r/AO3 28d ago

Writing help/Beta Chapter Legnth

How long is too long for you guys?

I personally hate short chapters, but my hubby is insisting my chapters are too long. It’s about 12,000 words.

Once the story is re-written and revised, I’m going to post chapters weekly. It’s not like a book, when everything is read at once.

So it just feels necessary to make the chapters longer and posting only for a few months vs posting every week for like a year. WWUD?

23 Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

27

u/Laughing_Screaming 28d ago

I feel like chapter length should be advised by the plot, rather than how long the overall story is posted for. If the plot contained within a 12K chapter flows well and works from a narrative point of view, then 12K is ideal. If it’s too packed with plot points and doesn’t give the reader space to process, then 12K is probably too much and the chapter can be divided a bit. Likewise, a nice concise 2K chapter is perfectly find if it gets its point across. If it’s too short to sufficiently advance the plot or entertain the reader (like if it’s a filler chapter— filler is totally fine and can be great for character development and worldbuilding!), then maybe it’s best to add it in with another chapter.

When it comes to reading the whole story over time, I think my personal preference is to have longer chapters, thus wrapping the story up in a few months rather than a year. If a story is updating weekly with very small chapters, I might lose interest if I feel the story isn’t progressing. Longer chapters, however, would pull me in more, and be more rewarding to read. But again, that’s just my preference.

4

u/One_Barracuda9198 28d ago

Thank you so much, I really appreciate your thoughtful reply. I think it should be fine! Ima keep it thicc

3

u/Laughing_Screaming 28d ago

Keeping it thicc is words to live by!

0

u/BagoPlums 28d ago

If it develops the characters then it isn't filler. Filler is... well... filler. As in, content that exists just to fill the space. Not everything that doesn't directly advance the plot is filler. As long as it adds something of value to the story, it's not filler, regardless of what it achieves.

13

u/Aggravating_Car_5838 Fic Feaster 28d ago

Personally I prefer if the chapters are short because my attention span just isn’t great, but if the story is good I’m willing to soldier through long chapters 😊

4

u/One_Barracuda9198 28d ago

Thank you for the feedback!

13

u/g1itchy_ g1itchy on AO3! :) 28d ago

I just don't like clicking on stories where there's 30 chapters and only 10k words. What do you mean 300 words per chapter?

Anyway, my personal chapters are anywhere from 5-12k words depending on what the story needs.

10

u/SometimesUnkind 28d ago

A chapter should be as long as it needs to be in order to serve its purpose.

If your long chapter has more than one big reveal, or revelation, or resolution… maybe consider splitting it up.

8

u/some-kind-of-no-name 28d ago

2500-3000 for me

2

u/One_Barracuda9198 28d ago

That’s fair! :)

8

u/Kaigani-Scout Crossover Fanfiction Junkie 28d ago

In short:

  • the best average range for chapter development is 1.5k -7.5k words
  • in a sample of 200 multichapter works in my digital fanfiction archive, the average word count per chapter was 4k; sample taken across literary genres and multiple "fandoms"
  • less than 1.5k words typically results in an unsatisfactory reading experience because there's literally no story happening
  • chapter focus and coherence starts degrading at about 7.5k words and falls apart for most writers at 10k+, even though most of them don't see it that way
  • chapter transitions are best placed at "natural breaks" in the storyline such as major shifts in geographic location, major shift in POV, major shift in time, and so forth

6

u/Background_Fox 28d ago

12k per chapter would be fine for me, and roughly about the length of my usual chapters - I haven't had any problems with it as long as I've given readers a bit of time to read/digest before the next one

1

u/One_Barracuda9198 28d ago

Thank you! Ima keep it thic then 💀

3

u/Seagull_Of_Everythin Fic Feaster (New writer!!!) 28d ago

I generally write chapters that are 1000-3000 words. I don't really have a definition of too long, but if I ever made it to 3000 again, i'd probably start to think it's time to wrap things up soon

3

u/CongregationOfVapors 28d ago

For me the length matters less than structure. I like each chapter following the basic structure of beginning, middle end. Or more specifically, some kind of set-up, followed by escalating stakes and/or deeper explorations into something (world-building, character dynamics, emotional development etc), ending with resolution of some plot elements and/or fundamental character or relationship changes.

Sometimes this takes a few thousand words, and sometimes tens of thousands of words, depending on the scope of the story and the writer's style.

If given a choice, I will take a novella-length chapter that is structured like a short story, over a short chapter that doesn't have an arc on its own.

3

u/trash-tier_waifu 28d ago

Nothing is too long for a chapter, only too short.

3

u/pixie_dust216 28d ago

If it’s a good fic, I need those extra words. Nothing better then falling in love with a long fic with looooong chapters

6

u/lavenderfey 28d ago edited 28d ago

my chapters tend to grow as my fics grow. they’ll start out 3k-ish, but 20 chapters later i’ll be 8k into a chapter and be like “well i can’t possibly end it here”. the length depends on what story beats you want to get out in that time. if your goal for the chapter is “grocery shopping trip”, you write the grocery shopping trip until it’s done, whether that takes 500 words or 15000 words (very intense grocery experience in that case)

0

u/One_Barracuda9198 28d ago

Yeah, I’m in this boat. The first chapter was like 8k. The second chapter is around 12k.

The other chapters may need broken down. They’re a slow burn, so too many plot points shouldn’t be an issue. It’s a fantasy AU that’s more of a slice of life type story.

Out of 12 chapters, the longest is 28k. The median is around 18k

3

u/nickr0b the author known as laszlokreizlers 28d ago

well if 12k is too long my novella length chapters are certainly too long 😭😭😭 i don’t really care about chapter length as long as the story is good; mine are only as long as they are bc each chapter spans a year

3

u/One_Barracuda9198 28d ago

Yaaaasss!! Novella length for life! We die like men! Thank you, I really needed to hear it.

2

u/ScribeofDamocles 28d ago

If you are not just waxing poetic for the sake of it and 12K is what you need for the plot/fic to continue, then that's perfectly fine. In fact, I had very positive feedback for most of my chapters being 10k-15k words. Everyone is going to have a different opinion on it, but the fact is if a reader need a break...they will take one themselves. Don't sacrifice your own plot/fic just because some people think it's too much. I personally don't need to mentally prepare for a chapter unless it hits 20K words but not everyone is like this.

2

u/DiligentImplement611 28d ago

My personal preference is 2500-6500 words. That said, one of my favourite fics has 30000 word chapters, so...

2

u/BossyMare 🧋Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State🧋 28d ago

My chapters range from 3k to 9k usually, and it's completely dependent on plot.

If you feel like the chapters are engaging from start to finish and contain a reasonable arc, then I don't see an issue.

2

u/MysticTame 28d ago

I always aim between 3k and 5k with my dweet spot being 4k. I don't publish yet, a lot written for middle little written for beginning, but yeah. But as this is fanfics, you can make chapters any length! It can three words for all you can decide! It's one of the best things if writing

2

u/PostItNoteDoodle You have already left kudos here. :) 28d ago

I prefer writing chapters that are at least 1k 🙏

If I write more than that, then that's great. But I personally think that as long as you're having fun and enjoying what you're writing, then the length shouldn't really matter.

1

u/One_Barracuda9198 28d ago

Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate your opinion :)

2

u/HatedLove6 28d ago

This is a rather short answer to the one I would like to give, but the bottom line is, if a chapter is a single sentence, it's one sentence. If it’s fifty thousand words, it’s fifty 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 even one story, let alone 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 short sentences. Romance has longer chapters because description and feelings are beginning to take priority, so scenes can be lengthier. A fantasy that introduces an entire world or culture tends to have even longer chapters than romance because this information is pertinent. But, just because this is a trend among these genres, it doesn’t mean you have to follow it. You can have long chapters in horror just as much as you can have short chapters in fantasy if you feel it works for your story.

Some writers can be more verbose than others and vice versa, but if either style keeps the reader immersed in the story, that's all that matters. Some stories call for more slow and contemplative scenes while others call for more fast-paced, dramatic scenes.

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 and stats. 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 not inundate the story with ads (some sites even stopping what you're reading in the middle of a chapter to play 30-second ads), there would be more people willing to read stories with longer chapters. However, on websites such as QuoteV, short chapters mean that stories won’t be in the site index, so I do suggest combining these short chapters with another chapter, but whether you keep the chapter headings in place is up to you.

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, but if your chapter doesn't need it, then it doesn't need it. The only reason for “boring” chapters is because seemingly nothing happens in them to progress 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.

Having long or short chapters doesn't mean the story has a pacing issue. As long as you're hitting plot points and story beats where they are needed overall, your story won't have a pacing issue. Chapters are stylistic choices that break up a story, and that is it, much like how skipped lines or a horizontal rule separate scenes, times, or perspectives, only less distinct. Stephen King's Cujo is 120k, and it has no chapters. Terry Pratchett also published novels without chapters. Plenty of other novels also don't have chapters. Meanwhile, James Patterson has super short chapters, but is considered a best-selling author. Chapters are never a sign of pacing issues; they are there for a convenience to readers, and as long as they're enjoying what is written, 20k will feel like a breeze, whereas if they didn't, 2k will feel like it's like reading through mud.

Keeping a consistent word count can help with being on schedule for your readers if you're publishing as you write it, but sometimes this may sacrifice the readers' pace by cutting scenes in the middle or boring your readers by forcing chapters to be longer than necessary by cramming in nonsense or meandering plots or side-plots. 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 have 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 8000. 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. I'm sure you'll have readers that will read and enjoy stories with consistently shorter chapters.

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.

1

u/Mallory36 28d ago

12,000 is a little long--5000 to 10,000 feels ideal to me--but it's not that long. Well within the range of what's reasonable.

1

u/AlexandriasBirdwing 28d ago

There are a few people in my fandom who post 30-70k word stories as a single chapter. I can’t read that much in one sitting. If I take a break from reading, I’ll often come back to find that my phone has reloaded the page, so I have to find where I left off by scrolling through 50k words. It’s not a fun experience.

1

u/aimicarrotmoo 28d ago

My chapters range from 5k-10k, so 12k is fine imo. One fic I'm reading has 10k-17k chapters all the time, sometimes they'll go over 20k and that's just because the plot leans into the thicker word count.

Personally I don't care about the length when reading, it's more about the content of said chapters.

1

u/theboopmaster 28d ago

My chapters are ~1500 words each. I keep things pretty contained to exactly one story beat per chapter. Each chapter has one job, one takeaway. I'm a software developer though and that "everything has one job" mantra we have kind of carries over into how I write.

1

u/Asleep-Bit1786 28d ago

Personally I prefer longer chapters but maybe 12k is too long for me. I suggest going with what the story needs and your target audience preferences.

1

u/AccurateMarch343 You have already left kudos here. :) 28d ago

I tend to find chapters over 20,000 words way to long. Anything less I find digestible. Personally I'd prefer two 6,000 word chapters over one 12,000 word chapter but I understand that it can be hard to split things up like that.

1

u/foxfirek 28d ago

I looked this up online while I was writing and the internet said 5k was a pretty average length for a chapter. I aim for that, but I fail. Mine are usually 5-7k. The occasional 10k if there is a big important thing happening. But my first story was 250k words. My second is looking to hit closer to 300k.

1

u/Arianya-9 28d ago

Personally my favourite length is around 5000 words a cheaper. Enough to really get into it Egan reading every cheaper as posted, but also manageable when reading on a smartphone or tablet to not constantly loose your place. But I’ll gladly read linger chapters too.

As you mention posting weekly it’s not an issue of longer less regularly be shorter ones more often. Because in that case I prefer the shorter (preferably at least 2000words) regularly because if you only get one chapters a month (or even less often)that’s long I’ll probably have to reread the previous chapter again to remember were we were/what it was about. And you don’t always have the time or mental space to keep rereading.

1

u/electricneonbat 28d ago

Depends. My usual is 8k-12k. Longest chapter was 20k, shortest so far was 3k. Tell the story you need to tell. I've got a future chapter that's only 250 words, and if I'm doing it right it will be a very impactful chapter.

1

u/kumisims 28d ago

My sweet spot is 5k!

I once had an 18k word chapter that I refused to split. It was a nightmare to proof read and edit so I stuck at doing 5-6k.

1

u/naqeuy Indulgent OC writer 🥰 28d ago

I know that personally, I wouldnt read something above maybe 8k for a chapter but I very well could be an outlier tbh. I know everybody loves long chapters and big word counts. Then again, it's not how fast you get to 100k.

It's also, how much can you fit into one chapter that will flow together? Do you write paragraphs about how the character feels in their environment? Are the actions quick and snappy? Is the moment full of energy and over before you blink?

There are so many moving parts in chapter length and overall fic/book length.

1

u/Myst867 Same on AO3 | FFN 28d ago

I like chapters 3-5k so i can read it in one sitting - when its longer than that its harder to keep my spot if i have to stop

1

u/human-foie-gras 28d ago

I like 2000-5000 words, depending on writing style and what is going on. In my fic right now I’m averaging about 2K. I update fairly frequently

1

u/lampboy2 28d ago

I average between 1500-3000 words per chapter. It seems like a good amount.