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Q&A Is my opening chapter too short?

I'm personally of the opinion chapters exist more to organize information and events. It's functionally identical in most cases to have 20 chapters to having 10 chapters twice as long. Of course fo...

posted 10y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:42:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12755
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:42:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
I'm personally of the opinion chapters exist more to organize information and events. It's functionally identical in most cases to have 20 chapters to having 10 chapters twice as long. Of course formatting or specific requirements might come in (publishers wanting specific chapter lengths, for example, and if this is a potential concern, you should research that specifically), but there's no solid rule and never will be for a "good" chapter length in numbers of pages or words.

I tend to end my chapters along thematic or time boundaries and I think such a practice makes far more sense than dividing chapters rather arbitrarily on page length like a lot of writers seem to do. I also like to open my chapters with quotes or such things, so keeping the chapters divided up along themes helps make the overall result look more coherent and planned. That said, if you think it's a sensible place to end the chapter, it probably is. You are, after all, the person who knows the story best, and should stand by your decisions in it.

That said, 2100 words for introducing the background seems a little small. It depends heavily on the setting, but that seems like it might be terse unless the setting is very narrow. The first chapter of the story I am currently writing is about 4000 words, ignoring the fact I have a prologue and some other formalities before that, and I consider myself incredibly to the point. I can't say without looking at the actual writing if there is a problem there, though. If you are bordering on an infodump first chapter, you might want to consider a prologue which simply does so, or ignoring it completely and add in flashbacks later on.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-08-31T19:30:45Z (about 10 years ago)
Original score: 1