Chapters: Length and Ending

[Rilbur]

I've been thinking on the subject for a while, and I grew curious as to other people's opinions and preferences.

 

I tend to prefer shorter, quicker chapters that occur on a fairly frequent basis. I don't feel it necessary to end every chapter with a strong cliffhanger, though many do end up that way. I also use chapter breaks as a 'pause' or scene break type effect. Taking Guardian's as an example, I tend to have three categories of endings:

 

Cliffie: 6, 8, 9, 14, 15

Mini-Cliffie: 1, 3, 11, 13

Non-cliffie: 2, 4, 5, 10, 12

 

Chapter 7 is an oddball and doesn't count, but would fit best in the third category if I had to.

 

Full up cliffies include dire events that, technically, aren't actually cliffhangers; as an example chapter 6 ends with the death of one of the characters. The 'cliffhanger' nature is because I leave off in a very dark situation. If you wanted to be technical, it's more of a 'strong hook' than a real cliffhanger; in fact, 'strong hook, weak hook, and continuing hook (i. e. "I want to see how this comes out because I've liked the entire story so far, rather than this ending has me on the edge of my seat) would be a better description of the three types.

 

Mini-cliffies are places where something happens that makes you want to see what happens, but aren't strictly speaking 'disaster situations'. For example, the end of chapter 1 has a character poised over a toilet, puking his guts out in reaction to the just-ended flashback, while another character tries to sooth him. Another example has the main character going into the police station to report his rape; yes it's a major moment but it's not a full up 'so what happens now' ending.

 

Finally you have the non-cliffie, or 'continuing hook' category (which is the category that prompts this). There's generally a tag of some kind at the end, something that needs / deserves a pause after it, though not always. A particularly interesting or important thought or statement might be an example of this 'tag', or a joke (at the expense of one of the characters). The question is... how strong a hook do you need at the end of a chapter (especially with a story written in serial format). Can you really get away with a 'non-tag'?

 

 

 

Then of course there's length. I tend to prefer shorter, quicker chapters for several reasons. For one thing, it's (relatively) easy to keep 'up' with with them, putting them out on a regular basis to keep the readers going. (If you save up and then release all at once this can be ignored). There's also the fact that smaller chapters are easier to 'digest'; after about 20K words, a chapter becomes (IMO) a bit unwieldy to read. It might be a fun read, but it takes too long to guarantee it can be done in one sitting. This can be annoying to readers if, for example, they lack the ability to 'save' where they are in the page when the chapter ends (or if they have to find their place again because somebody hit the wrong button). Shorter chapters also help to keep things 'moving' along in the story, which can be a benefit or a handicap depending on the story (some stories prefer long-drawn out approaches, others need to be short & sweet).

 

 

 

So, anyone else feel like discoursing this subject?

[Cia]

I tend to leave my chapters unresolved in some way or another...much like your categories one and two. As for length..I prefer to write short chapters, 5-6 K at most actually. It is long enough to get into the scene going on but no too long to loose interest or have the distraction factor you spoke of. Then I will write more chapters more often...rather than fewer ones, but bigger. I have noticed writers who post more often have a greater following, since the story is fresh in the minds of readers.

[W_L]

It depends on the story,

 

Exodus is broken up by days and half week periods.

 

If I had wrote a whole week as a chapter it would be around 120-130 pages long. The biggest issue I find with this type of writing style is keeping the story elements flowing from one day to the next without interruption and in a related sequence. There's also a lot of subplots that I have created, so what happens in this story's first week will have huge plot ramifications for later on.

 

This style is going to be hard, but it makes a lot of sense in how I want to present the universe that I am building. If you are writing a love story; focusing elements with short plots makes more sense for character development. If you're creating an epic, then you have divide plot lines to showcase the entire universe.

 

It's like Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, you have Bilbo and Sam with the ring story, Merry and Pippin with their adventures rallying the ents, and Aragon, Legolas, and Gimli fighting the war on the battlefield. It depends on your stories scope a great deal, if you see a story of immense scope and foresight, then you have to create multiple plot lines and splits.

 

For me, it gives the impression that while the core characters are doing their thing, everyone else is also living, working, and dying in this universe.

 

I also agree to the point that most people do not read my long stories as they do not come out quickly. If they wanted a story with more depth than my micro-fiction anthology, Love and Again, they will have to wait and/or push me to hasten my pace.

 

Exodus is being hasten, because of the support from readers that want more in this universe and my own desire to expand the scope of my story. I already have plots planned out for three or four books within this universe, so it goes to show that fan participation is a necessary thing for authors to write. There is also more demand from people to have sex scenes; I can understand that and I will add it when it is necessary for story elements or character development.

[Rilbur]

Yeah, but even LOTR could be chapterized differently. He could have made chapters half the length, or twice the length, by simply adding / removing chapter breaks. The actual division of chapters is a fairly arbitrary measure in most cases. So... who a given chapter length? And how do you end it?

[Mark Arbour]

I don't write cliffhangers. It's really cruel to fans.

 

[Tiger]

I don't write cliffhangers. It's really cruel to fans.

 

Yeah right, CJ... errr, I mean Mark.

[C James]

I don't write cliffhangers. It's really cruel to fans.

 

 

Hey now! That's my line~! And you do so write cliffhangers!

 

I used to favor 5-6k chapters, but lately I've moved to letting the chapter subject determine it';s length. This is especially true early in a novel, where I've had chapters under a thousand words. For serial posting, I just post more than one at a time, that way the reader isn't shortchanged.

[Linxe Termoil]

I usually go until I feel that I've accomplished something. Lately I've had c hapters ending at around 10-11k. That's roughly 30 to 35 pages using my font and font size. But, after the first two chapters of Spider Webs I was getting quite a few complaints (mostly from my beta readers) about the size of my chapters, so I'm probably cutting it down to 5-6k length chapters, and as long as I accomplish something in each chapter I think I'll be okay.

 

But I find that's another problem. How do I know what is necessary to each chapter, what adds flavor, and what is just a waste of space? All my betas and editors have said I'm using a lot of details, but for a 1st person story, going into the characters thoughts and feelings and perspective seems to be necessary; mostly because I myself need to know what is going on and what the character is feeling so I can, I hope, successfully write the story.

 

I'll admit I used DomLuka's Dessert Dropping as a guide to writing a 1st person novel. Sometimes, I'm not sure I should have because he's a freaky lil writer; and a good portion of his stories were 35k or more.

 

I think I'm going to follow CJ's lead here. I'm going to let each chapter write itself and stop when I feel i'm at an appropriate stopping area.

 

Linxe T

[KiwiShadow]

I once did a search around Google to see what the right chapter length was and I think I read somewhere that a chapter is done when you have said what needs to be said. That said and done... I think it depends on the story but generally I like my chapters to be just under the 4k mark. Cliffhangers are a great way to keep readers on their toes but they aren't essential.

[PlugInMatty]

Personally, I prefer chapters to be in the 3,000-6,000 word range. That's my preferred length as a reader, so that's the length that I aim for as a writer.

 

However, as KiwiShadow mentioned, chapter length should be determined by the story itself, not some magic word count. Your chapter should have a logical start point, and you should continue writing until it reaches its logical endpoint. It might take you 2,000 words to reach that destination, or it might take you 10,000 words.

 

Either way, there's no hard and fast rule.

[Jack Scribe]

I have a different approach. My chapters are calculated to have approximately 5,500 words. For me, it's a disciplined approach that works.

 

Number of chapters do vary...I ended the last Splash novella and Domes and Teapots at 18 chapters. The current series, Shifting Sands, has 20 chapters. As I recall, my longest stories were 28 chapters.