Shortest, longest chapters

[The Lonely One]

How long is your longest chapter? Shortest?

I was thinking of an interesting chapter in one of Bradbury's works that said simply: Nothing much else happened the rest of that day. (Or some such thing.)

I just wrote a chapter that said:

"(MC) and (secondary character) and his rocket ship slipped through an invisible hole in the Earth's sky: a secret doorway as old as dust, and what lay beyond much older.

And they were gone."

I suppose that's awfully short, but it was my solution to clearing up an "in-between" of two scenes without disrupting the flow of surrounding chapters.

So what's the longest you've gone without a chapter break? The shortest chapter? Curious for comparison purposes.

Cheers.

[kuwisdelu]

My longest? Oh, somewhere between 20-30 pages, I think.

My shortest? It's a tie between...

“Sunburnt tears and honeydew.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t talk tonight.”
“But—”
End transmission.

and

"My name be Lucas Arcessit, and love be fucked me up"
"Hello, Lucas"

both weighing in at thirteen words.

[Toothpaste]

I have a chapter that is nine words long.

But I don't really do extra long chapters, usually my longest is around 2500 words.

[DisenchantedDoc]

Short chapters are not unheard, even by verbose "literary writers":
"My mother is a fish" -- Faulkner, As I lay Dying

In other words, if it works for you, use it.

[Feathers]

I feel so much better now! I was getting worried because my chapters were so short; 1,900 - 3,500 words. I guess maybe that isn't as much of a problem!

I think my shortest chapter ever was around 1,000 words, and my longest may have reached 10 - 15K. I used to write very long chapters, but as I said, I've slowed down some.

Out of curiosity, how do you guys keep the flow smooth when it comes to chapter length? I try to have a few long ones, then a few short ones, and then maybe one long one and a few more short ones, etc. I'm curious if it's a little overdone or not.

-Feathers

[Telstar]

How long is your longest chapter? Shortest?


So far, my shortest, besides the prologue, is 1850 words.
The longest is the one i finished yesterday (4400).

My average 2500-3000, according to my excel sheet.

[alyssalynne]

My shortest is about 2200, my longest about 4500

[redpbass]

My longest so far is about 15 pages, and my shortest is about 1 1/2.

[Danthia]

I aim for about 2500 words per chapter, and that varries 1000K either way. I like to keep them around the same length for pacinmg reasons, but if widely varried lengths fit your book, then do what feels right.

I do however, think that if all of your chapters were around the same size, having a one-sentence one would feel weird to me. Since so much emphasis was placed on it, I'd expect it to mean something really important. But if this was common all the way through, I wouldn't think too much about it.

[Feathers]

I read in some writing-craft book - maybe The First Five Pages? - that chapters should vary every once in a while, and then you should vary that pattern on a larger scale. I thought it was pretty interesting.

-Feathers

[tehuti88]

I'm just going by memory, and basing this on my "better" works (i. e., the stuff I don't mind showing off online and am not currently rewriting!).

My shortest chapter is probably around 5kb (I guess about 850 words).

My longest chapter I believe is probably over 100kb (over maybe 17,000 words).

Granted, the shortest was written some years ago when my writing style and understanding of the story I was writing were much sparser, and the longest is in a different series where the chapters regularly run upwards of over 60kb (over 10,000 words). So it's kind of apples and oranges here. In the series featuring the 5kb chapter I nowadays try to aim for chapters around 20-30kb (3400-5100 words). Thankfully, around 20-30kb seems to be how long most of the chapters want to turn out to be!

With the other series with the longer-running chapters, I really never have any idea how long they'll run. I just let them come out as they will.

I doubt I would ever do a single-sentence (or paragraph) chapter because that's just not how I write. Something that short, I can make into a scene. *shrug*

[Feidb]

I used to write longer chapters, but they ended up having too many scene breaks in them, and that another big "no no" of the ever-present writing "rules." So, I decided to take the (almost) James Patterson approach.

I noticed that when I was reading (a lot of it during commercials), I could read a short chapter or scene more completely, than a long one where I'd have to find my place in the middle of a page at the next commercial. Even when not watching TV, I found I liked the shorter chapters better, so I started doing them. They now average at four pages, double spaced, 12 point font. However, they can go up to 8 pages or down to 2 pages. If it's less than two pages, then I feel I need to add a little more or combine it with another chapter, or eliminate it altogether.

I'm not a big fan of James Patterson's stories, though I don't hate his work, but he tends to write first person which I do hate. However, his style of short chapters has stuck with me because of the way I usually read.

This reminds me of a Spanish writer (by Spanish, I mean from Spain, not just Hispanic). His novel was one paragraph and the only punctuation was a period at the end! Sorry, don't remember his name or the title of the book, but when I lived in Spain, I heard a few stories about it.

[dwellerofthedeep]

My longest was probably 6000 or more words, but in general my second novel had really long chapters. I haven't put in chapter breaks for my current novel yet, but I'm trying to keep them shorter to improved readability. I don't like not being able to see the end of a chapter when I'm reading.

[Varthikes]

My shortest chapter was a page (12pt Times New Roman font, 1.5-line spacing) for a novella/novelette. I have yet to go shorter than that.

My longest (so far) was 17 pages. Though, that's likely to change with my current novel-in-progress.

[cooeedownunder]

My chapters tend to be around 4,500 (running consequitively from scene to scene) but I am tempted to break them into smaller chapters.

[Calamity_Jones]

I aim for about 2500 words per chapter, and that varries 1000K either way. I like to keep them around the same length for pacinmg reasons, but if widely varried lengths fit your book, then do what feels right.

I do however, think that if all of your chapters were around the same size, having a one-sentence one would feel weird to me. Since so much emphasis was placed on it, I'd expect it to mean something really important. But if this was common all the way through, I wouldn't think too much about it.

Me too. I have two that are 6500, and two that are 6000, but the rest are all 2500-4000. The really big ones are those with like 4 PoV changes in them, so even though they are long, they are still broken up into 1500-2000 ish word segments.

Don't think I could write a chapter that was less than a page long... My shortest is 1834...

[MagicMan]

Mine vary from 5 lines to 12,000 words. A chapter for me has a beginning, a purpose, and an ending. The length doesn't matter.

Smiles
Bob

[Maryn]

I'm not a big Stephen King fan, but in the past I read him a lot. He has a one-word chapter in Misery that's extremely effective.

So in essence, I'm all for whatever works.

Maryn, real edgy ;)

[dwellerofthedeep]

I've had some one page scenes, but I don't think I could ever write a one word chapter, or even a one sentence chapter. I just don't see how I could make that work. (I've only heard of a few of these, I think, and I have read fewer of them).

[ChaosTitan]

My chapters (somehow) end up being relatively similar in length. Usually between twelve and twenty pages (12p Times, double spaced).

[Ugawa]

Wow, i was getting worried because i thought 1500 words was too short. My longest chapter so far has been about 3000 words.

XX

[RJK]

You made me curious so I put the counts of my last WIP into a spreadsheet. 25 chapters work out as follows:
Sum 82963
Avg 3318.52
Min 1004
Max 9086
There were 4 chapters < 2K words and 6 chapters > 4K words, 2 > 5K words

[MrWrite]

The shortest chapter I've ever seen is two words. So it's been done and published before.

[darrtwish]

My longest chapter is about 2500 and my shortest is about 250.

[blacbird]

My chapters range naturally between about 2000 and 4000 words. I've never front-planned that, it just works out that way. But if I had a good organic reason to make one shorter, I definitely would. I would hesitate about making one much longer than that, though.

caw

[Chasing the Horizon]

My chapters range from 1,800 to 11,500 words (different projects, however). I don't really like short chapters. They tend to make the book seem too choppy for me. A short chapter here or there may work (a one sentence or one paragraph chapter may even work for dramatic effect), but I don't like the modern trend towards using chapter breaks like scene breaks.

[triceretops]

Shortest was six pages. Longest was 27. I always shoot and land on an average of 20 pages, for some reason. I think I like the balance, and it takes me about that length to explore/exhaust a subject.

Tri

[NeuroFizz]

Here it is, from my completed WIP:

Chapter 33

Terd was wrong.






NOTE: I've never done this before, and probably won't again, but it is perfect in this story.

[The Lonely One]

Here it is, from my completed WIP:

Chapter 33

Terd was wrong.






NOTE: I've never done this before, and probably won't again, but it is perfect in this story.

Fizz,

I love it.

[eyeblink]

I recently heard the writer Jane Wenham-Jones speak, and she talked of rewarding yourself with a bar of chocolate every time you finished a chapter, as an incentive to write them.

I did wonder if that would result in a lot of novels with two-page chapters...

My fantasy WIP has five chapters in (so far) 100,000 words and won't have any more. My other WIP (YA SF) will have no chapters at all. I'm obviously into delayed gratification. :)

[maxmordon]

The shortest chapter I have written is of 14 pages and the longest 40 in Word, Time New Roman 12.

The funny thing about the 40 pages long chapter is that it was originally outlined as a short chapter...

The funniest short chapter I have seen?

Chapter 13 from El Código Bochinche

"There is no chapter 13, could bring bad luck. Pass the page ->"

Considering that this is a novel where the main character meets Michael Landon and doesn't have the heart to tell him that he is a fictional character in an airport novel is amusing...