Chapter Length

[Jason Rimbaud]

Not sure if this is the correct place, but I'm looking for feedback from readers about chapter length. Especially in ongoing stories. Would you rather have shorter chapters as long as the author posts regularly? Or are longer chapters better so you can hang out with your friends for longer amount of time?

Does chapter length turn you off of your favorite story? If you see a long chapter, do you click away until you have more time to digest twenty to thirty pages? Or does it matter if you are into the story?

The reason I ask, I am about ready to ask for an editor to help with a new story. Currently, each chapter is about 25 to 30 pages per chapter. The other day, I broke everything up to easily digestible chunks, 9-13 pages per chapter. My ten chapter story turned into 35 chapters. As a reader, who can't get the whole story posted at one time, do you have a preference for chapter length. 

J 

Edited August 16, 2024 by Jason Rimbaud

[Mancunian]

I think it is better to think in terms of word count as opposed to pages. That is because depending on the font size used affects the number of words per page. For example, you may use a font that means one page is 500 words, whereas others may use a font that only achieves 300 words per page. Most stories have chapters of between 3k to 6k words, some do have smaller and larger word counts. Generally speaking, most readers tend to prefer smaller word counts so I would suggest a max word count of 10k words. Most of my stories have chapters with fewer than a 4k word count, but that's how the stories have worked out. 

This is an interesting point, so it will be interesting to see what others think.

[Jason Rimbaud]

Maybe off topic, but I started this so I can do that if I want to.  

Do you think readers go by word size or page count? You are not the first author to mention word size, but I think readers look more at number of pages. 

 

[Lee Wilson]

I read somewhere that a typical word count per page of a written book was 250 words.. 20 pages makes a 5,000 word chapter. Probably not too long of a chapter for here. I try to keep it around 3,000, but have had plenty of chapters of 4k and more.

Personally, I think the topic break is a better determinant for word count. If I’m at or over what I’ve been using for that story and it’s a good place to stop, I stop. If I have a ways to go, I keep going. I may cut back if the next section gets too long.

[Lee Wilson]

3 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Maybe off topic, but I started this so I can do that if I want to.  

Do you think readers go by word size or page count? You are not the first author to mention word size, but I think readers look more at number of pages. 

 

Readers here don’t see a page size, so word count is it, unless they do their own conversion. I look at the word count to determine if it’s a chunk I want to tackle at the time. Longer chapters need more time allocated to reading.

[Jason Rimbaud]

1 minute ago, Lee Wilson said:

Readers here don’t see a page size, so word count is it, unless they do their own conversion. I look at the word count to determine if it’s a chunk I want to tackle at the time. Longer chapters need more time allocated to reading.

I just noticed the word count on the stories, I had to go and look. 

I copy and paste all the things I read into word, I do not like reading on GA, the background is too distracting to my eyes. So I only see page count when I copy and paste. 

Carry on then. 

[Mancunian]

5 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I just noticed the word count on the stories, I had to go and look. 

I copy and paste all the things I read into word, I do not like reading on GA, the background is too distracting to my eyes. So I only see page count when I copy and paste. 

Carry on then. 

I think when using MS word the word count is given at the bottom of the window, but don't quote me on that. I use Open Office on my Mac and click on the tools section at the top of the screen, from the drop-down I then click on word count and hey presto I have the word count for the chapter. If I only want the word count for a section of the chapter I highlight it first and select word count for highlighted for the word count for that section. 

[ReaderPaul]

@Jason Rimbaud -- I sometimes look at page count in a written book, but here on GA or some of the other sites I look at word count -- UNLESS it is one of my favorite authors.  If it is an author such as @Geron Kees or @Myr or @Mancunian or @astone2292 or @Gee Whillickers or @JamesSavik and I am reading the story -- in their case I WILL read it, even if the chapter is 60,000+ words long.  Also, the points which were made made by @Lee Wilson and Mancunian about font size and how it affects word count factor in.  I don't like a book whose physical pages are too long and wide; it makes it difficult to hold as I age.  But electronic books and online posted books don't have the same physical limitations.

Much of it also relies on how much I like the author.  If I like Author D's written works I will try to read them, time and interruptions permitting.  Today I read a chapter of only 2,716 words -- but it took me over 4 hours to read because of IRL (In Real Life) interruptions.

Some authors use differing fonts.  I find GA easy to read on -- on my desktop.  On one of my two cell phones I have more difficult to read because I have not yet adjusted the amount of light the screen puts out.

So far, the longest single chapter I have read on any website has been just barely over 93,000 words.  Unlike many persons, I find it easy to resume reading where I left off in a physical book, e-book, or online story.  I am also told that not everyone has that ability, to resume in a fraction of the chapter where they left off, without any special markings.  (Exception:  If it has been over two months since reading in that particular book/e-book/online story, I sometimes have trouble finding my place again.)  But I have a good memory.

I hope additional persons will join in this discussion.

 

Edited August 16, 2024 by ReaderPaul
Added words for clarity.

[Myr]

10 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I just noticed the word count on the stories, I had to go and look. 

I copy and paste all the things I read into word, I do not like reading on GA, the background is too distracting to my eyes. So I only see page count when I copy and paste. 

Carry on then. 

which background?

Light:

Dark:

 

Both?

You can also change width of text and turn on paragraph indenting.

[Myr]

I personally try to write and read chapters of 3000 to 5000 words in length. I hate super short chapters and don't even read stories that do that. Like those James Patterson 2 page chapter things you see in airport stores. Yuck.

The longest "chapter" I've seen on site is 199,253 words. (this is 2 to 3 novels in length).  That particular story has over 1,000,000 words... so....

10 hours ago, Lee Wilson said:

Readers here don’t see a page size, so word count is it, unless they do their own conversion.

Correct... because page count is 100% device dependent.  Browser window size to font size etc, would change the "page count". To say nothing of the margins when you go to print said page.  "Page" is extremely arbitrary once you break free from the printed work.

[astone2292]

Word count speaks more to me compared to pages. Books come in different shapes, sizes, fonts, font sizes, and margins, which can affect page count. When writing/reading, I've fallen for ≈2,000 word chapters. To me, it hits a sweet spot that allows a proper amount of content to be issued without giving off the "dragging along" vibe. It also offers a pacing that both invites the reader to continue bingeing OR to call it quits for the time being. 

Edited August 18, 2024 by astone2292

[Jason Rimbaud]

On 8/16/2024 at 5:16 AM, Myr said:

which background?

Light:

Dark:

 

Both?

You can also change width of text and turn on paragraph indenting.

The white background, How did you change it to black? Are you a wizard? I know you write Harry Potter better than the lady who started it all, but I'd be really happy if I could figure out how to make the background dark with white lettering. The white background gives me a headache. 

 

[Jason Rimbaud]

Okay, I just found the little button that switched it to dark. I also had a joygasm, the white background was killing my eyes. 

Now it will be easier to read without having to copy and paste into word. 

Can I make the entire site black background or is it just in the story section.

J

[Krista]

You can get away with 3k - 20k words per chapter, I think there needs to be some consistency. As long as the chapter's theme is well fleshed out and doesn't disrupt the pacing of the one prior and the one to follow. It is more about the flow of the work, how that should look and be structured, within reason. I like my chapters to be 5k in length, I will often go over that, sometimes double it. Like I said though, there should be consistency, if you go with 10 - 15k chapters, most of them should fall within that range, or whatever.

One of my biggest issues with reading shorter chapters is when the following chapter picks up the same theme and carries on, where it feels like the next breath, or pulse. To the point where I'm thinking... "if the author combined these two chapters they'd have the perfect chapter..." it is off-putting and disrupts overall pacing if you have to click out of a chapter, go to the next, and fall back into the next "breath.." or "pulse" of the story. If you do that in a high tension or height of conflict portion of the writing, I would find that rather upsetting. So, here and there if you need more words to finish what you started, then allow yourself the words.

The counter is that if you throw a 30k wall of text at someone you need to make those worth every minute of the time it would take to read that sucker. Or, it is 30k with multiple plot themes in the chapter that could have been, and likely should have been split into two, or three chapters to begin with.

Pacing and flow, ease of reading, and progression are more important than word count or page numbers, in my opinion.

I will admit to not reading stories with word count chapters less than 3k. I will also admit to not reading stories with chapters with 30k word counts per chapter. I am more forgiving with longer chapters than shorter ones as well.

and, I know where that comes from. It comes from old days in Nifty and it carried over to Archives of Our Own when I get the itch for fanfiction. There are a lot of stories that have very low word count chapters.. I guess file size for Nifty... if the word count is low, I never really thought the author used necessary tools to flesh out the story. I'm not saying an author can't flesh out a theme or chapter under 3k, it is just my visual bias over the years, that most authors couldn't... but there are just as many that can't at 5k, 10k, or 30k. 

[Myr]

15 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Can I make the entire site black background or is it just in the story section.

Just the story section right now.  When the new version of the Invision Community comes out and we get Stories updated to run with it, the entire site will be able to switch between light and dark modes.  It even has a setting tied to OS, so if you have your theme swtich between light and dark modes depending on time of day, the site will follow along.