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Chapter length
Can anyone offer some advice please? I am seventy thousand words into my first fiction novel. I don't know the rules for constructing chapters. Do they have to all be the same length? (I hope not). Is there a suggested length - what is considered too long or too short? Personally I like to vary the chapter length because I end my chapters at a logical place in the story. Would be nice to have some advice from a more experienced writer.
Comments
Oh and congratulations on getting so far into your first novel :) Keep up the good work!
As they say, it's not how long it is but what you do with it that counts.
Well done on reaching 70k
But as said you will find the right place to finish the chapter where you think is right- whatever the lengths.
That's how I'm describing chapters from now on :D
Hello C-O-S! You've not been in for a while...
The chapters in Twilight (which I'm reading) go: 22 pages, 20, 13, 15, 22, 17, 20, etc. I wouldn't call that consistent, but on the other hand it's not arty-farty, like jumping from 20s to a sudden chapter of 3 pages for some supposed effect. An editor commented on my even chapters and said this was a good thing as it wasn't fair on the reader to mess them about with what length of chapter to expect.
Another thing which Noah Lukeman points out (in "The First Five Pages") is the value of working a hook into the end of each chapter to keep your reader 'hooked'. Here's the gist of what he said:
4. A hook is almost as important at the end of a chapter called a cliff-hanger. Equally important, it is often neglected. The task is to produce a piece of writing (a paragraph?) so strong that the reader will want to carry on and see what follows; will want to come back to it and re-involve himself in the world of the story. But ideally it will propel the reader straight into the next chapter.
5. It is not just a hook in the last line that would work as a cliff-hanging incentive to read on.
N.B. >>> Everything in writing is cumulative, and even if theres a strong last line or paragraph, if what has gone before is bland, it will not have the necessary appeal to keep the reader reading. There is a need for cumulative events to make the actual ending into a final straw which means you must keep going.
6. In this way, the ending hook will not seem dislocated and tacked on as though it isnt part of what has just gone before.
Hope that helps.
Your advice is very helpful - invaluable really. This is the most helpful forum or published advice I have found to date so I shall post up more of my queries.
Now I'm very interested also in what LeeH says about the double space for the scene change. I didn't know about that device expressed technically like that. I am not really confident about the scene change and have been pondering over whether a break should be a scene end or a chapter end. With all your collective advice I can now review all my chapter ends and see if some of them are better incorporated in a previous chapter as a scene change.