Re: Chapter Word Length

janet reid wrote:

Something to consider is the attention span of the average reader. In an ideal word, it shouldn't and wouldn't matter, but with things going the way they are (I might be showing my age here!), I think long chapters will become more and more a disadvantage/problem. I struggle to read for long periods of time on a screen compared to the paper version, but it may just be me. And, like everything else, there will be exceptions, so my comment is only meant in a general kind of way.

Personally ... I try to keep my chapters around the 2300-2500 mark and use scene breaks liberally.

Good number of words. And, if you do have long chapters, give some time breaks for good stopping places.

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Re: Chapter Word Length

There is no formula. It depends on what you are writing. The novel I am currently presenting for review on TNBW, Concentric Circles, has 77 chapters. Most are brief and stick to one point each. My first published book of nonfiction had 5 chapters, each of about 12,000 words. The design was five stories. Each had sub-chapters.

The approach I used in this present work was what I call a "single scene" chapter. Each scene is complete to the point where I want to take the character before moving on to something else. The end ties all the characters together. Each chapter is a vignette in the life of that character. Even though I use third-person narration, the chapter is through the eyes of that character although there is one main protagonist holding the central role to hold the story together.

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