Chapter length, in general, comes naturally, but only after hard work in knowing why. So don’t flake out on it.

The story is the caller of everything long and short. That is, when you are creating a story, you need to take into account everything you will need to develop it into a flowing piece of narrative. This narrative, though, must be engaging, impactfull, with characters that grab the readers by the shoulders and wisk them away into your world.

The Chapter Summery:

A chapters length must be determined by what it is you intend for said chapter to achieve. Every chapter is an episode. Each episode must move the story along, or present a new dynamic or viewpoint that benifits the overall story.

Create a chapter arch on a piece of paper; go through the entire story, chapter by chapter, summarizing each. Once you have that summery, it will be you blueprint that guides you through the flow of the story. But take note to realize that the summery is not set in stone.

Like your creative energy, take into account for spontanious introductions to the story while you’re writing. When this happens, let it happen, and if the idea is deemed good enough for you, go back to the chapter summery and see if it needs drastic revising.

Story Purpose, in relation to length:

A key component to know what needs to be in each chapter, and thusly its length, is to know the purpose of the story. If you don’t know that, you won’t know the purpose of your characters, then you won’t know what they need to do, then you won’t know what each chapter should encompass in the chapter summery.

Keep the chapter summery fluid, but don’t abuse it.

The purpose of your story will be shadowed in each chapters ghosts of abstract images and general directions of ideas that you put into the summery. If you want the purpose of your story to have merrit once its done, its original ghost must be kept. Or else its form will not resemble your originally powerful purpose for writing it.

Is your storys purpose to give the reader a thrill ride? To move the reader to tears? To test the limits of love and friendship? To deconstruct a philosophical ideal and twist it on its head? To make people laugh? These things need to be figured out before the first word is written so you know later on how long to write about them.

Intuition, in relation to length:

A sense of intuition also comes into the equation; let the scene play itself out! Don’t stop it until that electricity running through your fingertips feels cold. Don’t stop it without letting the energy of it play out. When your body says stop, stop (not to be interpreted as tired.) Follow this guidance. Its abstract, I know, but I don’t know any other way to say it. Let the moment crescendo until IT is tired, not you.

Style, in relation to length:

Some authors like to describe everything; letting every shimmer and crease of folded velvet play out over two pages. There are authors who clap and snap with each action and each breath, jumping like a jackrabbit through the story in a fast paced ride. There are authors who ramble. There are authors who barely say a word; but they each must take into account thier writing style, and what a chapter will mean for them, thier style, and the pacing.

Find the way you like to write, wether it be detailed and epic, or short and quick, and know that the length of chapters, and what characters are able to accomplish will directly correlate with how long your style takes to read through. This can exponentially increase your page count, or lower it.

Last Thoughts:

I always like to adhere to the principle that when you have created a character, that character will start talking to you, THEY will determine when they have spoken to much or too little. Listen to them. They will tell you when a chapter has met it end, or when a chapter as gone on too long and is dragging.

Understand what your story’s purpose is. Understand characters. Understand what they need, what the story needs, and most importantly; UNDERSTAND WHAT THE STORY NEEDS TO GIVE IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE ITS PURPOSE, and the chapter lengths will fall into place.

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