A story has its own momentum, which doesn't necessarily coincide with set "chapter lengths". Having said that, analysing chapters of great novelists - popular and literary - and you find each chapter is more or less of equal length. What I do is write the story first then decide how many chapters the book will have then put chapters at points where I think a brake will "read well".

Having said that, analysing chapters of great novelists - popular and literary - and you find each chapter is more or less of equal length.

I'm sure that's true, and I suspect that it's because any writer - great or otherwise - who's discovered their own voice has a fundamental sense of the 'right' length of their episodes: the pace, the density of the writing, the number of characters and events. For most of us those 'episodes' are chapters. I too don't 'set' a word-length for my chapters, but find they come out not dissimilar in length - no sudden tiny ones or monsters, at any rate.

And I have read books where the chapter breaks seemed completely arbitrary, and yes, you do suspect they've been put in purely to let the reader switch the light off and go to sleep. I find it slightly annoying, in that a chapter-break is too important a division not to use, and use properly. I'm annoyed by laziness in writers more than many faults, I suppose.

Emma

This is something that I have been somewhat preoccupied with of late. My chapters are relatively small by most standards ranging between 650-3000 words. Typically I tend to find these chapter lengths only fast paced, commercial fiction whereas I'm aiming more for a literary feel.

I guess I do use chapter breaks to give the reader a little bit of a breather as my writing is intentionally claustrophobic, which I think would be difficult to swallow in long stretches.

Overall, though, I think that the story really dictates the length of the chapters and like novels themselves chapters should be as long as they need to be.

Geoff

It's worth remembering that there always the double-line space, the asterisk, the three asterisks, the line, the section in italics... there are lots of subdivisions and ways of marking breaks in the text that are bigger than a new paragraph, but short of a chapter.

Emma

Dear Ema, (sounds like a good title) It is entirely up to you being the Author, when you decide to conclude a certain passage. There are no rules. A chapter could be very short, like a brief meeting say, at the Airport. Or long. Some Authors don't even bother. Their publishers do it for them. Sometimes this reults in cutting things of in mid-stream. Like for instance, getting in a car slamming the door, and chapter 2 is when they drive off! Personally, I think 12 is good,(thinking about the reader) but it does depend. In my book, I got carried away before realising that it is necessary? to have chapters.. But then there is such a thing called editing.. have fun, Roland R. Peach