How long should chapters be?

[PureTrash]

Hi! I'm new on this platform and a newbie writer. I'd like to ask, what's the average word count for scribble hub stories?

 

[honeymilkwrites]

They tend to range from 1,000 to 2,000 words, but I've seen one popular story (Rupegia) with a 7,400 average word count.
So it varies.

Edit: Pick whatever word count you feel comfortable with. Some people feel comfortable writing endings at 1k words. Others at 2k.

 

[PureTrash]

They tend to range from 1,000 to 2,000 words, but I've seen one popular story (Rupegia) with a 7,400 average word count.
So it varies.

Edit: Pick whatever word count you feel comfortable with. Some people feel comfortable writing endings at 1k words. Others at 2k.

Thank you!

 

[PrincessFelicie]

Depends on the needs of your story, really. Not all chapters need to be the same size necessarily.

 

[Ace_Arriande]

If reader preferences don't matter, do whatever you want.

If you do care about reader preferences, then it generally depends on your release rate.

Daily chapters: 1k - 1.5k words each
Three chapters a week: 1.5k - 2k words each
One chapter a week: 3k - 8k words each
One chapter a month: 10k+ words each

I've seen monthly stories that do anywhere from 7k words each chapter to 50k+ words each. I've seen stories that post two 25k chapters a month. I've seen stories that do 10k+ words twice a week. All of these are successful, as are the ones that spam out 1k word chapters every day. The examples I posted above are pretty standard, though, from what I've seen.

 

[PureTrash]

Depends on the needs of your story, really. Not all chapters need to be the same size necessarily.

Thank you.

 

[PureTrash]

If reader preferences don't matter, do whatever you want.

If you do care about reader preferences, then it generally depends on your release rate.

Daily chapters: 1k - 1.5k words each
Three chapters a week: 1.5k - 2k words each
One chapter a week: 3k - 8k words each
One chapter a month: 10k+ words each

I've seen monthly stories that do anywhere from 7k words each chapter to 50k+ words each. I've seen stories that post two 25k chapters a month. I've seen stories that do 10k+ words twice a week. All of these are successful, as are the ones that spam out 1k word chapters every day. The examples I posted above are pretty standard, though, from what I've seen.

Duly noted. Thank you!

 

[NiQuinn]

Depends on how long you need it to be. Whatever it is that needs to happen in a chapter, let it happen. It would be ideal to not have it less than 1k words though. Unless it's called for. I lot can happen in 500 words.

 

[ConTroll]

Many people write within a certain range of constraints. Personally, I changed my format to finish a chapter when I reach my goal for that part of the story.

However, if I feel that the chapter goes-on for a little too long, I would then split the chapter in several digestible parts.

So far, the chapters of my story range from 2000 to 5000 words a chapter. I can also see a few 1000 word chapters in the future. It just depends on what I want to accomplish.

 

[DaoFox]

There are no fixed criteria besides the genres you are writing, the audience you want to reach and the frequency of your posts. Frequency is least important however trying to post 5000 word chapters daily for a year is a fast way to burnout, so practice moderation.

Other than that go wild. This question has been asked enough times however you could have found an answer by using the forums search feature.

 

[PureTrash]

There are no fixed criteria besides the genres you are writing, the audience you want to reach and the frequency of your posts. Frequency is least important however trying to post 5000 word chapters daily for a year is a fast way to burnout, so practice moderation.

Other than that go wild. This question has been asked enough times however you could have found an answer by using the forums search feature.

Thank you for the info! I'm new on this platform and am not familiar with its features. I only figured that you could search stuff up on the forum yesterday. Sorry for reiterating questions, I'll make sure to check stuff up before posting a new thread next time. (>_<)

 

[jinxs2011]

I would say that it's up to you. Write some chapters, and get a feel for how much you can write about in so many words, and how much you want to write about each chapter. And whatever word count you settle on, be a little flexible with it. Don't cut a chapter that's got a bit more you could write off just because you've reached the word count, or write guff just because you haven't reached that word count.
As an example, I personally aim for 3500 words per chapter. However, the actual word counts for my chapters generally vary between 3400 and 4000 words.

 

[Arexio]

Good luck writing~

 

[IvyVeritas]

Chapters in novels are often about 3000 to 5000 words, so that's what I aim for, but they might end up higher or lower depending on the needs of the chapter.

Some people recommend not going over 1000 or so on web novels, supposedly to make them easier to read on mobile devices (Inkitt now actually gives you a warning if your chapters are too large), but honestly, to me, that just seems like a way to artificially inflate your page views.

 

[SillyIslandBum]

I try to view each chapter as a single scene. Occasionally, if the scene is short, say 700-800 words, I’ll stitch two scenes together. As a reader, if a chapter is over 2500 words with little action, engaging dialogue, or interesting introspection, I end up skimming quite a bit. Most people are reading more than one novel at a time, so they may not have the time to read long chapters and keep up with their favorite books. As a rule of thumb, I try to keep my chapters to 10-15 minutes of read time, which is usually ~1,500 words.

People will be reading your story on their phone/tablet/computer, so unlike a traditional paper book, it’s not easy to bookmark where they left off. If they have to stop reading for some reason, it’s harder to find where they left off in a long chapter, so I try to keep that in mind as well. Everyone here is trying to grow as a writer and build a following. We are releasing our stories one chapter at a time, as opposed to completing a novel then putting it out to the world, so think about that also.

To wrap it up I’ll say this, think of how long it takes to read your chapter, then think about how much time your readers have. Think about how much time you have to write. Don’t promise to put out three, 3,000 word chapters a week when you can realistically only write 5,000 words/week. You’ll burn yourself out and end up dropping the story. You’d be better off breaking it into shorter chapters and releasing more often for greater exposure and less stress to keep up. For me, ~1200-1800 words feels right.

 

[PureTrash]

I would say that it's up to you. Write some chapters, and get a feel for how much you can write about in so many words, and how much you want to write about each chapter. And whatever word count you settle on, be a little flexible with it. Don't cut a chapter that's got a bit more you could write off just because you've reached the word count, or write guff just because you haven't reached that word count.
As an example, I personally aim for 3500 words per chapter. However, the actual word counts for my chapters generally vary between 3400 and 4000 words.

I see. Thank you for the advice!

 

[PureTrash]

Good luck writing~

Thank you, I'll try my best! !(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

 

[PureTrash]

Chapters in novels are often about 3000 to 5000 words, so that's what I aim for, but they might end up higher or lower depending on the needs of the chapter.

Some people recommend not going over 1000 or so on web novels, supposedly to make them easier to read on mobile devices (Inkitt now actually gives you a warning if your chapters are too large), but honestly, to me, that just seems like a way to artificially inflate your page views.

I see, I'll keep that in mind.

 

[PureTrash]

I try to view each chapter as a single scene. Occasionally, if the scene is short, say 700-800 words, I’ll stitch two scenes together. As a reader, if a chapter is over 2500 words with little action, engaging dialogue, or interesting introspection, I end up skimming quite a bit. Most people are reading more than one novel at a time, so they may not have the time to read long chapters and keep up with their favorite books. As a rule of thumb, I try to keep my chapters to 10-15 minutes of read time, which is usually ~1,500 words.

People will be reading your story on their phone/tablet/computer, so unlike a traditional paper book, it’s not easy to bookmark where they left off. If they have to stop reading for some reason, it’s harder to find where they left off in a long chapter, so I try to keep that in mind as well. Everyone here is trying to grow as a writer and build a following. We are releasing our stories one chapter at a time, as opposed to completing a novel then putting it out to the world, so think about that also.

To wrap it up I’ll say this, think of how long it takes to read your chapter, then think about how much time your readers have. Think about how much time you have to write. Don’t promise to put out three, 3,000 word chapters a week when you can realistically only write 5,000 words/week. You’ll burn yourself out and end up dropping the story. You’d be better off breaking it into shorter chapters and releasing more often for greater exposure and less stress to keep up. For me, ~1200-1800 words feels right.

Thank you! I'll make sure to keep everything you said in mind. As of now, I've settled for 2k words per chapter, though it may change in the future. I'll try my best not to burn out too.

 

[tak]

Mine is probably around 500. Definitely less than 1000.
I used to set a minimum 1K words, but i just got stressed & lost motivation because it seems so far away.
Now i turn to one-shots. Whatever wordcount it is, if i'm done telling what i want, the chapter is done.