jk7070436

Hi there. I'm writing a fantasy novel, and progress is going rather well, I know exactly what I'm aiming for and anything I want to add doesn't stray far from the plot, and just keeps it going. But anyways, my chapters, most of them at least, are 1700 to 2000 words. How long does it take you to read that many words? And if a chapter ends after that length, would you think it was too short?

To add a bit more information, the novel, at its finished state, will be about 50,000 words.

LouDog11

For how long it takes, that varies. It depends how fast you read, how interested you are in the topic, and how well the events flow. If it is confusing, and the reader has to stop and think, or go back, then it will take longer.

I wouldn't worry about guidelines for how long or short a chapter should be, unless of course you have specific ones that you must follow. I would follow the same rules as paragraphs. It doesn't necessarily have to be a particular length, but it just has to have one idea. A chapter would be the same thing, except containing more than one idea. If a paragraph is running longer than usual, I would not automatically end it or truncate it to make it look 'standard'. Furthermore, I would not add to a paragrpah or chapter that contains everything you want and need to say.

It's your writing, do what you want.
That's what I think. Hope it helps.

Talia_Brie

A fantasy novel of 50,000 words? That sounds very short to me. Chapters of 2,000 words also sounds short, Dan Brown short (that's not necessarily a good thing).

Having short chapters isn't necessarily a bad thing either. It does help with the pace and can have the effect of keeping the reader going, thinking "Oh, the next on'es only sort", then suddenly it's 1:30 in the morning, and your kids are going to wake you up in 4 hours . . .

I've taken my pills now.

Short chapters are fine, but this all seems terribly short to me to be an effective fantasy, unless it's a type of urban fantasy, or YA fantasy Like the Narnia books). Otherwise I think you may come across the problem of the fantasy world becoming unrealised, and unsatisfactorily explained.

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jk7070436

Sigh, I thought so. The main reason my chapters are short is because I like to use cliff hangers. Do you think I should just combine each chapter to make about 3500 to 4000 words, with or without the cliffhangers, or should I just lengthen the chapters and give them more detail?

The one thing I fear, however, is that the extra detail will make the story long, draggy, and boring. And I'd really like to have the reader engaged and captivated, eating in every word. Can I have your opinions on this? Thanks!

Oh yeah, and 50,000 was just a rough estimate. It might be 50,000, it might be 60,000, it all depends on how long I take with each scene. And I forgot to add that this is the first volume. I plan on having 3.

Also, does anyone have any tips as to how you add more to a piece? Let's say I have what I want, I have the correct scene occur, and it comes to about 1900 words. How do I add more? What kinds of things should I be looking to add?

Rhea

I don't think you should worry about chapter length. I don't think it's too short. But I would suggest to try and make your chapters all about the same length. Don't have one super short and another super long.

I read some of your chapters for that Clarender story and the chapter length seemed fine to me...and so did the detail, although a little bit more wouldn't hurt ;P

jk7070436

Oh, that Clarender thing was really long time ago... You should check out the one in my signature if you have time. This one, in my opinion, is a lot better. Thanks for the advice! I searched around the forums a bit and there were topics similar to this. I think I've gotten the answer to my question.

See you later.

mammamaia

fyi, 50k is too short for anything but a YA novel...

but chapter size of successful novels varies from 1-2 pages to 30 or more, so that's not your problem... if it makes sense story-wise, to have chapters the size of yours, then it's ok... but if it makes for a choppy read, you should rethink them...

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jk7070436

yeah, I guess 50k wasn't such a good guess. I don't know, I guess I can change that to three volumes of 60-70k each.