Chapter Length

I usually aim for a 2000 mark, or around there at least.
But I'm super happy with myself when I pass that. :D

My newest chapter for LtF is the shortest. It's "only" 5500 words.

I have a hard time writing a chapter under 4000 words, unless it's meant to be short, like in my story Gaunt. Like, I'm writing the first chapter of a story right now and I figured it would be about 2000 words. It's 3900 so far and I've still got quite a bit to go. I don't think it's a bad thing because none of it is just filler to make the chapter longer, but I think it probably tends to scare readers away or even bore them.

I don't know. Long chapters have always come naturally. When I write, I just write and write and write and write, and then when I go back to edit and revise, I scrap huge portions of the chapter I just wrote, and it's still several thousand words long.

I just finished chapter 4 of Learning to Fall and it ended up being just over 10k.

My chapters are mad long. I put my chapters up like a real book would have chapters. So, the length varies, it's never the same.

I prefer to read stories with long chapters and not short and skimpy ones. It leaves too much unsaid for me and too much hanging. It also comes off as a lazy job to me and a quick update just to keep people from unsubscribing.

ayanasioux:

I prefer to read stories with long chapters and not short and skimpy ones. It leaves too much unsaid for me and too much hanging. It also comes off as a lazy job to me and a quick update just to keep people from unsubscribing.

I like it when things are unsaid or just enough is said. I hate it when there's too much being said and I don't need to know it. I feel like I'm being patronized.

I like to start my stories out with short chapters, and I mean short as in 600 words. They act like tasters for the readers to entice them and then I start getting longer and longer and longer, but I don't like writing really long chapters. I feel as if the readers eyes may get sore, like mine usually do.

Reviving this thread 'cause I can.

The longest chapter I've ever written was 17,000. And when I first starting taking my writing somewhat seriously, I didn't even break my stories up in to chapters. The first real story I ever finished, when I was eleven, was about 25,000 words, all just one big block.

In the (currently not posted) story I'm working on now chapters average around, I'd say, 5,000 to 8,000, some a little longer but a normal chapter is never shorter than 5,000, no matter how much I edit and cut out, although it does a have few very short chapters either for dramatic effect, only a small snippet in time needs to be shown, or some similar reason.

It's not that I'm incapable of writing shorter chapters, though; the story I do have posted on here, it's chapters average only 200 words, and the entire thing so far is only 2,073 words. I just do what's necessary for the story, and in one case short, choppy chapters are what's needed, while in the other, much longer, flowing ones are appropriate.

I haven't written a one-shot in a loooong time, but back when I used to write a lot of them I think they were usually only around 2,000 max. I imagine if I wrote one now though, it'd be quite a bit longer. Maybe.

As for reading, I have no preference at all and chapter length has no bearing on my perception of the writing or author, unless it's obvious it's short because of laziness or being rushed, or that it's long solely to brag about a high word count. I've read stories with chapters that are only a sentence long and stories with chapters that go on for ages, and I enjoy both equally. Whatever the story calls for is what goes, I think. :)

I usually write around 1000-1500 words, give or take a few hundred.

My chapters on Mibba are generally between 1,200 and 2,000 words. They'd be too short to be typical book chapters (usually, I aim to write novellas on here), but then, I think that even with a full novel it's fine to stretch or shrink the average chapter length if it suits the story.

I always write quite long chapters - normally, I write about six A4 pages in size 12 font, but when I post the stories on mibba I usually end up having to split the chapters in half because I know it puts people off of reading a story online if the chapters are really long. The thing is, though, that when I'm reading, I prefer shorter chapters so that there are regular breaks in the story, but I just can't seem to write shorter chapters.

Usually between 1,000 and 1,500. But I mean, a lot of them could/should be combined, I just hate posting 98345798 word chapters on here because I feel like people are like ughh, I have to read all of this? And even though that's annoying and I shouldn't change anything because of it, having readers and getting feedback is actually nice once in a while. >__>

My chapters are never consistent when length is concerned. They're usually between 500 and 1,200. I haven't recently checked my word count though so I may have gone above 1,200.

julescarlyle:

How long should chapters be?

I was recently told my chapters were too short. :S Is there really a right or wrong length for chapters? If so, what is it? How long are your chapters?

My chapters are usually 3 pages in size 12 font (that's 10-12 hand written A5 pages) between 1000-1500 words. Is that too short?

Opinions, please! :D

I write that usually (on my stories that are meant to be longer) and I was told once that my chapters were too long and needed to be broken up. I don't get that!

Usually, I like short chapters. I don't often have the time to sit down and read a 2500+ word chapter, so I don't.

Chapter length is different for all writers and readers.

I know my chapters tend to get longer as I progress through the story.

I've become more of a length writer, but I think my chapter lengths vary from story to story, depending on what works best for each particular story.

I don't really feel satisfied unless I get at the very least 2,000 words, but at the same time, I also have a story where the chapters are much shorter. For group stories, I aim higher, usually 4k-5k words, just because I'm only writing say, every fourth chapter, so in order for my character to truly progress, I need to include more in each chapter.

I tend to start out with shorter chapters, but that chapter length increases as I get into the real meat of the story.

I always write my first chapter around 1000 words but then I go on to the next chapter and increase it by 500 words each time. At the most I'll write a chapter at 5000-6000 words.

I believe that a chapter should be like a skirt: long enough to cover the important details, but short enough to hold someone's interest. =]

Lately I've only been writing drabble's so I'm completely used to writing only a few hundred words per chapter, but now that I'm getting back into writing chaptered stories, I'm trying to aim for each chapter to reach about 1,000 or more words.

I really like long chapters. I read a lot of Internet stories on my phones reader, so sometimes I don't realise how long a chapter is. And then I'll reach the end like 'that was only one chapter! Got ten more like that woohoo :D '

But sometimes short chapters work. For my two latest (and most active) stories, the chapters are really quite short. I used to have an issue with short chapters but I figured if Austen can do it, so can I.