I've begun teaching with a distance writing course, the "Novel Writing" component of which opens with an assignment designed to improve students' awareness of the "shape" of a novel. Topics addressed include the balance between narration and dialogue, sentence/pargraph/chapter syntax, and so on. One question actually asks students to calculate the average length of a chapter in a selection of novels.

As much as I dislike the emphasis on number crunching (surely a chapter, like a book, is as long as it needs to be?) it got me thinking about the extent to which writers plan their chapter lengths. I agonised over the penultimate chapter in my WIP for days because it was three times as long as any of the other thirty chapters - then I realised that it had to be that long; there was no chance of breaking the momentum by that point. And dramatically short chapters can be very effective (was it Faulkner in "As I Lay Dying" who wrote a chapter of just five words? "My mother is a fish", or something similar...)

Anyhoo, was just wondering what other WWers think about this: do you set chapter limits? have you worried about the balance of your novel being thrown out by disproportionately long or short chapters? OR does none of this really matter at all?

I plan everything right from the start round big chapters - only ten or twelve in a 120,000+ book. They're the big bones of the novel, so purely as a matter of maths I work out what the average chapter length will be. I do keep a vague eye on it as a check that I'm not skimping any of those big bones purely from lack of inspiration/hangover, etc., but in the even they'll vary a lot. TMOL's chapters varied from 8,000 to 16,000, though the average would have 12,000.

Emma

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I should say, though, that there are subdivisions in each chapter, as I switch between the different narratives. They'll vary even more in length, maybe averaging 2-4000 apiece? I suppose some writers would make those be individual chapters, but I want the sense of bigger architecture to be clear (I have bigger architecture still, in the whole thing being in 3 or 4 parts)

My chapters are a maximum of two and a half to three scenes long. If I have a long scene then it may have a short chapter to itself, or have a couple of smaller ones eitherside, or half a scene either side.
As for length of scene - however long it needs to be without boring the reader.


- NaomiM

Hm, that's about what I thought. Would be interested to know if any WWers have played with imbalanced chapter lengths (eg, several very long, broken up for effect with one that's only a few sentences, followed by more mid-length...) and what their reasons were.

two and a half

I'm intrigued by the idea of writing a "half" scene!

Speaking as a reader rather than a writer, chapter length has little effect on my enjoyment of a good book, but a huge effect on the amount of sleep I get.

I hate putting a book down when in the middle of something big, so tend to read to the end of a chapter or other natural break.

If the chapters are too long, this means I can read an hour or two past too late and, if the book is well enough written, frequently then continue onto the next one without noticing.

Therefore, although shorter chapters have no effect on my enjoyment of the story, they improve my quality of life by minimising arguments with my wife / customers / anybody whom I interact with before a pint of espresso the next morning.

G

Mine are very variable, too. I tend to average at about 4-8,000, usually broken into two or more scenes of anything from (say) 1-3,000. But sometimes a key chapter will be all one long scene - maybe as long as 5-6,000. Sometimes chapters are as short as 2,500 words or so - maybe especially a first one, to ease people into the thing (first chapters, for me often being just one unitary scene).

So, nothing experimental as you describe - but very much not working to a limit or formula, and making each chapter as long or short as it needs to be.

Rosy

Mine are about ten scenes each - though this won't be a huge word count as my books are fast moving.
HB x

I've got uneven chapters, mainly because I break when it feels natural to do so, rather than trying to impose certain word counts on myself.

I wonder if the exercise has been set to show that chapter lengths can and do vary enormously and that there's probably no right or wrong about it.

That is very imformative, Helen.
I've just picked up a thriller - The Gospel of Judas by Simon Mawer that's sitting ontop of my 'it was only a few pence at a charty shop and I liked the title' pile, and I see the chapters vary between 5-10 pages (10-20 sides), with 3-5 scenes in each which are separated by a blank line. Some of these scenes are half a side, others stretch to 5-6 sides. First impressions are bite-sized chunks with some thicker bits to get stuck into.


- NaomiM

Some really interesting feedback here - thanks, everyone!

Emma, I'm very interested in your approach to the "bigger architecture" - having 10 or so long chapters that are subdivided into sections. Makes a lot of sense.

Kim, I think you're spot on about there being no right or wrong about it. And yes, different genres will follow different patterns...

I use very short chapters - I think the longest I've ever written is about 3,000 words, but they're usually about 1,000.

The shortest I ever wrote was five words long - in Ways to Live Forever. THIS IS NOT FAIR. That was it. In big black letters. I think I was trying to do the equivalant of the black page in Tristam Shandy.

Actually, loads of the chapters in WTLF were about a sentance long - mostly questions, or definitions.

Every chapter I write is either a scene, or has some sort of point to it 'a chapter about Dad' 'the chapter in which the Oak King dies' etc. I get the point across, then stop.

It makes for quite a disjointed novel, but with very litle fluff.

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Er, FOUR words, sorry, can't count.

I like short chapters, I'm afraid. Just so I can finish one before I fall asleep first! I don't like stories not in chapters but in chunks. I never know when to put the book down. Not very helpful - this is all from a reader's POV. But I must say reading your post MF makes me hugely relieved that I gave up teaching CW. How long is a chapter? Christonabike!

I think mine are usually around 3,000 words. If they get a lot longer than that I usually want to split them up.

In Taking Comfort though, the chapter lengths varied enormously, some very short, some pretty long. Not very helpful there, sorry!

I try to aim for around 3000 words for each of mine. But that's partly 'cos I'm writing for kids and I think it's better to stay under that figure than give them any really long ones. And, just beacause I like organised structure, I'd be unhappy if I ended up writing anything much less or much more. But that's just my weirdly personal issue...

If you think of the parallel of films, obviously there's probably an optimum length for scenes (and even for films themselves) to keep the viewer engaged. But for certain big scenes (or big movies), these rules are broken. So I think you're find to have a really long chapter if it really is the only way the scene will work - you certainly shouldn't split it just for the sake of an imaginary rule. And if it's a climactic scene towards the end then hopefully the reader will be pretty hooked by then and not mind. If you had wildly different lengths at the start that might be more of a problem. Maybe...?

Like Sally, I write short chapters (although not necessarily four-word-chapter kind of short).
Writing for teens, and male teens in particular, I wanted fast paced, short chapters so that any kids with a low attention span don't switch off, but that end in a way that make them want to jump into the next chapter.

It really does depend on the type of book and the target audience.