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[mare]

For my new story, I have noticed my word counts have dramatically decreased because for this story, it just seems like I don't really need to say as much as I normally do. It was something I struggled with at the beginning though because in the past I have been very anal about page and word counts.

So this is my question, which I'm pretty sure has probably been asked and discussed at some point, but not for a while.

When you write a chapter, how much emphasis do you put on page numbers and word counts? Do you feel like you need at least a certain amount of words to make a successful chapter? As a reader do you prefer longer or shorter chapters?

[KeepThisSecret]

I don't feel as though I NEED a certain number of words, but I find that I have a hard time writing a chapter that is less than 1000 words. Most of my chapters range from about 1500 - 2200 words simply because of the amount of description that I like to include. That being said, if I go to post a chapter and I realize that the word count is only around 1000 - 1200 words I will always go back and re-read to see if there is anything else that should have been included. 

Mare, I suppose that I'm kind of like you in the sense that I struggle with the idea of posting chapters that are a bit shorter. I always second guess myself about whether or not I haven't included enough description.

As a reader, I prefer longer chapters. I like details! 

[Sakabelle]

I try for my chapters to be 1500 words or more, but it varies with the story. The last story I wrote, each chapter was coming in around 2300, so that became my goal for each chapter and it was very easy to meet.

As a reader I tend to enjoy chapters that fall in that range as well. I don't mind longer ones if they serve a purpose. Though lately I've been reading a lot of one shots and not a lot of chaptered fic.

[mare]

I don't feel as though I NEED a certain number of words, but I find that I have a hard time writing a chapter that is less than 1000 words. Most of my chapters range from about 1500 - 2200 words simply because of the amount of description that I like to include. That being said, if I go to post a chapter and I realize that the word count is only around 1000 - 1200 words I will always go back and re-read to see if there is anything else that should have been included.  

Mare, I suppose that I'm kind of like you in the sense that I struggle with the idea of posting chapters that are a bit shorter. I always second guess myself about whether or not I haven't included enough description.

As a reader, I prefer longer chapters. I like details!  

I think that's my issue with writing shorter chapters as well, I'm afraid I might not be giving enough detail and like you I don't think I could ever post a chapter less than at least 1,000 words unless it was just an interlude type thing or a prologue/epilogue. Looking back on most of my other stuff, I used to range easily between 2,000 - 3,000 words a chapter so this is kind of a dramatic drop for me, minus some of my very old stuff which the chapters were a lot smaller.

I think reading Unwinding Truth by Steph and Lore is a perfect of example of how you can say exactly what you need to say in less than 2,000 words without that feeling of this is missing something.

As a reader, I prefer to read shorter chapters. I'm not really big on a whole lot of details unless they are completely relevant to the story. I'm not a big fan of "and her hair waved in the wind with each single strand flowing as if they were spaghetti in a pot of water...flowin g endlessly....n eedlessly....u ntil the timer goes off and they are drained and put in a  bowl....a bowl of flowing hair......that's what her hair looked like to me....flowing. ...did I mention her hair was flowing...yes. ...flowing...l ike spaghetti in a bowl..." lol But I'm also not a huge fan of being told everything either. I like open endings.

[mare]

I try for my chapters to be 1500 words or more, but it varies with the story. The last story I wrote, each chapter was coming in around 2300, so that became my goal for each chapter and it was very easy to meet.

As a reader I tend to enjoy chapters that fall in that range as well. I don't mind longer ones if they serve a purpose. Though lately I've been reading a lot of one shots and not a lot of chaptered fic.

One shots I like longer. I used to try to have all my chapters equal the same length as well. LOL

[Sakabelle]

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.

[KeepThisSecret]

As a reader, I prefer to read shorter chapters. I'm not really big on a whole lot of details unless they are completely relevant to the story. I'm not a big fan of "and her hair waved in the wind with each single strand flowing as if they were spaghetti in a pot of water...flowin g endlessly....n eedlessly....u ntil the timer goes off and they are drained and put in a  bowl....a bowl of flowing hair......that's what her hair looked like to me....flowing. ...did I mention her hair was flowing...yes. ...flowing...l ike spaghetti in a bowl..." lol But I'm also not a huge fan of being told everything either. I like open endings.

  ROTFL - This just made my morning.

I'm not a fan of unnecessary details either. Although, your ode to spaghetti has made me want to have pasta for lunch.

[mare]

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.

I'll have to keep that in mind! LOL

[mare]

ROTFL - This just made my morning.

I'm not a fan of unnecessary details either. Although, your ode to spaghetti has made me want to have pasta for lunch.

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!

[RokofAges75]

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.  So even though I do like my chapters to be similar in length across a whole story, I tend to have a wide range for what is acceptable.  I'd say my average word count tends to be 2000-4000 words per chapter for most stories, but there are some stories where the chapters run on the shorter side and some where they're longer.

As a reader, I couldn't care less about word count.  It's not something I usually look at, and the only time I notice it is for super short chapters (under 1000 words).  Like Mare said, if a chapter is under 1000 words (other than a prologue or epilogue type chapter), it's usually lacking in something... like detail!  Chapters that are mainly dialogue tend to be shorter than ones that have a lot of description in between the dialogue, and while I'm not into over-the-top descriptive passages like Mare's spaghetti hair example LOL, I do like some description in there.  I don't want to feel like I'm reading a script (and even good scripts have more description than some stories I've seen... just saying! LOL).  Long chapters don't scare me.  The only time I would even notice that they're long is if I get bored reading them, and in that case, I wonder why I'm bothering to read that story anyway.  As long as the writing is entertaining, I'll read chapters/stories of any length.

[RokofAges75]

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.

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]

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!

^ Excuse me while I gag in a corner ... would you like me to write a descriptive piece about that?!?! LOL

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. 

^ 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. 

[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