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So I was wondering if perhaps I make my tales too long. I've always heard the axiom that a story should be only as long as it needs to be, but I find myself incapable of weaving chapters of less than 4,000 words. Sometimes I'll be done with a chapter of my story and realize that I've managed to throw almost 9,000 words at it. Then I go through and cut what I think is unnecessary. However, it still ends up being a lengthy piece.
I want to keep people entertained with vivid imagery and description, but I don't the audience to get bored with all the prose.
Is less really more?
Samantha
Comments
More is more
:) I'm enjoying your present story whatever the length.
I'm currently writing four serials, with average chapters between 1100 and 2000 words. I'm kind of terse. Your style is different, 3000 to 4000 words might be your sweet spot with room to be a bit longer. I can read 4 to 5000 words at one sitting comfortably. More is a pain in the ass, sometimes. :)
I can write to length, it's a skill I developed with newspapers and magazines. But everyone is different. Be comfortable and tell us your tale at your pace. We can always go get a pillow for the chair. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Chapter Length
My favorite story came (comes) in about 10000 word chunks (Somewhere Else Entirely). I read each new chapter as soon as I can, when I have time to enjoy it. She posts infrequently, so keeping up is no problem. For me the combination of too many words, posted too close together kills a story for me. I just don't have time to keep up.
About that story
When I wrote Somewhere Else Entirely I tried to aim at about ~9,000 words a chapter. I think maybe two are larger than that, many are less but only one is less than 6,000 words. That's just how it panned out. Most chapters represent a day of the tale but a small number are part days, a few are multiple days.
I am conscious that my chapters tend to be a little longer than most here but it seemed to be acceptable. Other stories I have tried to keep the chapter size down a little but I'm never going to write 1,000 - 2,000 word chapters, I don't seem to be able to condense plot down the way other authors do.
Other authors, now, we have a few who dump chunks of anywhere from 20,000 - 45,000 word tomes out. Usually I only discover this when I'm well into the story and lunch is ready... not good.
Realistically, I prefer shorter chapters because my time is limited and there are so many good stories here. I really can't afford to sit down and spend two or more hours reading a 20,000 word story. Cut it into four and I'll read it over four days.
Penny
Offline reading
I only read short stories (or short chapters) sitting at the computer. Everything else gets saved as HTML, converted to EPUB and put on my ebook reader to be read while comfortably lying on my bed. Also stopping at any point and later continuing there is easy with this way of reading. And with multi chapter stories and the end I have it as a complete book.
Disadvantage: while I give kudos when saving (if it is worth saving and converting it is worth a kudo to the author ...), I will hardly go back to that story (or chapter) after finishing it and comment on it.
I don't post until the entire story is finished.
I usually wait until then to break the chapters. Ideally for me, a chapter will have from 1,000 to 1,500 words.
I am writing a work on commission where I'm breaking the chapters as I go. I'm finding it a bit restrictive.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Chapters are variable
Mine tecd to be 2500 word or more. Sometimes they are as long as 7500 words. It depends upon what needs to be said at that point in the story.
I will say one thing and that short chapters often lead me frustrated and wanting more right there and then. I've seen (no names) a few stories where he chapter abruptly ended at a nominal value. No cliffhanger, no end of sub-plot, it just ended.
You are the writer so do what works for you at that point in the story and don't be limited by what others do. Develop you own style.
Samantha
Two Authors
Average words per chapter:
Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code) = 1,100
JK Rowling (Harry Potter) = 4,500
I like to run between 1,500 and 2,500.
The closer I get to the end -- the shorter the chapters.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
it can be different
depending on how I'm read something. A print book, well I prefer a good chunk, maybe JK's 4k words but not much more. On line though, the sweet spot seems to be @ 2k, I've spoken to others on this subject and they mostly agree at that sort of figure. Why? well its short enough to read if you don't have a lot of time but long enough that the plot can be moving. Doesn't mean I word count when I'm writing, but its a good guide that helps me to regulate overall book length. If you look at Gaby book 1 the chapters vary considerably, feedback from readers was that they found it less easy to drop in and out of reading it than a more uniform chapter size.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
More or less
Depends really on the writer. I tend to have longer chapters as I write on a book format page so I tend to do 10 to 20 pages which puts me anywhere between 3000 to 7000 my solos can run 10k words. The stories I like run around 5k words with some a bit longer and a few too many of the shorter variety. Under 5k and I feel there should be more and over 5k can get me to browse instead of reading if the story is not written to pull you in.
On fanfiction I average 2 to 3k per chapter.
Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Contemplation, yet duty
Death, yet the Force.
Light with dark, I remain Balanced.
Too Short
I like to read the whole story at once. When I find a serialized story I like, I wait until it's finished and then read the whole thing as a novel. There are a few authors that package their stories in one file when they are finished and I love that. Otherwise, I have to do it my self.
Printer-friendly version
Have you tried using the "Printer-friendly version" option at the top right hand side of the story screen?
If you use this feature from the title page or first chapter of a story (depending on how the chapters are linked) you will get all the linked chapters combined into one file.
It will also contain some extraneous stuff from the start of each chapter that comes from all the ratings, categories, etc. that appear at the top of the normal screen image but you can skim over that.
Michelle B