Sizing of a chapter and how many should I use?
This is basically a follow-up question I asked here: Scene switching and how to do it?
I always considered it normal for a chapter to have between 3000 and 5000 words. And people around here thought so too: What is a normal length for a chapter? But the comments I got from my "Scene switching" question recommended way smaller amounts.
I tried looking for a different approach which is read on here: When should a chapter end? The answer I liked most was of "Lauren Ipsum". But it seems outdated?
All this raises some questions.
What is the deal with chapter sizes? How many should I use? Should I be consistent in sizing? Wouldn't variable sizing be annoying to readers?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/36349. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
Chapter length is a stylist choice
There is no correct answer to this. The length of the chapters in any given book is entirely dependant on writing style. How you use them can effect the tone of your writing as well as the readability. However what is 'best' is entirely up to you.
Chapter length can be used to control the pacing of your work. A longer chapter gives a slowly pace while short chapters drive the plot more quickly. Some authors change the length of their chapters throughout the novel to control the pacing of the story.
This article How long should a chapter be? analyses the average chapter length of popular works and find the most common length is between 3000 and 5000 words, but Holes averages just 942 words per chapter and One Hundred Years of Solitude averages 7226 words.
Ultimately word count shouldn't be the driving force behind chapter length. Instead let the feel and pacing of the story determine where and how your chapter end.
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A chapter can be long or short, it can be longer or shorter than other chapters in your novel, you might have a novel with no chapters at all.
Think of it this way: a sentence isn't defined as 5-10 words. It is as long as it needs to be to express a small idea. Not letting it run over three lines is a sort of useful guideline, but sometimes you might ignore that guideline, and other times you have a sentence consisting of one word only.
Same with paragraphs - some are longer, some are shorter. You end a paragraph when you move to a new idea.
And it is the same with chapters: a chapter can be one page long, it can be one word long (though that extreme is rather rare). Or it can be 40 pages. When you move to a new place/time/character/idea/whatever, it might be a good idea to start a new chapter. It's an indicator to the reader that there's a "full stop" here. So you end a chapter where you want that "full stop".
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