Fic Talk > General Discussion
Questions to ponder part 11
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: Sakabelle on July 09, 2014, 08:52:35 AM ---I usually fail at having all my chapters the same length. "Important" ones for me usually come in about 1,000 words longer. So if you want to know where something comes to a head in one of my stories just look at the word counts LOL.
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LOL I think that's true for me too. That's where I just say "Screw word count" and let my chapters be like 8000 words long because whatever's happening is too important to cut off.
RokofAges75:
So, logical next question: What is the longest chapter you've written, and how long was it? One-shots don't count; it should be a chapter of a larger story. If you want, you can also tell your shortest chapter that wasn't just a prologue, epilogue, or special interlude type chapter.
The longest chapter I have on AC is "Episode 19" of Code Blue, which is 19580 words long, but since that is a collaboration, it's a combination of a bunch of different people's scenes. The longest chapter I've written by myself is the "Post-Epilogue" of By My Side, which is 9307 words. The last ten or so chapters of that story tend to be really long because I am a little OCD and didn't want to go over 200 chapters... in fact, I wanted to end ON 200 chapters, so I crammed a bunch into the last few and invented a "post-epilogue" so as not to end up with 201 chapters and an epilogue. Instead, I have 200 chapters, an epilogue, and a post-epilogue LOL. The post-epilogue needed to be all one chapter, no matter what number chapter it was, but I definitely could have broken up some of the ones before it more.
Sakabelle:
My longest chapter is Chapter 22 of Running Up That Hill at 3887 words. Which is where Brian and Kevin go visit AJ in rehab. That's an incredibly long chapter for me actually lol.
I just took a quick look for shortest chapter, but it's in In Pieces and it's 1028 words (if we're not counting prologues or epilogues) Which makes sense as there were a lot of filler chapters in that story and it's one of the first ones I wrote. I've noticed that my chapters have gotten a little longer as I've written more stories. This is probably a combination of improvement with description and writing the whole story now before I post. If I'm caught up to myself I feel pressure to get the chapter complete so I can post, and they usually end up shorter because of that.
KeepThisSecret:
--- Quote from: mare on July 09, 2014, 10:02:33 AM ---I was hungry when I wrote that! Maybe you should have some ooey, gooey marshmallows as soft and white as pillows made of baby bottoms and fairy dust. Round, circular, oval and gelatinous gobs of goodness! :) LOL sorry...I had to!
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^ Excuse me while I gag in a corner ... would you like me to write a descriptive piece about that?!?! LOL
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on July 09, 2014, 11:59:09 AM ---For me, it varies a lot from story to story how long my chapters are and how I choose to break them up. In the last few novels I've written, I've written from the perspectives of several different characters, alternating each chapter, which can be challenging as far as chapter length is concerned because I usually can't just cut the action off and finish it in the next chapter like I could if every chapter was about the same characters, written in the same perspective. Not that I would necessarily want to. I usually like every chapter to be about one "thing," whether it's in one long scene or several shorter scenes that go together. Because of that, I focus more on content than word count. I won't end a chapter in the middle of the action just because it's hit a certain length, unless it makes sense to leave a cliffhanger.
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^ Perfectly said!!
In relation to the part about alternating POV, I have found myself looking at the chapter lengths and worrying that I'm not giving each character an equal amount of "voice time". For instance, if I write a Nick chapter that's 3000 words long and then I write a Howie chapter that's only 1500 words long then I feel as though I've short-changed Howie. I find that I feel this way even if Howie's chapter was way more action packed then Nick's. I know it's about the content and not about the word count, but it still nags at me. Perhaps that's a little bit of OCD coming out though. :P
mare:
^ I agree about the different pov's as well. For stories where I am writing in all five of their points of views, the chapters tend to be a lot longer because obviously there's more to cover than when I'm just writing from one angle.
I should say that I do enjoy reading stories with all kind of varying word counts. It's not something I usually seek out unless I know I'm pressed for time. for instance, I like to read first thing in the morning, but if I look at a word count and see it's over 2,500 words long, I might skip it and wait until I can devout more time to reading and reviewing that chapter.
The best chapters to read for me are the ones that might be long but you hardly feel it. That tells me that there is no unnecessary fluff in it. When they feel long and I find myself scrolling down the page to see how much more I have to go, then it's a big fail! Doesn't mean I'd stop reading but I do admit in those instances, I have been known to start browsing and not really read the entire thing. In which case the dialogue becomes my saving grace! lol
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