Does length matter?

[Formosa]

I've just finished the latest chapter of my story (Loving you, loving me)

and have a question about the length of a chapter.

 

So far all my chapters have been fairly short, averaging around 3000words, and the longest being around 5000. Nothing perhaps compared to other prolific writers out there. But in this next chapter a number of things take place, and some unresolved issues are dealt with. As it stands, it's around 14,000 words long, longer than anything I've written in one go (even my uni thesis wasn't this long!!).

 

I'm just wondering whether that will be offputting and bore the reader? I'd like to think length doesn't matter, and that it's the quality that counts. But then this one chapter is really a lot longer than those chapters that have gone before, and I'm worried the readers might feel a little alien to reading so much (in terms of length and intensity of events and issues dealt with) in one go.

 

I could cut the chapter in two, but that might disrupt the flow of things, and events that occur on that same night.

 

Anyone with similar experience or advice? Thanks~

 

David

[DomLuka]

Hi David,

There was another topic similar to this discussed in here already, you can find it here.

 

There

[Dio]

You got nothing to worry about buddy. As long as you've got flow, readers with lap up a long chapter as if they haven't been drinking for a month.

 

Just think about a book, if a reader gets tired of reading they'll put it down and start it again sometimes later. Unless of course your chapter is boring and longwinded to begin with. That's another problem altogether.

 

My longest chapter so far runs around 26,000 words...although I've read longer.

[JamesSavik]

No.

 

One of the most effective forms of story telling is the short story. By it's very nature, it must be compact and deliver its punch without blundering around a point aimlessly.

 

Many very good writing coaches advise you to take any manucsript and cut it by a third. The idea is that you get rid of the fluff, waste-words [adverbs] and so on, the result will be tighter and flow better.

 

Someone once said that brevity is the soul of wit. Look at the haiku and tell me: constrained by its form and size, is this really limiting?

[Graeme]

There was another topic similar to this discussed in here already, you can find it here.

Thanks, Dom!

 

That was a very useful link. I think everything's been said between here and that linked thread, but my opinion is that the varying length chapters don't matter, but....

 

1) A reader will typically notice an extremely long or extremely short chapter. Whether they are upset by that will depend on the content. If the chapter says everything it has to say, then it's time to stop. If the chapter needs to say a lot, it needs to say a lot. If the reader starts to go to sleep in the middle, then...

 

2) I read an article in the weekend newspaper here in Melbourne that said a reader often reads for about 30 minutes (how much time they can squeeze in between other things). Writing a chapter that takes longer than that to read runs the risk of breaking the momentum because they have to stop partway through. The article was for the print media, but it's also something to consider for online stories.

 

Personally, in my first two novels I tried to maintain roughly equal sizes for each chapter (going by line count, rather than word count), with a +/- 20% tolerance (and I wasn't too fussed if that went to 25%). With my latest story, I haven't bothered. I've made a deliberate decision on a minimum size I'd like a chapter to be, but I haven't bothered with a maximum size. The longest chapter so far is just under twice the size of the shortest chapter, but as I feel the story demands that, and the plot just flows along, I'm not concerned.

 

So... getting back to the original post. If the new chapter is one that the reader is going to keep saying "and what's happening next?" then the length doesn't matter -- you've got them interested and they'll want to see the conclusion of what's going on (if you're cruel, this would be a great point to drop in a cliffhanger).

 

All my opinion only, of course.

 

Graeme

[TalonRider]

Recently, in another post, I made reference to a story that was over 120 pages. Had the author tried to shorten it, I think the story would have lost something. The author packed a lot into it.

[Formosa]

Thanks to everyone for the great tips, and DomLuka for that link!

 

It's definitely hepled me (and my editor) decide. I'm going for the idea of splitting the chapter into two, since (being cruel) we managed to find a great place to leave a cliffhanger effect. Not so much because of the length issue anymore, but more because 'it just feels right' (like so many in this and other post suggest). I guess the split also goes well with a dramatic change of mood swings in the chapter.

 

You'll see, once it's up.

>>>Yeah, it's up!

[Nick Brady]

My longest story published here runs at 165,758 words with the longest single chapter at about 7200 words. That's a good sized novel. The average chapter length of 5000 to 7000 words seems to work for me. I try to leave a little hook at the end of each chapter to pull the reader into the next one. 

[Sasha Distan]

My only concern with posting long chapters online as opposed to in books is that if you need to stop reading (that irritating life thing that keeps getting in the way) it can be very hard for readers to get back to where they were before. That said, I am a big believer in chapters being pretty equal in length, ideally to within 2000 words in either direction.

[Zombie]

wow, a 10 year hiatus - gotta be a record

[Brayon]

I have been wondering about this myself. Stories posted here, I've ran into a few with Small Chapters (5 pages in Word, as an example.), & some with Huge Chapters (can be a stand-alone novel!). Was wondering where a good in-between point was, so thank you for the above discussion.