Chapters (Part 3) - Length

While I still haven't gotten that much writing done, if you don't count my English essay, I have been starting to read again so that is a step in the right direction. There is nothing that motivates me to write more than reading other people's work. I have high hopes for next weekend because it will be after my midterms and it's a three day weekend due to Remembrance Day so I should have plenty of relaxed time to get some writing done.

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When you are starting a new project, the easiest way to get bogged down is by reading the numerous threads and articles on the internet that claim to tell you the perfect secret to writing a book. People like formulas and steps to follow so we like to have guidelines that we can check off to ensure that we are following the right path.

But the joy of writing is the feeling that you can do whatever you like. There is no right or wrong answer. For whatever you choose to write, there is always an audience somewhere who will enjoy it. (Unless it was poorly written, in which case the only audience is their mother.)

Even knowing this, I like to keep my eye out for people who claim to know the proper word count or chapter length. Since I have already touched on word counts in my first post, I am going to concentrate on chapter lengths today. The number commonly thrown around is 2500 words, and I agree with it. The majority of my chapters fall between 2000 and 3500 words. I have found with my style that anything shorter doesn't allow me to fully explore the scene, while anything longer is drawn out and overdone. Sometimes I will even separate a chapter with a line break and have my character immediately transported to a different location.

But there is no hard and fast rule for all of this. In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, the average length of his chapters are 5145 words, whereas in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying the one word chapter is used. It is as though each book that is written gets its own set of rules created by the author. You can decide to have 10000 word chapters and then your last one is one sentence if that is the effect you want. As long as your story remains interesting then it's fine.

One thing to consider is length of novel. If the novel is really long, longer chapters are to be expected. If it is a short novel, the reader will expect shorter chapters. For a fantasy, it is normal to have longer chapters because author's usually spend a lot of time world building in the genre. For thrillers, shorter chapters will make the reader feel like a lot of happening and that the plot is racing along.

But like every aspect of your book, there should be variation. There is nothing more tedious than reading the same sentence length over and over again because it develops a pattern that becomes monotonous. While chapters aren't quite so easy to detect, the same effect will occur. If you keep fluctuating the length of the chapters, extending one scene long past the reader's expectations or cutting it off shorter than they were expecting, it adds an element of uncertainty and surprise to the story.

If you are still having trouble figuring out how to proceed, the best way to move past it is to pick up a novel that falls within your genre, or follows a writing style you enjoy. Flip through the book and see how that author does it.