Is 700 words too short for a chapter?

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Don Raden

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I can't rally make it long. The opening chapter of my first novel has only around 700 words and I can't add more scenes.

Is it too short?
 

third person

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It's as short or long as it has to be. Don't force it, listen to the 'beat' in your head.
 

Don Raden

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Thank you for the confirmation. I think I would not mind how many chapters it could turn out as long as the chapters are divided according to the scenes.
 

Sentosa

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I've read books where a chapter has consisted of:

1 page; 1 paragraph; 1 sentence; and even one with 1 word (which was: Dead!)

That leads you plenty of flexibility.
 

Anninyn

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Yep, I have read books with chapters that were only one or two words long, and books with no chapters at all.

I just finished reading the Dice Man which has chapters of varying lengths, and Misery by Stephen King has a lot of very short chapters.
 

Mutive

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Pretty sure Alice in Wonderland (or maybe Through the Looking Glass) has a one word chapter. I've also seen books without chapters at all.

So pretty sure you can get away with a 700 word chapter.
 

CaroGirl

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Yes. Wait... No. Wait...

There's no right answer to how long any chapter should be. How long is a piece of string? It's about that long.
 

jjdebenedictis

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I'm pretty sure Herman Melville did it in Moby Dick. He had some very short chapters, at any rate.
 

chickenrising

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If short chapters bug you you could try sub chapters. Like, chapter one, and then dividing it up with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. But then you'd want to stick to really long chapters with just a bunch of sub chapters, as it'd be excessive to have like 2k word chapters and sub chapters within those 2k words.
 

NeuroFizz

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A chapter in my latest has only three words. We'll see if it passes the editor's red pen very soon.
 

Coco82

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I have worried about this myself, but my gut says don't force more into a chapter than has to be, because if you're just padding it your product won't be as good and you may just have to cut that stuff in the end. Do what works for that chapter, nothing more, nothing less.
 

Coop720

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Vardaman, everybody ...

205305_10150870430611179_635409999_n.jpg
 

jmare

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Like many has said before, chapter length doesn't matter. A few recent examples that have very short chapters are Savages and The Last Werewolf.
 

rwm4768

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Like others have said, chapter length does not matter. A chapter is however long it needs to be. I generally try to make mine similar in length, but if it doesn't happen, oh well.
 
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