Fiction writing: How long should a chapter be? 3 Articles

by Jason Lusk

Beginning fiction writers worry a lot, many times about things they don't need to worry about. In the beginning, I thought that my chapters should be similar lengthwise to those in books I liked, if my writing was to be an...read more

by Joyce Melton

How Long Should a Chapter Be? Someone asked me, as a writer and editor, how long a chapter of a novel should be. My rule of thumb is a chapter or a short story should be about 3500 words, give or take a few thousand. ...read more

by Petriesan

The length of a chapter should be whatever is necessary to complete the part of the story being told. I think this is often referred to as an "arc", the purpose of which is to move a character forward or backwards, sidewa...read more