up later for another chapter.

In any case, I'm going to assume my readers, when and if, do not have a limited attention span. I don't think there'd be much fun in writing from the other, opposite assumption.

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

Oof, my chapters run all over the place. This is for my first draft though, so who knows what the second will look like? I've read not to worry about it in the first draft by writing books, but I tend to think in chapters, I guess. The shortest I have is 6 double spaced pages. The longest is about 40.