by Melanie Marten

Created on: February 05, 2010

When somebody interested in fiction writing asks, "how long should a chapter be?" The usual answer is, "how long is a piece of string?" Once the person asking realizes that a piece of string can be any length, depending upon its need, they understand that there are no rules about chapter length in fiction writing.

A chapter should be a self-contained scene, or group of scenes, that performs a specific function within the novel. Most often, that function is to further the goal or introduce a conflict to one of the main characters. Each chapter should have a character goal in it. If there is nothing your character wants, then there is no story.

Of course, the main thing that your character wants will be answered by the outcome of the entire piece of fiction writing. But there must be things along the way that he or she also wants. These are usually steps in the path to ultimate goal. Each chapter should include at least one of these steps. The length of the chapter depends upon how quickly the writer introduces the desire of the character and how quickly it is either accomplished or thwarted.

Looking back on the novels I have written, I can find an average word count for the chapters in all of the books. After checking several of them, my average word count length of a chapter is about 3500 words. However, some of the chapters are only a few hundred words, while others approached 10,000 words. Yet, hopefully, each one will give the reader a mini story arc that is both interesting and informative in the scope of the novel itself.

When deciding how long should a chapter be, the writer needs to decide how much information and description is required for this scene or scenes in the chapter. A general rule of fiction writing is to not include anything that does not further the aims of the story. Avoid info dumps of scene setting or back story. Both of these things will inflate chapter length but will do nothing for the story itself.

Just as you would not cut a 5 foot piece of string when you only need to tie a small knot, you should not feel obligated to create a chapter of a particular length. In fiction writing, longer is not always better. In fact, concise writing that still includes all necessary information and asked action is preferred. How long should a chapter be? The simple answer is: as long as it needs to be to get the job done.

Learn more about this author, Melanie Marten.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.