How long should a chapter be? Traveller at 12:05 on 02 August 2008
I know this is a "how long is a piece of string" question - but I'm a bit concerned about the length of some of my chapters - they tend to be on the short side. After getting some feedback on my work as "episodic" - I'm beginning to think I should be aiming at chapters of a longer length - but I naturally like to flit from one idea to the next and lose patience on longer scenes. Any thoughts on this?
Re: How long should a chapter be? NMott at 13:01 on 02 August 2008
I take it, then, that you are using the one scene per chapter approach. Personally I go for the three scenes per chapter format, unless it's a particularly long or short scene, in which case it may vary between two or four scenes per chapter.
Terry Pratchett doesn't use chapters at all, but just has a space between scenes.
- NaomiM
<Added>
- and I put a gap between the scenes. Some novels have an asterix between the scenes.
Re: How long should a chapter be? RT104 at 08:22 on 03 August 2008
I'm with Naomi on this. Some of my scenes are short (1,000 words or even fewer) but then I bung 'em together to make a chapter. I don't think I ever have chapters much shorter than about 3k.
Rosy x
Re: How long should a chapter be? EmmaD at 12:51 on 03 August 2008
A chapter-break can signal more than just a change of scene or point of view. You can use them as part of the larger architecture of the novel. I only have 4 parts totally 10 chapters in ASA, and four made of 11 in TMOL, and both parts and chapters have their very particular characters as part of larger and smaller narrative arcs.
Then there's a squiggle or name to separate off the changes of narrator/period, and a double-space within those to denote a BIG jump-cut of time or space. In other words, there are at least four levels of division. For small shifts of time or place I write the sentence/s that move/s the narrative on, so it doesn't feel too jumpy and episodic, because I'm taking the reader with me - by the hand, as it were - rather than jumping, and demanding that they jump after me. One particular recurring mini-section in italics in TMOL.
Which is all to say that of course a chapter or other break can just be a breather, or a switch or jump-alert, but it can be so much more, and it's really worth looking at the bigger bones of the novel to see whether you can exploit that.
Emma
Re: How long should a chapter be? NMott at 14:19 on 03 August 2008
As emma says, sometimes you'll want to emphasise something within a scene - an action, a line of dialogue, a change of pace, etc - in which case you might consider ending a chapter there, even if it's in the middle of a scene.
Traveller
NMott
EmmaD