Optimal Chapter length?

Thanks for the reply, Dags.  I began long ago with chapters nearing the 5000-word limit but found that a lot of commenters said it was too long for one sitting.  That's when I chopped them in half (or thereabouts).  Now, I write chapters so that they break naturally around 1200-1500 words.  I don't think that it's a rule either, but more a matter of common sense.  Nobody wants to push their way through 5000 words before making a comment because that inevitably leads to scanning back and forth looking for points to comment on.

Tom

FYI - there is no longer a word limit.

I'd say it all depends on the type of novel you're writing. TNBW supports up to 5000 words, but how long are your chapters have nothing to do with the site your workshoping it in. YA novel Maximus Ride chapters are in average, 500 to 700 words long.

I'd say that short chapters are easy for any reader, as long as they are not so short that the action seems interrupted.

Interesting topic... I think there no standard.

Kiss

Gacela

I've never painted myself into a box that limits the words in a chapter. It takes as many as it takes to cover what I want in a chapter. I've had some as much as 7000 words and under the old site had to divide that. 500 words is not a chapter--IMO. That is barely an essay. I've also found after writing several novels now that my chapters tend to be somewhere around 2500 words. Fantasy and sci-fi chapters (Indeed, the novels themselves) tend to be longer than others. As for short stories, up to 20,000 words is still considered a short story. Then you enter the novella/novelette category up to 50,000 words. EVERY agent/editor/publisher I've worked with says a novel must be at least 50,000 words. Yes, any chapter that is 10K+ words is just too long for today's readers. Most can't fathom a sentence more than ten words long.

We don't get e-mails anymore, since e-mails aren't listed. You have to check your home page to see what new stuff has been posted.

Regarding your other issue of chapter length, we're in kind of a bubble here on site. Long chapters tend to discourage reviewers, short chapters encourage. But in a book actually on the market, I don't think a reader will care about chapter length. So, if you want reviews here, you'd be better off keeping to about 2500 words or thereabouts. But if this will affect what you're trying to say in your novel, then go for it!

Well, I have yet to receive an e-mail about anything related to the new site. Whatever the mechanism, though, that would be the only way you'd know if someone responded to a forum post, short of searching for that thread and scrolling down. Unless you spend the day glued to your computer. Even in the old site, I wouldn't be notified of a response to one of my forum posts, though new reviews would be announced.  Don't know how yours came about, but it's gotta be good, right? Can't see how it could just be serendipity, but what do I know? Not much, apparently. Sol, a little help here, huh?