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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 12:31 pm
Death-Writer97 My chapters are like five pages on Word...Sometimes I think that is a little short. In some of my stories I have more than one first person pov and I go back and forth between the characters. Therefore not needing any chapters... Depending on whether or not you want to get published, however, the format for books are different than Word. Five pages would translate to more.
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 2:57 pm
I'd think when you think it ends, it should end. Some chapters in books I've read are ridiculously short or long, but that's reasonable, because it's time to end the chapter. For example, The Crossroads and The Underneath (Not by the same author) have short chapters. The Underneath is a splendid book, and it had 124 chapters. Some were even one paragraph long. If you think a part is too significant to be crammed into another chapter, make it it's own. There's nothing wrong with that.
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:13 am
MissDeathWriter In some of my stories I have more than one first person pov and I go back and forth between the characters. Therefore not needing any chapters... I have that first person pov too. Only each pov is normally no longer than a full page (We talking about a full page in a book). Although I have the occansional ones that are 5 or 6 pages. Chapters are hard too. I try to make sure they are no shorter than about 7/8 pages, with the exception of one, which was only two.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 1:33 pm
I've counted the words in certain chapters in two different books and both average around 4.5k to the longest being 7.5k. My chapters are long and some had to be revised just to fit in that range of word count. I liked doing this because then I got rid of all the words and scenes I didn't need. Made everything compact, too. @______@
I'm sure an editor will tell you what to do if you get yours published, however. I don't think there is a need to fret unless you want to do your book a certain way.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 4:53 pm
I... haven't thought about chapters in a long time. I should- finishing a chapters always felt really good. They're milestones in writing. I agree that a chapter should end when it feels right. But, I still think chapters should generally be longer. I've read alot of work (including published) where it was like the writer couldn't focus on 'Group A characters' long enough before switching over to 'Group B'. It kind of messed with character developent for the reader, actually. Its like they could only stick with the characters long enough to get the basic information. In my experience, a short chapter is also short of emotion, conversation, scenery, and pretty much everything else that distinguishes a good writer from a... not so good one.
I'm not criticising anyone's work here, I'm relating to my own old writing, and a few books I read last month. So, of you tend to have shorter chapters, I'm not calling you a bad writer.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 5:33 pm
my chapters tend to stay around 8-10 pages, but i use smaller fount to help save paper(one number lower can make a BIG difference), but sometimes they go a little over or go under depending on what event is going on in them. I had one story a while ago that had one chapter that was only six pages, but the next was almost twenty because i had so much that i was getting in it, so i guess lenght just depends sometimes. besides, short chapters don't always mean bad stories, sometimes it's better that way
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:02 pm
Neuschwanstein Princess I... haven't thought about chapters in a long time. I should- finishing a chapters always felt really good. They're milestones in writing. I agree that a chapter should end when it feels right. But, I still think chapters should generally be longer. I've read alot of work (including published) where it was like the writer couldn't focus on 'Group A characters' long enough before switching over to 'Group B'. It kind of messed with character developent for the reader, actually. Its like they could only stick with the characters long enough to get the basic information. In my experience, a short chapter is also short of emotion, conversation, scenery, and pretty much everything else that distinguishes a good writer from a... not so good one. I'm not criticising anyone's work here, I'm relating to my own old writing, and a few books I read last month. So, of you tend to have shorter chapters, I'm not calling you a bad writer. I dunno if I'd credit it as bad writing so much as a type of writing you don't much care for. Sometimes I like short chapters.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 7:33 pm
Sevi, you do have a point. I am merely stating my opinion from my own experience. I have to admit haven't read many published books with short chapters, so I have yet to read one that impresses me.
And, although my favorite books have always had 20 page chapters and whatnot, I don't mind 5-6 page chapters. I'm generally referring to the every-other-page chapters.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 7:54 pm
I pick an idea, or a scene - including all the build up to the scene and then the actual scene itself - to be one chapter. Whenever that action is done, the chapter is finished.
Since I just write for fun, that's good enough for me. I suppose there are real stringent definitions of chapters out there but as long as I have a reason for the chapter to exist and the chapters are relatively the same length...I'm not going to worry too much.
I actually don't usually use chapters. Though I suppose it would help to separate things.
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 10:46 pm
Neuschwanstein Princess Sevi, you do have a point. I am merely stating my opinion from my own experience. I have to admit haven't read many published books with short chapters, so I have yet to read one that impresses me. And, although my favorite books have always had 20 page chapters and whatnot, I don't mind 5-6 page chapters. I'm generally referring to the every-other-page chapters. Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde, there's seriously a chapter in there that's only half a page long because each one ends basically after the main character dies in the videogame she's trapped in
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Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 11:03 pm
Neuschwanstein Princess I... haven't thought about chapters in a long time. I should- finishing a chapters always felt really good. They're milestones in writing. I agree that a chapter should end when it feels right. But, I still think chapters should generally be longer. I've read alot of work (including published) where it was like the writer couldn't focus on 'Group A characters' long enough before switching over to 'Group B'. It kind of messed with character developent for the reader, actually. Its like they could only stick with the characters long enough to get the basic information. In my experience, a short chapter is also short of emotion, conversation, scenery, and pretty much everything else that distinguishes a good writer from a... not so good one. I'm not criticising anyone's work here, I'm relating to my own old writing, and a few books I read last month. So, of you tend to have shorter chapters, I'm not calling you a bad writer. Pick up a book by Christopher Moore. Most of his chapters are longer, but some are literally a paragraph long or even just half a page. It is often done in such a way that it gives a highlight to the characters along with humor (I can think of a few instances in You Suck. One in particular is with Tommy adjusting to vampire life and realizing he will not ever need to use the bathroom again. Click the preview and skip to the second chapter). He only does something like this now and again, but when he does, he uses what he established with the characters prior to carry it. And it works. When I read, chapter length is often directly proportional to what I am in the mood for. If I only have a small amount of time, I do prefer shorter chapters. Need to kill an hour on the bus? Longer ones. Etc.
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Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:18 pm
Nightmare1 When I read, chapter length is often directly proportional to what I am in the mood for. If I only have a small amount of time, I do prefer shorter chapters. Need to kill an hour on the bus? Longer ones. Etc. Isn't it just the worst when you have only a little time and you have HUUUGE chapters? Or when you have a ton of time but you're only a few pages away from the end of a book? ....me too. T.T
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Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:24 pm
I think this only fuels my appeal for children's books. I can literally start one on a bus trip downtown, then finish it on the way back. Comic collections serve the same purpose. Even if I have more of the book to read later, I can usually at least finish the comic I am before I have to get off.
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