A Need to Write

Chapter Length (Answer to Lauria_m [Featuring Emilita])

Before we start, I have an announcement to make. You can help me get published by checking out and voting for Part 1 of Of Sirens and Beasts! The top 25 voted on stories move on to round two! You have no idea how grateful I would be! Voting is open until Tuesday (June 21) at 3:59 pm EST.

For this question we have a very special guest. emilita , author of the Unsound Theory will be answering it!

Answer to Laura's question. Lauria_m I have a question. How long should a typical chapter be? I'm a young writer so I don't know these things. I'm writing a book and I published the first chapter. It's less than 500 words. Should it be longer?

HI Lauria,

I think that the length of a chapter always depends on the purpose or effect you would like to achieve with it. For example, is it a prologue or an additional piece from a different point of view? Then it can be much shorter than a regular chapter, in my view, because it is an additional bit.

Or, on the contrary, is it a regular chapter including a major twist or an introduction to a new character or setting? Then take your time & space.

The bottom line is that it has to feel right. For example, I like to always have a main development and some sort of a theme to each chapter - an action that comes to some conclusion or a new issue that is discovered. I never have chapters that just sit there and have characters talk.

Depending on your style, on the pacing of your book and your own view of structuring the story, you can have shorter or longer chapters. I do not think there is one right answer here. However, I feel it is important to try to keep chapters around the same length, so that people know what to expect once they start reading a new chapter. It would be a little odd to always have short chapters and then go on for 10 pages all of a sudden.

Trust your intuition - 500 words can work for a chapter in one story, but do you feel happy with it, does it say all you want it to say before you move on, and is this the right spot to interrupt and start a new chapter? Ask yourself these questions and shape the chapter after your own view and do not worry about the exact word count :) IT is your story after all!

A little bit about emilita .

I am a writer of science fiction, who will very possibly venture into fantasy as well soon. I am also a member of SciKick which both Mikaela and I are a part of. My works are The Space Academy Series (3 books planned), two of which are published on Wattpad.

Book 1: The Unsound Theory has reached #10 in science fiction on the Wattpad Hotlist, while Book 2: The Truth Hunters climbed as far as #16 in the same list.

The Unsound Theory is on Wattpad's reading list for Intergalactic Reads! http://www.wattpad.com/list/75166032-intergalactic-reads

And both my books are featured on Alecia Stone's blog as book of the week.

Here is the description of the Unsound Theory;

A post-apocalyptic world, a life-long mystery and an unexpected invitation.

On what's left of Earth, two strangers show up at Yalena's door one evening, asking her to do what she never thought she would - go into space. Despite her own insecurity of entering the highly advanced Space Academy, Yalena can't disregard the fact that her space origin suggests she might be destined for it.

When the son of the space station commander confides in Yalena about an unlikely occurrence, they begin a daring chase for the deepest of space secrets. Led by a desire for greatness and pushed by their competitive nature, they will gather an unexpected team with only one goal - to prove a theory so unsound that it could change the most basic assumption in their world.