Long Chapters

[trumpetology]

Hi All,

I know there are many posts on this forum regarding how long a chapter should be, but I have a slightly different question.

I've noticed that many non-fiction/historical books have chapters I find significantly long (7-8000 words). Admittedly, I'm a short chapter writer, but here's my question:

To any writers who have written a good amount in the vein, how do you structure longer chapters in a non-fiction manner? Are you writing smaller sections that are tied together by similar subject, or straight through for the full 8,000 words.

I'm aware of the scene technique in fiction, but I'm unsure how to transfer that to non-fiction history.

Thanks!

Nick

[WeaselFire]

Think of an outline. Major topics are chapters. Subtopics may be a category in a chapter. You can further break down chapters as needed.

Many publishers use a technique similar to HTML, the H1 style is for a chapter, H2 for a topi, H3 a subtopic and so on. I may have a long chapter with four topics, half a dozen subtopics in each and maybe a half dozen items in there. The items may be on to six paragraphs, subtopics a couple pages, topics a dozen pages and the chapter ends up being at 50-60 pages.

It all really depends on where you end with what you're writing about. Small bits combine to form a bigger bit, bigger bits combine to form really big bits and really big bits combine to form a chapter.

Yeah, I'm not much help.

Jeff

[Ruth2]

What Jeff said.

In my book, days are chapters. Locations are sub-chapters. Within each sub-chapter are scenes, and these are separated from one another by a skipped line.

[trumpetology]

Hi Jeff and Ruth,

Thanks for the responses. That makes sense to me.

Jeff, do you use any spacing techniques like Ruth does to clue the reader in to the fact that you are shifting to a new subtopic/topic? Or do you make those transitions through text?

Thanks!
Nick

[Sunnyside]

Eight-thousand words is long???

Jeez, I'm in trouble . . .

[trumpetology]

haha. hence my "i'm a short chapter writer" admission. My dissertation was in 14 chapters, and I think the typical setup is 5-6. It's something I need to work on...

[WeaselFire]

Originally Posted by trumpetology

Jeff, do you use any spacing techniques like Ruth does to clue the reader in to the fact that you are shifting to a new subtopic/topic? Or do you make those transitions through text?

I use headers, subheads and so on. The non-fiction I write, technical books, lends itself to this format well. Textbooks would too. A sample of one I worked on:

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-I.../dp/0470097825

I wrote chapter 1, so the First Pages on the Look Inside option are mine. WROX (Now Wiley) provided templates for this, but it's been similar in almost every other non-fiction as well.

As for length, I just turned in a chapter for the book I'm on now, 10,521 words. 31 pages, not including diagrams. That's average for me. Of course, the entire book will clock in at close to 800 pages, it's another one of those doorstop tech books.

Jeff

[trumpetology]

Ah, I see what you're doing. I'm trying to write without headings since it's a historical narrative. But I just read "Dissertation to Book" and he suggests that some topic headings are okay, so I might try that out.

Thanks for the link. It was good to see it in practice!

and 10K words is massive to me

[WeaselFire]

I've seen historical narratives use a diary approach, separating by time. You can also use a location approach with subheads. Something like:

Chapter 7 - The Fever Hits
10 August, 1867 - Boston Gardens
10 August, 1867 - Boston Harbor
11 August, 1867 - Boston Harbor
...

Jeff

[trumpetology]

well, i'm mixing chronology, but still, I can use some of your suggestions and possibly use some topic headings.

Thanks Jeff.

[Blondieco]

Hi, new here---been working on true crime memoir for six years now. I've had help from a screenwriter friend, and that is one of the questions I asked her recently....ANSWER is there are no rules for chapter length. Begin where you begin and end where you feel it should end, allowing the reading to be left with a feeling of urgency to turn to the next chapter.

[Royal Mercury]

I wouldn't worry about short chapters. Chapters are all about how the information is organized. That kind of dictates the length.

At a recent literary festival I was talking with Ace Collins, an author with about 60 books to his credit, fiction and non-fiction, and he says he aims for chapter lengths of about 5 pages. Afterwards, I read his latest novel and sure enough, the overall average was close to 5 pages, with some running as low as 2 pages, and others up to 10 or 11.

In these short attention span times, short chapters are not bad, as long as you cover the topic.

I edited a manuscript that my grandfather wrote about his journey exploring for oil during the Mexican Revolution. The book was a series of letters sent to his girlfriend on different dates. He had it organized into strict month to month chapters. I reoranized the chapter timing, and made the breaks between chapters based on where he was going and what he was doing, which also allowed me to add a map for each chapter, so that the reader wouldn't get lost and could follow the flow of where he was going better.

[trumpetology]

Originally Posted by Blondieco

Hi, new here---been working on true crime memoir for six years now. I've had help from a screenwriter friend, and that is one of the questions I asked her recently....ANSWER is there are no rules for chapter length. Begin where you begin and end where you feel it should end, allowing the reading to be left with a feeling of urgency to turn to the next chapter.

Indeed, there are no rules. But academic presses lean toward long chapters (like YA aims for short ones), so I'm having to learn the system some.

[Old Hoodoo]

Chapters only 7-8,000 words? I seem to write sentences that long...unfortunately for me! From my observation, the length of a chapter in historical nonfiction isn't something that is of great concern. Chapters in historical nonfiction works are books in and of themselves, at least that is how I think they ought to be written. A nonfiction book is like reading tombstones at a cemetary, you don't have to read them in chronological order and even if you miss one it will still be there for later. I find myself reading over and again some of my favorite history works, and I often just open the book and start reading at whatever page it opens to and I always seem to find something new to consider in the subject matter, that is subject matter that I just glossed over in one reading, but this time suddenly had interest. Good history books should be thorough. They should challenge the reader, not spoon feed them.