Writing I feel like I may have made a mistake

[ConcubusBunny]

Hello guys, gals and enby pals
So guys how many words are chapters on average, I'm looking at mind and wow, that's a lot for a few scenes with not much happening PerSay.
What brought this on was I was in the middle of a quick fight scene followed by a heated sex scene when I noticed I'm 3000+ words in and I've not even gotten to the good parts yet.
I don't want to bore the reader with the words of text, mostly what makes this so long I think is the description of the characters feeling and the sense of how the scene is played out.
I wonder if this sorta thing will just bore people or will make them genuinely interested, what do you guys think more description of a scene from a general feel of the characters in it sorta view or very limited and play out the scene sorta way.
I could go for either, but I just don't want to bore anyone

 

[MrPasserby]

My max character count is around 15,000 characters, that's less than 3000 words. Somehow that's my rule when I'm writing each chapter for the next release. Writing beyond what I can do is... well I may not be able to maintain my schedule if I did that. Anyway, it's all up to you.

As for your concern about how you should do things... It's better to ask your readers about it. Set some poll on your next chapter and ask them yourself.

I hope this helps!

 

[SailusGebel]

Chapters can be whatever length you want. There is no standard. I would say it's around 2000, a maximum of 2500 words, and someone else will say that 4000 words are ideal, or 1000 words are the ideal. It's subjective as hell.

As for descriptions, it's also subjective. Do what you feel is right and ask people who read your story rather than obscure advisers. If you don't have readers, well, it sucks, but you can't expect that you would get readers who appreciate the style those advisers teach you. What if your combination of plot, genres, and tags attracts people who like overly descriptive scenes, yet people on the forum tell you to cut on descriptions?

 

[KiraMinoru]

My chapters these days can end up going from 15k-30k without even realizing it and I end up splitting them into parts. That can end up just being a single day’s worth of events in a story.

 

[SakeVision]

it's natural, all my stories ended up longer than I anticipated.

 

[KoyukiMegumi]

Bun Bun, trim what you can that seems redundant. Try to keep your chapters around 1-3k for more engagement even if you don't get to the juicy bits, leaves for cliffhangers. This is what I have learned.

 

[owotrucked]

Number of word per chapter doesnt matter when it comes to the "boring level". Pace is the number of word per "change" in status quo. Like how many twist, change in power dynamic, in stake, hope, fears can you cram every 1000 words for instance? You could divide a chapter as little as 200 words. But if there is no "change" in 10 chapters, you'll bore everyone.

Depends where you are at your story. If you are past 10 or 20 chapters it doesnt matter. You could make 6k chapter long at this point as long as you deliver a good payoff inside (like the sex scene)

If you are at the beginning of a story, you can't afford to make crazy long battles because readers don't know and dont care what happens if they win or lose.

You need to choose carefully if it's relevant to expand the characters thoughts and emotions. By nature, descriptions are there to cement a status quo, but actions, dialogue and flashback/backstory reveal are the engine to flow forward, to create "change".

What works well for beginning is having one sided battles where you can hint what kind of awesome powers your villain, MC, and allies will have.

 

[LostLibrarian]

The "usual standard" is between 1.5k and 2k words/chapter. It's a number also often used for traditional publishing, because "for the average readers" that length is the usual "potato chip"-length. The usual "just one more" followed by "Oh, it's morning".

If your chapters are shorter, they might not contain enough enough or description and result in an unrewarding experience. If your chapters are longer, their length can become an obstacle for readers who don't have the time to read 10k words all at once and put that chapter/the story on hold.


That said, due to the low cost a lot of webnovel-readers also skim through the chapters and longer chapters become less of a problem. Chinese webnovels who are often paid by words are well-known for being filled with useless information and repetitions. So a lot of readers skip the descriptions or endless battle scenes and just look for the important parts.

I stay between 1.5k to 2k words for my drafts. For "edited chapters with more descriptions" it can be a bit longer. But beside special chapters, I try not to go over 2.5k words. I rather cut stuff out or split chapters if it gets too long. With that, I can publish more chapters for the same wordcount (so more time on the frontpage), I type less filler (so less wasted time), and my readers get the "most rewarding" reading experience (informations/word) out of it.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Do what feels right to you.

 

[xiaomangisbusy]

View attachment 10415
Hello guys, gals and enby pals
So guys how many words are chapters on average, I'm looking at mind and wow, that's a lot for a few scenes with not much happening PerSay.
What brought this on was I was in the middle of a quick fight scene followed by a heated sex scene when I noticed I'm 3000+ words in and I've not even gotten to the good parts yet.
I don't want to bore the reader with the words of text, mostly what makes this so long I think is the description of the characters feeling and the sense of how the scene is played out.
I wonder if this sorta thing will just bore people or will make them genuinely interested, what do you guys think more description of a scene from a general feel of the characters in it sorta view or very limited and play out the scene sorta way.
I could go for either, but I just don't want to bore anyone

Here on SH, individual chapters are usually 1.5-2.5k on average I think.

But don't let that be the sole reason to dictate your chapter length. It mostly depends on your writing style and your update schedule. You want the chapter lengths to best present your story and you also want to be as consistent as possible with updates.

Ideally, you want to keep your chapter lengths similar within the same novel or gradually shorten/lengthen them over time. Don't commit to 5k chapters and update 3x/week if you can't keep up with that writing pace long-term. But you also may want to consider a longer chapter-length if you find yourself spending ten 1k chapters on a single fight scene.

The chapter-length for my current novel is 3-4k. It's xianxia fantasy and I'm more on the descriptive end when it comes to writing. I think any shorter would make people feel like nothing is happening in one chapter, but any longer is a lot to digest without taking a break mid-page. It's also 3-4k because I update less frequently than others, so I wanted to make my readers feel like waiting for the newest update was more worth it for them.

 

[LunaSoltaer]

Definitely whatever feels right, though once you find your personal style, you should probably stick to that style for the work until you need a reason to change it.

For example, for mostly slice of life, you can describe the environment in more detail, and focus more on dialogue and body language, and be a little flowery, but if there's a spooky scary fight scene, then you can drop to short, brief sentences with details left out (cause people fucking tunnelvision out anything not relevant in a fight) for more impact.

Definitely work at a pace that is manageable. I would be doing weekly updates if it weren't for a certain month being current.

 

[ConcubusBunny]

Number of word per chapter doesnt matter when it comes to the "boring level". Pace is the number of word per "change" in status quo. Like how many twist, change in power dynamic, in stake, hope, fears can you cram every 1000 words for instance? You could divide a chapter as little as 200 words. But if there is no "change" in 10 chapters, you'll bore everyone.

Depends where you are at your story. If you are past 10 or 20 chapters it doesnt matter. You could make 6k chapter long at this point as long as you deliver a good payoff inside (like the sex scene)

If you are at the beginning of a story, you can't afford to make crazy long battles because readers don't know and dont care what happens if they win or lose.

You need to choose carefully if it's relevant to expand the characters thoughts and emotions. By nature, descriptions are there to cement a status quo, but actions, dialogue and flashback/backstory reveal are the engine to flow forward, to create "change".

What works well for beginning is having one sided battles where you can hint what kind of awesome powers your villain, MC, and allies will have.

The story is fairly in with not long battles that aren't me necessary, the fight scenes are important for a sense of how battle goes for the characters. I don't put unneeded info in description it doesn't fit my style, the characters will do stuff like backstory when the time comes for it.