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Reader's Fatigue

A few times in the past, I've mentioned something called Critic Fatigue. It's a concept where you don't want to give a critic a chapter beyond a certain word count because it'd be too difficult for them to write criticism for so much. This isn't simply a critique size thing, but also a limit in the amount of attention a critic can focus on before they simply become overloaded. The number is typically considered to be about 3000 words. A critic can only handle about 3000 words at a time to write a critique. Any more, and they start to miss things, either from being unable to focus long enough or from having too much to say.

This same kind of concept can be transferred over to readers in something I like to call reader's fatigue. Please note that this isn't an official "English" thing, merely an observation I've made from my own experiences. It's basically the same concept as a critic fatigue, but rather than focus on what someone needs to retain to write a critique, it focuses on what someone needs to hold on to so that they can enjoy a scene at the maximum value.

But Dorian, you might say, I can sit down and read a book all night. I'll read 100,000 words in one sitting. How can you possibly say that a reader would grow fatigued in the span of a single chapter?

My explanation for that comes from another chapter. When I spoke of paragraphs and what they meant for a book, I've often tried to compare them to acts in a play. A single word can conjure up a single static image. A sentence can put one or more static images in motion. By the time you reach a full paragraph, you have an entire thought or idea. This can be a description of something, an action, or an event. It's just something playing out. Combine all of the paragraphs together, and you end up with a chapter. That chapter represents a scene in a play. If you combine all the scenes, you end up with all the chapters of your book, which makes up your entire story. Therefore, to understand writer's fatigue, you need to see a chapter of a book like you'd see a single scene within a play.

Every scene unfolds in a very particular way. Usually, you'll establish the location and setiing the scene unfolds, and perhaps the people who will be partaking in this scene. Scenes can fluctuate quite a bit. There are long scenes and short scenes. There are exciting scenes and boring scenes. Every scenes is different in its own way, and when you combine them all, you have a play. You, as a viewer, can certainly watch an entire play in one sitting without too much difficulty. However, what if an entire play was performed with only one scene? Would you be able to watch that?

In one scene, you never take a breath. The location never changes. The lights never go out. The curtain never closes. Your eyes are constantly on the actors, who are constantly pushing forward with the story. I'm just describing it, and already it feels exhausting. Now, apply that to the concept of reading a book. You'd never read a book that consisted of only one chapter (unless that book was very short) This is one way to see reader's fatigue.

Now, there is some good news. Readers fatigue is relative. A young teen would probably get exhausted a lot quicker than a seasoned reader. That's why there tends to be such a discrepancy between chapter sizes. A young adult book might write 2000-word chapters, while Tolkien can get away with 10,000-word chapters. Partially, this has to do with who your target audience is. Partially, this has to do with the expectations you have for your audience from beginning to end. Some of it even has to do with the mindset your audience is in when they read the story.

I pointed out several times in the past that you need to properly set up your environment and your reader's expectation. Chapter sizes are one way to do this. Properly listing your genres is another. Failing to properly give your readers the accurate expectations for your writing can contribute to writer's fatigue. If I went to a movie expecting to see a comedy, and what I got was a heartfelt drama, it would feel much longer and more tedious than I would had I known what I was getting into.