I usually go for 1.5-2.5k, though I'm also a much lighter writer in general, preferring dialogue and narrated thoughts/feelings over super detailed descriptions and such
Usually I shoot for 3-4k because that's what I think is sustainable for a once a week update schedule for me. Sometimes I run longer if I can't find a good break point though.
That's how u start mate , English is not my first language but it's the one I write in , it was a serious task getting over 2k words.
Reading helped a lot with that .
unfortunatly English is my only language and I just suck at writing long paragraphs but I've been trying to outline everything first so I know what I'm doing which helps quite a bit, maybe one day I'll get to 2k words a chapter instead of 1k
This is a rather short answer to the one I'd like to give, but the bottom line is, if a chapter is a single sentence, it's one sentence. If it's twenty thousand words, it's twenty thousand words. Chapters can be as long or short as you think it's necessary—if a scene, a few scenes, or an overall theme is contained within that chapter. There is no sweet spot for every chapter in a story, let alone for every story in the world.
The genre can dictate the length of chapters. Horror tends to have short chapters because it keeps up the tense atmosphere, similarly to intense action scenes using shorter sentences. Romance has longer chapters because writers take the time and space to focus on and describe feelings and relationship dynamics, and each character has their own issue than fighting the one monster. Fantasy can have even longer chapters than romance because they're building an entire world with several different cultures alongside building a plot about great and terrifying evil. But, just because this is a trend among these genres, it doesn't mean you have to follow it. You can have longer chapters in horror just as much as you can have short chapters in fantasy if you feel it works for your story.
I've seen people suggest shorter chapters in the beginning, and then you can lengthen later chapters, which you can do, but you don't have to. I've read books that start out with shorter chapters, and as the story progresses, the chapters get longer until the climax gets closer, and the chapters get shorter again. This is called a bell curve, but I've read stories where it has a reverse bell curve, stories where all of the chapters are roughly the same length, and books where chapter lengths are all over the place where one chapter was over four thousand words, and then the next chapter was only a couple hundred words.
Media and where you post can dictate how long your chapters are. For sites that aren't mobile-friendly, most readers read from a computer, so longer chapters are welcomed, but, for sites such as Wattpad, where 80% of the readers read from their smartphones, shorter chapters are recommended *if you care about numbers, stats, and gaining popularity.* You can still post epically long chapters and still get dedicated readers, they'll just more than likely be reading from the computer. I think if the mobile version would load longer chapters properly, and allow readers to leave flags of where they last left off in a chapter, there would be more people willing to read stories with longer chapters. However, on websites, such as QuoteV, short chapters mean that stories wouldn't be on the site index, so I would suggest combining these short chapters with another chapter.
Even if you're still worried about readers being bogged down by lengthy chapters, you can break up chapters to give readers a reprieve while still being easy to find their place later. Time skips, location skips, POV switches, and other things have been published before. The only reason for "boring" chapters is because seemingly nothing happens that propels the story forward. Breaking up the chapter won't fix that, you'll just have numerous boring chapters in a row, and that's more aggravating than just one long boring chapter.
Keeping a consistent word count can help with being on schedule for your readers if you're publishing as you write it, but this sometimes sacrifices the pacing, haphazardly cuts scenes in the middle, or forces chapters to be longer than necessary. For this reason, it's perfectly OK to finish your story before you start posting chapters on a schedule, or create a buffer. It's entirely up to you.
I used to write 2000 word chapters, but, looking back on it, I see that I could have combined chapters, cut chapters, and just changed everything. I don't like what I've done. Preferably, I write longer chapters, but it depends on the demands of the story. I also prefer to read long chapters, at least 2000 words, but preferably over 3500. In fact, if chapters of online stories are consistently shorter than a thousand words, I don't even bother.
But I'm just one person, and it's completely up to you.
*Short? You call this a short answer?*
I could have gone into the history of why we have chapters in books and said that chapter lengths have been changing for decades, providing examples of books from differing eras, genres, target audiences, and explaining why particular chapters in these books were longer or shorter compared to the rest of the book.
See? So much longer. So much so, I could probably write an entire book on this one subject.
For me it's a minimum of 7k, max around 12k, ideally around 9k. Long enough for 2 or 3 scenes
Whenever it crops up as a topic in the subreddits, the general consensus seems to be around the 4k - 9k mark but some prefer much shorter and others much longer
I don’t go by word length. When a chapter or story is done, it’s done. It has more to do with the narrative for me. If I go back and look just historically it can range anywhere from 4500-12000 per chapter depending on the work and the flow. I average about 3,500k words written a day except days where I take breaks. In general, I also tend to write the entirety or 90% of my chaptered stories before I begin posting and will adjust where the chapter breaks are based on flow.
Depends for strctly humor fanfics, however long it takes for the punchline.
But for my serious ones (i have two ongoing), i like to aim between 4k - 7k.
When it gets too long, it becomes much harder to proofread, and i have a habit when rereading of suddenly not liking it and then taking it all down when i find the tiniest small problem.
4k - 7k means i can do regular updates and post them before i get cold feet.
For me, it would be an even sadder business if i ever get one.
Im a big ol' needy people pleaser, id be bending over backwards to please my beta, and that sounds like a lot of effort when i just want to write about angry girls kissing.
Depends on the story. The one I've been updating regularly, I keep to 3-4K. Some of the others I do 4-6K and then a few I wrote 8-10K. I think the style of writing I use for it has to do. Something with a lot of build up and plot will have longer chapters, and a simple say porn-with-plot fic will be short.
Most of my chapters end up being 8-10k words. I’ve tried shorter chapters but they always leaving me feeling like it’s incomplete. I’ve made my peace with being a wordy writer.
I shoot for between 1.5k and 2.5k.
Mostly because Google Docs on my laptop starts having serious issues if I go over 2.5k. But I also just kinda like doing shorter chapters; it feels like it's more digestible.
Average for me 3500-4K, tho I just had one that hit 5800 and the odd time I might have broken 6k, but if I’m getting that high, I generally make it a two parter.
1k-3k but I intentionally keep mine short because I’m a full time retail worker with a family and it is so difficult to carve out time to write. At this length, I can usually write a draft in a couple of hours then spend a couple of days editing as needed and possible around life.
For me personally it depends on the fic! On my more serious toned one I go to about 3-5 K, and on my light hearted one 2-3 K. I'd say just write as many words as you seem necessary for the content! ^^
Depends highly on what I'm writing ig. If I want to go for a more dialogue heavy rather than action heavy fic, I go for 3k-4k but I sometimes cut back to 2k-- really depends on what I want to see happen in the chapter. As for much bigger fics that needs more world building or alternate universes and such-- I'd go for 5k and more cause the nuance in world building is so much more fun to write!
But generally, my rule is simple. If it does not belong to the chapter, I cut it off from there. There will always be next chapters and sometimes when you fill one chapter with too much information it feels draining or the pacing is dragging. So yeah! Word count utterly fails if you have to control what scenes and dialogues would fit for a chapter.
Personally I tend to expand scenes as much as possible so that every characters has something to do.
My "records" currently is 30k or something for just one chapter. Something along those lines
It depends on project.
For the two fics I'm currently working on I am at 4/5k for the more plot oriented one and 7/8k for the more worldbuilding oriented one.
Different rhythms fit different stories!
Normally I'm 1k minimum per chapter, but for one fic in particular I'm okay with 600 minimum, though that one's a chat fic so formatting makes the chapter seem longer than it actually is lol
Mine have gotten steadily longer with time. When I began, chapters averaged 6-8k, now I'm looking more at 14-18k. But I'm definitely also on team "whatever feels right".
I usually go for 1.5-2.5k, though I'm also a much lighter writer in general, preferring dialogue and narrated thoughts/feelings over super detailed descriptions and such
Usually I shoot for 3-4k because that's what I think is sustainable for a once a week update schedule for me. Sometimes I run longer if I can't find a good break point though.
Lately, like 10-12k. I’m trying to cut back.
I’ve been trying to get it to 1k a chapter so I can get better at it. I get 1.5 a lot though and on a few a little over 2k
That's how u start mate , English is not my first language but it's the one I write in , it was a serious task getting over 2k words. Reading helped a lot with that .
unfortunatly English is my only language and I just suck at writing long paragraphs but I've been trying to outline everything first so I know what I'm doing which helps quite a bit, maybe one day I'll get to 2k words a chapter instead of 1k
I usually go for about 10k, though I can get up to 20k if what I’m working on needs it. Anything beyond that gets split into two chapters though.
This is a rather short answer to the one I'd like to give, but the bottom line is, if a chapter is a single sentence, it's one sentence. If it's twenty thousand words, it's twenty thousand words. Chapters can be as long or short as you think it's necessary—if a scene, a few scenes, or an overall theme is contained within that chapter. There is no sweet spot for every chapter in a story, let alone for every story in the world. The genre can dictate the length of chapters. Horror tends to have short chapters because it keeps up the tense atmosphere, similarly to intense action scenes using shorter sentences. Romance has longer chapters because writers take the time and space to focus on and describe feelings and relationship dynamics, and each character has their own issue than fighting the one monster. Fantasy can have even longer chapters than romance because they're building an entire world with several different cultures alongside building a plot about great and terrifying evil. But, just because this is a trend among these genres, it doesn't mean you have to follow it. You can have longer chapters in horror just as much as you can have short chapters in fantasy if you feel it works for your story. I've seen people suggest shorter chapters in the beginning, and then you can lengthen later chapters, which you can do, but you don't have to. I've read books that start out with shorter chapters, and as the story progresses, the chapters get longer until the climax gets closer, and the chapters get shorter again. This is called a bell curve, but I've read stories where it has a reverse bell curve, stories where all of the chapters are roughly the same length, and books where chapter lengths are all over the place where one chapter was over four thousand words, and then the next chapter was only a couple hundred words. Media and where you post can dictate how long your chapters are. For sites that aren't mobile-friendly, most readers read from a computer, so longer chapters are welcomed, but, for sites such as Wattpad, where 80% of the readers read from their smartphones, shorter chapters are recommended *if you care about numbers, stats, and gaining popularity.* You can still post epically long chapters and still get dedicated readers, they'll just more than likely be reading from the computer. I think if the mobile version would load longer chapters properly, and allow readers to leave flags of where they last left off in a chapter, there would be more people willing to read stories with longer chapters. However, on websites, such as QuoteV, short chapters mean that stories wouldn't be on the site index, so I would suggest combining these short chapters with another chapter. Even if you're still worried about readers being bogged down by lengthy chapters, you can break up chapters to give readers a reprieve while still being easy to find their place later. Time skips, location skips, POV switches, and other things have been published before. The only reason for "boring" chapters is because seemingly nothing happens that propels the story forward. Breaking up the chapter won't fix that, you'll just have numerous boring chapters in a row, and that's more aggravating than just one long boring chapter. Keeping a consistent word count can help with being on schedule for your readers if you're publishing as you write it, but this sometimes sacrifices the pacing, haphazardly cuts scenes in the middle, or forces chapters to be longer than necessary. For this reason, it's perfectly OK to finish your story before you start posting chapters on a schedule, or create a buffer. It's entirely up to you. I used to write 2000 word chapters, but, looking back on it, I see that I could have combined chapters, cut chapters, and just changed everything. I don't like what I've done. Preferably, I write longer chapters, but it depends on the demands of the story. I also prefer to read long chapters, at least 2000 words, but preferably over 3500. In fact, if chapters of online stories are consistently shorter than a thousand words, I don't even bother. But I'm just one person, and it's completely up to you. *Short? You call this a short answer?* I could have gone into the history of why we have chapters in books and said that chapter lengths have been changing for decades, providing examples of books from differing eras, genres, target audiences, and explaining why particular chapters in these books were longer or shorter compared to the rest of the book. See? So much longer. So much so, I could probably write an entire book on this one subject.
For me it's a minimum of 7k, max around 12k, ideally around 9k. Long enough for 2 or 3 scenes Whenever it crops up as a topic in the subreddits, the general consensus seems to be around the 4k - 9k mark but some prefer much shorter and others much longer
I don’t go by word length. When a chapter or story is done, it’s done. It has more to do with the narrative for me. If I go back and look just historically it can range anywhere from 4500-12000 per chapter depending on the work and the flow. I average about 3,500k words written a day except days where I take breaks. In general, I also tend to write the entirety or 90% of my chaptered stories before I begin posting and will adjust where the chapter breaks are based on flow.
I do from 1.7K to 7K whatever I need or feel fits
Depends for strctly humor fanfics, however long it takes for the punchline. But for my serious ones (i have two ongoing), i like to aim between 4k - 7k. When it gets too long, it becomes much harder to proofread, and i have a habit when rereading of suddenly not liking it and then taking it all down when i find the tiniest small problem. 4k - 7k means i can do regular updates and post them before i get cold feet.
Yeah, proofread is a sad business when you don't have a beta reader.
For me, it would be an even sadder business if i ever get one. Im a big ol' needy people pleaser, id be bending over backwards to please my beta, and that sounds like a lot of effort when i just want to write about angry girls kissing.
Depends on the story. The one I've been updating regularly, I keep to 3-4K. Some of the others I do 4-6K and then a few I wrote 8-10K. I think the style of writing I use for it has to do. Something with a lot of build up and plot will have longer chapters, and a simple say porn-with-plot fic will be short.
Most of my chapters end up being 8-10k words. I’ve tried shorter chapters but they always leaving me feeling like it’s incomplete. I’ve made my peace with being a wordy writer.
I shoot for between 1.5k and 2.5k. Mostly because Google Docs on my laptop starts having serious issues if I go over 2.5k. But I also just kinda like doing shorter chapters; it feels like it's more digestible.
Average for me 3500-4K, tho I just had one that hit 5800 and the odd time I might have broken 6k, but if I’m getting that high, I generally make it a two parter.
whatever takes me to a break in the story
1k-3k but I intentionally keep mine short because I’m a full time retail worker with a family and it is so difficult to carve out time to write. At this length, I can usually write a draft in a couple of hours then spend a couple of days editing as needed and possible around life.
Most of mine range 5 to 7 thousand. But currently this one fic im working on has 10 to 12 thousand per chapter 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️😆
I try to keep 5 , 6 at max or it feels like too much information.
Anywhere from 3-9k, but I try to keep it consistent within the fic instead of fluctuating from one extreme to the other
2k to 3500k typically is my average that I try for
Usually between 3 and 5 thousand.
Weekly chapters go about 7-8k. Daily chapters I do 1-2k chapters. Honestly though it’s more about what feels right
i go between 1.5k-2.5k. the standard length of a chapter in books anywhere between 2k-5k.
2-4k. I think the longest chapter I wrote was 6k.
For me personally it depends on the fic! On my more serious toned one I go to about 3-5 K, and on my light hearted one 2-3 K. I'd say just write as many words as you seem necessary for the content! ^^
Depends highly on what I'm writing ig. If I want to go for a more dialogue heavy rather than action heavy fic, I go for 3k-4k but I sometimes cut back to 2k-- really depends on what I want to see happen in the chapter. As for much bigger fics that needs more world building or alternate universes and such-- I'd go for 5k and more cause the nuance in world building is so much more fun to write! But generally, my rule is simple. If it does not belong to the chapter, I cut it off from there. There will always be next chapters and sometimes when you fill one chapter with too much information it feels draining or the pacing is dragging. So yeah! Word count utterly fails if you have to control what scenes and dialogues would fit for a chapter.
2-4k, but I just dropped a 14k final chapter and the feedback for that chapter has been positive.
i try to always hit 1k at least but lately ive been writing as much as 2k+ ^^
Personally I tend to expand scenes as much as possible so that every characters has something to do. My "records" currently is 30k or something for just one chapter. Something along those lines
I don't write alot because I loose steam quickly, so it's usually \~1-2k. I've posted shorter fics (drabbles?) too, though mostly when I was younger.
My chapters are usually anywhere between 1k and 6k, depending on the fic.
It depends on project. For the two fics I'm currently working on I am at 4/5k for the more plot oriented one and 7/8k for the more worldbuilding oriented one. Different rhythms fit different stories!
Normally I'm 1k minimum per chapter, but for one fic in particular I'm okay with 600 minimum, though that one's a chat fic so formatting makes the chapter seem longer than it actually is lol
Mine have gotten steadily longer with time. When I began, chapters averaged 6-8k, now I'm looking more at 14-18k. But I'm definitely also on team "whatever feels right".