How Long Should a Chapter Be? [Your Writing Questions Answered]

So, welcome to the very first post within my new writing series, “Your Writing Questions Answered.” If you haven’t already seen my announcement about this series–or would like to submit your own question–then please hop over here.

So, the first question we’ll be answering is from Laura:

So, about how long would you say a chapter should be, maximum and minimum?

And for this post we have answers from myself (Madeline Dyer), Kelley York, Lyn Miller-Lachmann, and Adriana Marachlian.

Answered by: Madeline Dyer

Chapters vary a lot, and the length of a chapter largely depends on the author’s style of writing, the age of the readers, and the genre of the book itself. Some writers are known for their short chapters, and others for their long chapters. But, even so, the length of chapters within one book can vary greatly–and I’m a firm believer that there should be some variation at least. An occasional really short or really long chapter for dramatic effect can work really well.

Young adult novels tend to have chapters between 1,000-3,500 words, though genre can affect this: fantasies can be longer. With my first two YA novels (dystopians), my chapters tended to range from about 1,500 words to 3,800 words–with an average of about 1,800-2,600 words. Having said that, I did have a couple of chapters that were just shy of 1,000 words, but those ones still worked. Making them longer would’ve meant they lost their impact. Similarly, I had a chapter that was 4,000 words–but it worked, and it was sandwiched by smaller chapters.

In general, I’ve noticed epic fantasy books for adults tend to have longer chapters, even up to 6000-8,000 words easily. But I’ve read a couple of adult novels where chapters are up to 10,000 words each and I tend to shy away from reading them. This is because I like to pause my reading (and writing) at the end of a chapter, and if I know that I’ve got to read for an hour or so before I can stop, I tend to feel a bit disgruntled. So, that’s an important reason for having chapters that aren’t overly long–they break up a book and provide natural pauses for readers to rest.

When I’m writing, I don’t consciously look at the word count for a given chapter as I’m outlining it and think that I need to add more words or cut it down. I just go by the ‘feel’ of it. I tend to end most of my chapters on a cliffhanger, because the idea is to get the reader to turn the page and continue onto the next chapter. And each chapter needs to have a purpose and a reason why it has to stay in the manuscript. Does it show us something important about the characters? Or does the plot get developed a lot?

But some books aren’t divided into chapters at all–such as some of Virginia Woolf’s novels–and they still work just as well. So, the length of a chapter (or whether you have them at all) definitely depends on the book in question.

Answered by: Kelley York

With contemporary YA, around 1,500-2,000 words a chapter is fairly average, if I had to guess. Fantasy/sci-fi/sometimes paranormal, I’ve noticed chapters are longer, which is likely because books in those genres themselves are longer due to the world-building that goes into it. Even so, make sure your chapters 1.) capture everything you need to capture in a scene, 2.) have a solid purpose and aren’t just “filler,” and 3.) have a natural ending that makes the reader want to turn the page and continue rather than consider it a stopping point to set it aside.

Answered by: Lyn Miller-Lachmann 

Chapter lengths vary greatly. I read a book once that was 150 pages long and only one chapter. (It was a work of adult literary fiction—Roberto Bolaño’s By Night in Chile.) Books for teens and younger tend to have shorter chapters, and for that reason, my own chapters have been getting shorter and shorter. My first YA novel, Gringolandia, had chapters from 10-15 pages, and most of them contained entire scenes. Now I have chapters that are 5-8 pages long and they break up scenes, ending on a cliffhanger to encourage readers to turn the page quickly to the next chapter.

Answered by: Adriana Marachlian

I completely agree with everyone about chapter lengths—shorter for contemporary, slightly longer for stories that require more world-building. When it comes to chapters, leaving the reader wanting more is priority. It’s like saying, “here’s a stopping point if you must, but do you really want to stop?” The answer should be no. This of course doesn’t mean that you have to end every single chapter with your character at gunpoint facing almost-certain death (though that’s one way!). Emotional cliffhangers can be just as powerful!

One thing I like to do is write a book by scenes and, once it’s done and has cooled for a bit, I re-read it like I would any book. When I find places where I know I have to keep going, I mark them, then organize my chapter breaks around them. It helps with the groundwork and gives me a chapter skeleton so I don’t feel like I’m swimming in space.