How many words can be in a chapter?

[Western42]

Hello again! Can someone answer the question above? I need it for my new story, Candy Pop!, which has short stories as each chapter. I am almost done with the first chapter but it will probably go over 10,000 words. Thank you and have a great day!

 

[Helvetica33]

Any amount is good as long as you are satisfied with the chapter. There are no rules

 

[Zirrboy]

Hello again! Can someone answer the question above? I need it for my new story, Candy Pop!, which has short stories as each chapter. I am almost done with the first chapter but it will probably go over 10,000 words. Thank you and have a great day!

Look at benjephene's chapters: 10k should not be any technical issues.

 

[Lloyd]

Look at benjephene's chapters: 10k should not be any technical issues.

But where is the technical limit? Is there anyone insane enough to even try to find out?

 

[DarkeReises]

But where is the technical limit? Is there anyone insane enough to even try to find out?

I'm too lazy to find out the absolute limit while on my phone rn, but at least this much

 

[Western42]

I'm too lazy to find out the absolute limit while on my phone rn, but at least this much

Thanks!

But where is the technical limit? Is there anyone insane enough to even try to find out?

Thanks!

Any amount is good as long as you are satisfied with the chapter. There are no rules

Thanks!

 

[Traineye]

But where is the technical limit? Is there anyone insane enough to even try to find out?

It’s about a billion characters I think, so no worries

 

[Lloyd]

It’s about a billion characters I think, so no worries

Not good enough. We need a hero to actually test it.

 

[Western42]

Not good enough. We need a hero to actually test it.

Agreed.

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

Not good enough. We need a hero to actually test it.

Just get some really long copy paste and paste it a lot into a chapter, to see the limit.

 

[trinitys_gadget]

On a more practical level, the limit you should worry about is the soft limit of the readers' interest. As long as you don't delve into crazy long descriptions of how to render whale blubber, or ramble on and on and on and on and on and on with internal monologue, you should be fine. As a general rule of thumb, keep you chapters short enough to be read in fifteen minutes.

 

[Western42]

Just get some really long copy paste and paste it a lot into a chapter, to see the limit.

Work of art!

 

[KoyukiMegumi]

I love writing long chapters, but I have learned that to get the better engagement you need to limit them between 1-3k words. Just cut up your chapter of 10k to 4-5 chapters. Look for natural pauses in the narrative, then split it there.

 

[RimuThighHighs]

None of my chapters is consistent I fluctuate from as little as 500 words to 3000 it all depends on the Chapter honestly

 

[DarkeReises]

None of my chapters is consistent I fluctuate from as little as 500 words to 3000 it all depends on the Chapter honestly

I did the same thing my first time writing, though all my chapters were around or over 2K words and the longest was like 5-6K.

 

[LunaSoltaer]

2000 words seems to be a reasonable breakpoint for most chapters. I'm technically going 2500-3000 words a chapter in my NaNoWriMo challenge, but a large part of that is NaNoWriMo's central premise is "write 50K words in a month". (2000 is also where QuietValerie likes to breakpoint her chapters if that means anything to ya)

If I get through that challenge and overcome the subsequent depression of it not going anywhere, I might go back and rewrite it, and revise. Might.

Realistically, a chapter should represent a major progression of some form. Either in developing the plot, the world, or a character. However many words that takes, it takes.