I've written the first five chapters of my work in progress, and I'm averaging about 13.5 thousand words per chapter. I'm considering breaking them up into smaller chapters, especially given that each one has multiple scenes that intercut between different characters.
Do you as a reader prefer stories with shorter chapters? Should I keep the longer ones? Do you have a preference one way or another?
I like chapter lengths of about 6,000-8000 words.
Shorter chapter are also okay with me. Long chapters tend to annoy me for some reason. I think it is that when I have 5000 words or more to finish the chapter and am ready to go to bed, I want to finish the chapter first.
My chapters are usually between 6000 and 7000 words, with some shorter and very, very few longer. That seems to work well for me and for my readers.
I would tend to find those very long. My target is about 4,000 words at the moment, with a low of 3,000 and a maximum of 6,000.
Average chapter length varies wildly both in the publishing world and on SoL, though, so do what works for you.
I tend to find it better if I can stop on a chapter boundary than if I need to stop mid-chapter on a regular basis, but then that requires the chapter boundary to be somewhat meaningful. Books in which action routinely continues over a chapter boundary (especially with chapters ending in 'cliffhangers') makes that not work.
I prefer shorter chapters. I don't like to stop reading without finishing the chapter.
But there has to be substance to each chapter. And a reason to start a new chapter. If you have multiple scenes within a chapter you probably already have the places to start a new chapter.
As a writer, my chapters range from 1,500–4,000 words. But some are shorter and some longer. 6,000 words is a long chapter for me.
I don't like short chapters. I read one story that the chapters are more like pages, so I get to read a page every two weeks. On some stories I quit reading because I forget what is happening. However, I sometimes forget which way is up.
I get to read a page every two weeks
Which is unique to SOL for stories that are being posted. So it's not really a question of liking or disliking short chapters. If the entire story was available, all you'd have to do it start the next chapter (turn the page).
A lot of thrillers have short chapters with a page turner at the end (sometimes even cliffhangers). That's exciting for the reader. But if the reader was on SOL and the next chapter wasn't available, that's a whole different thing.
So when I say I like short chapters as a reader, I mean when the next chapter is there. As a writer, I write as if the next chapter was there.
I get to read a page every two weeks
Dickens often released a chapter a month. 😜
A Tale of Two Cities (45 chapters) was published in 31 weekly installments in Dickens's literary periodical, All the Year Round. The first weekly installment ran on April 30, 1859. The last ran 30 weeks later, on November 26.
The book is about 135,000 words, so that would mean an average of 4500 words per week.
Most of Dickens's earlier novels had appeared as monthly installments prior to publication as books.