Chapter Length.

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
Joined
Apr 15, 2020
Messages
8,168
Points
233
I used to try and make them longer, but juggling life responsibilities makes it hard for me to keep up, so I'll cut them whenever I find a reasonable stopping point. This also produces some awesome cliffhangers.

Maybe someday when I convert it from fanfiction to original fiction, I'll combine short chapters into longer ones. My plan is to pull a "50 Shades" with this baby!
 

Galen

Active member
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Messages
10
Points
43
So..... I normally do 10k words. I feel bad for my readers when I don't reach that number. Of course I didn't start that way, I grew into that. Why do I do that much? Because as a reader I hate short chapters, you wait days or even weeks between updates and when you open the next chapter you have a five minute read? Bleh. I totally understand that life gets in the way. But if you don't push yourself how can you grow?
 

HJ

Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
47
Points
18
As a writer, I end the chapter when I have achieved my intended purpose for that part. Apart from having a master plot, writing a chapter summary or a topic sentence at the beginning of my drafts works well for me.

On the average I go from 1k to around 3k depending on how complex and heavy the scene is.

I use another platform which allows only a certain number of characters per chapter. Thus I can only post around 1k plus words per episode. My problem with such limitation is that it breaks off the suspense or angst in a 3k+ word chapter.

Correct me if I am wrong, it seems SH has the advantage of allowing a large number of words to be posted per chapter. I find this feature nice and liberating.
 

Saileri

Your Friendly Neighborhood IT Guy
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
625
Points
133
Correct me if I am wrong, it seems SH has the advantage of allowing a large number of words to be posted per chapter. I find this feature nice and liberating.
Yeah, there are stories with 5k+ and more words. I personally sometimes touch 4k mark, while my standard is over 3k.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HJ

Mwpensword

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 20, 2020
Messages
44
Points
58

shiopan

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2019
Messages
72
Points
58
Around 1500-2000 I guess. More than that, usually the author either dragged the story or write in excessive details, so I usually skim it until I find the exciting part.
 

Saileri

Your Friendly Neighborhood IT Guy
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
625
Points
133
Around 1500-2000 I guess. More than that, usually the author either dragged the story or write in excessive details, so I usually skim it until I find the exciting part.

TFW you just finished a chapter and didn't want to ruin the build-up by splitting and using fillers, so it ended up at 6k instead of your usual 3.5k :sweating_profusely:
 

Stratothrax

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 2, 2020
Messages
141
Points
83
I tend to skim long chapters these days and skip to the important parts as i just don't have time, i guess thats one of the main reasons 82% of people like 1-3k
 

shiopan

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2019
Messages
72
Points
58
TFW you just finished a chapter and didn't want to ruin the build-up by splitting and using fillers, so it ended up at 6k instead of your usual 3.5k :sweating_profusely:
Oof. Try to split it then? Idk about anyone, but I personally find consistency on chapter length to be a big deal.
 

Saileri

Your Friendly Neighborhood IT Guy
Joined
May 6, 2020
Messages
625
Points
133
Oof. Try to split it then? Idk about anyone, but I personally find consistency on chapter length to be a big deal.

Nah, it would ruin the moment and that's the most important thing. Bigger chapters happen from time to time. If you start focusing on limiting or achieving word targets, it might start affecting the writing. And well, the first reception was quite more than just positive, so I will leave it like that. I'm also all for consistency, almost always circling around 3.5k, but sometimes I'd rather focus on flow consistency than numbers.
 

Maple-Leaf

•Deceased
Joined
Jun 4, 2020
Messages
681
Points
108
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sometimes I beg the lord for a long chapter of a newly updated book and the whole time I’m reading I constantly check the scroll bar at the side of the screen to see how far I am. Other times I drop things right in the middle of a chapter.

But I’ve never attributed my boredom with an event or the book itself to the length of the chapters.
If anything, I actually get kinda annoyed that I keep having to close reader mode to go to the next chapter if they’re all divided up into little grains of content.
I suppose it just depend on the way the events are sorted. I think the best spot would be to be able to make a chapter satisfying enough to keep someone reading, but small enough to keep their cravings high. Chapter length is just an after affect of that process.
 

OvidLemma

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2020
Messages
150
Points
83
My writing style is to write chapters composed of scenes that are anywhere from 500-1500 words long. Generally speaking, I'll write out a whole chapter arc, which could be anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 words. Recently, I've been taking these "real" chapters and splitting them into sub-chapters where there's a convenient scene break. My rule of thumb is that a chapter has to be over 2,000 and under 4,000 words long, and that it has to have a distinct beginning and end. I suppose I prefer chapters that are around that length, too. Any longer, and I might get annoyed if I have t stop reading after 5 minutes of reading but still have 2,000 words of chapter to go.
 
Top