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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Chapters...when and how?

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite blogs discussed chapter length.
Is there an industry standard on chapter length? Do you stop at a particular point in the story and leave your reader hanging?

I remember once reading an article about a well-known author who actually did say that she knew her publisher expected 1,000 word chapters and that this was a formula she followed. A quick perusal of some of my favorite novels reveals that there is uniformity in regard to chapter length. Yet, most of the authors (mostly unpublished...hmmmm) did seem of the opinion that there was no hard and fast rule on chapter length.

Still, if a novel is to have a good pace, it makes sense that chapters would be a unifying basis for the pacing of the story.

Hey, makes sense to me.

1 comment:

  1. Hmmmm. Interesting! I notice the chapter length in books, because I tend to like short chapters. It seems to vary a lot with different authors. Just finished a book by Mary Jane Clark that had several chapters that weren't even a full page. As a reader, I like shorter chapters, but it doesn't make a difference in the long run as far as liking or not liking a book or author.
    Do you think it varies with genre?

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