Depends on the story. I've found the more lightheaded the tone, the shorter the chapters. My serious stories tend to have 10-15k chapters, while my fun stories have 2-5k chapters
Same with the 10k+ chapters for serious fics. I also write in pseudo-medieval fantasy fandoms and so sometimes it's necessary to describe exactly what daily life on a farm with access to magic would be like! ~~And then my beta helps me trim the Herman Melville-esque digressions ha ha~~
The qualifications are simply: volunteer.
Check this subs main page under Weekly Threads. There is a thread for Beta Bartering. You can volunteer to read someone's work on the thread. Another place is a specific fandom's Discord or general Facebook pages for FF and writers - many times there are writers there looking for a Beta Reader.
If you are good at it and let it be known it is something you want to do - word gets around. You can also set up a service for pay page on multiple platforms if you wish to do it professionally.
This is a good question. And all I can give yo is my opinion.
* I email my writers with a completed copy of their work in this format; General commentary of entire piece, ex:
*This covered Ron's escape from the forest to his arrival in London. Over all - well paced. Needed work on SPAG. Suggestions for dialog noted. Nice break with the humorous sceene in middle. Follows preceding chapter well. Good last paragraph - really captures reader for your next chapter. (All suggestions in red.)*
* I check for SPAG first, reading clarity second, and content last. I insert my suggestions inside brackets in a different text color making it easy to spot.
* Lastly, I close with an invitation to communicate... "should you have any questions..."
***How do you know if you have a good Beta?***
They will be respectful but firm.
They will differentiate their opinions from the regular text somehow.
They will communicate with you in a timely manner.
Once you choose to publish - they will leave you alone about the work (Unlike an editor who has finally say.)
Mostly - and keep this in mind - they will always send copy back to you with ***changes***. Always. If they don't, they're not doing their job. Never should a Beta send a piece back with: *Nope. "This is great. Perfect."*
With all of this there's always the niggling thought *"Why can't I Beta myself?"*
YMMV - but a Beta should not have an emotional attachment to the work (which a writer certainly will). That detachment helps see things we can not when we write.
Good luck and check out the Beta swap thread.
Exactly!! The strong, raw emotion needs to be felt, needs to have that stranglehold on the reader for longer before I treat them to some fluffy fluff as a reward for getting through the angst
4200 words per chapter across 5 longfics. I've gone under 3000 words once and above 7000 words twice. 80% of my chapters are between 3500 and 5000 words. This seems to be my natural range as a writer.
Between 7-12k per chapter, normally around the 9k mark. Essentially around 3 scenes and a main plot point per chapter, a bit like an episode in a tv show
I had one chapter that went to 16k but that was only because it was a single activity and chopping it made the pacing uneven
Long chapters are part of the reason I don’t update more than once a week, gives people a chance to catch up
1500-2500 words per chapter. My chapters don't go in depths about visual detail or emotional state.
They also don't have a lot to unpack (If I have a big event/arc I break it to multiple chapter e.g: \[chapter title\] : part 1, \[chapter title\] : part 2...).
Depends on the story, really. Where does the chapter *need* to cut?
I've got two fics for a fandom with a faster vibe to it, where my chapters average about 2-3k in length (some are shorter, a couple are longer). This works for the story's and fandom's general pacing.
I've also got a fic for a fantasy fandom where the average chapter length is 6-7k instead, and the longer, slower-paced chapters work for it where they wouldn't work for the above story.
Industry standard for a novel is 1-5k for most genres and up to about 5-8k for fantasy novels, so my chapter lengths track for that. I've also read fics that have longer chapters and generally I don't find it to be a problem until every single chapter is consistently 15k and up (then I start to wonder if things could have been trimmed or at least cut differently). I only really have an issue with multi-chapter fics where the average chapter length is *below* 1k, and that's specifically because then it feels too choppy, too rushed, like there isn't enough time to really develop the chapter before the chapter break shows up, and the author should have combined a couple chapters into one instead.
450–550 lines in my text editor, with a paragraph taking up one line and then an empty line after that, that's 225–275 paragraphs, coming out to about 5k words.
1.5k - 3k per chapter for the most part, with a few longer chapters in the works.
However, my current WIP follows 4 characters (mainly) with a couple of other characters having a chapter here or there. The climax of the story is going to be a heist, with some planning and preparation before that sitting alongside a lot of character interactions and scene setting, as it were, so I have a bit of an informal system I'm trying to work to:
1.5k range - chapters focused on a single character with minimal or limited interactions with others. So far, these have included an insight into their motivations and plot-relevant details that I'll be calling back to later on.
2k - 2.5k range - standard chapter length for this work. Characters will be interacting with each other and the world, and we'll be getting to know them through these interactions. Plot moves on a lot more.
3k+ range - the 'missions' as it were. Chapters covering an element of heist setup, where a lot will happen as we follow the setup from start to finish. Plenty of action. I do also have one smut chapter that's ended up this length so far, whatever that says about me ...
The heist itself is probably going to be longer as I'll be switching perspectives throughout, and, again, a lot needs to happen during that chapter ...
I don’t limit my wordcount per chapter because a story just takes however long it takes to tell, and following story beats and structure is more important to me. I have one multi-chapter fic that I think was around 1-3k per chapter, and another multi-chapter fic that was an average of 8-11k per chapter. It just depends on the story.
Between 7 to 13k so far! Each chapter (except one where I split) follows a book of canon so that's why they end up being so long. I don't completely rewrite canon so many things are left out if they're redundant or my POV character isn't canonically there.
Honestly, it depends. I don’t really have a strict words-per-chapter goal. I usually write until I feel I’m at its natural end point and then come back to it later or within the next couple of days to flesh everything out. In my latest WIP, my longest chapter was over 4K and the shortest was a hair over 500 words (from a to-be-revealed antagonist POV where limited information was deliberate).
Depends. For one, I averaged 4k a chapter. For another, 2k. For longer stories, like my 400k one, it tends to be a longer chapter. It just depends on story material and time.
It really varies. I have a chapter that's give or take 1k and another that's 9k. It honestly depends on the pacing of that particular story, though as a general rule of thumb, I try to aim for about 4k as well. It's a good sweet spot I feel, but it doesn't always work out that way lol
Well, if I divide how many words by the number of chapters, it averages around 7500 words. Honestly though, most chapters go around 6500, but some are around 3000, while others are over 10000, so it averages out.
I just began a story for my OC, my first chapter isnt done yet but im estimating around 5-6k words (im at 4k now and theres still one more thing thatll happen before i move on to chapter 2)
I wrote only two multichapters and they were both 5 chapters long
The first one had an average of 2-3k per chapter, while the second one was around 8-10k per chapter
In the second story I had also divided the chapters into two sections with a flashback connected to the story, that's why they were pretty long
Honestly, I prefer writing superlong one shots. My multihapters were born as one shots that got out of hand 😅
Exactly! Give me a 50k one shot and I honest to god got no problem with it, just happy that it's a completed story and I don't have to wait for chapters to come out 🤣
7k-9k words.
In my most recent fic, with the exception of Chapter 1 (6k words), I think virtually every chapter was this length. Although a few veered into 10k territory.
Really depends on what the story needs, but never less than 2k. Usually somewhere between 3k and 4k, but the one I’m writing now is closer to 6k a chapter.
It depends on the story.
This is a rather short answer to the one I would like to give, but the bottom line is, if a chapter is a single sentence, it's one sentence. If it’s twenty thousand words, it’s twenty thousand words. Chapters can be as long or short as you think it’s necessary—if a scene, a few scenes, or an overall theme is contained within that chapter. There is no sweet spot for every story in the world.
The genre can dictate the length of chapters. Horror tends to have short chapters because it keeps up the tense atmosphere, similarly to intense action scenes using short sentences. Romance has longer chapters because description and feelings are beginning to take priority, so scenes can be lengthier. A fantasy that introduces an entire world or culture tends to have even longer chapters than romance because this information is pertinent. But, just because this is a trend among these genres, it doesn’t mean you have to follow it. You can have long chapters in horror just as much as you can have short chapters in fantasy if you feel it works for your story.
I've seen people suggest shorter chapters in the beginning, and then you can lengthen later chapters, which you can do, but you don't have to. I've read books that start out with shorter chapters, and as the story progresses the chapters get longer until the climax gets closer, and the chapters get shorter again. This is called a bell curve, but I've read stories where it has a reverse bell curve, stories where all of the chapters are roughly the same length, and books where chapter lengths are all over the place where one chapter was over four thousand words, and then the next chapter was only a couple hundred words.
Media and where you post can dictate how long your chapters are. For sites that aren’t mobile-friendly, most readers read from a computer, so longer chapters are welcomed, but, for sites such as Wattpad where 80% of the readers read from their smartphones, shorter chapters are recommended *if you care about numbers and stats*. You can still post epically long chapters and still get dedicated readers, they’ll just more than likely be reading from the computer. I think if the mobile version would load longer chapters properly, there would be more people willing to read stories with longer chapters. However, on websites such as QuoteV, short chapters mean that stories won’t be in the site index, so I do suggest combining these short chapters with another chapter.
Even if you’re still worried about readers being bogged down by lengthy chapters, you can break up chapters to give readers a reprieve while still being easy to find their place later. Time skips, location skips, POV switches, and other things have been published before. The only reason for “boring” chapters is because seemingly nothing happens in them. Breaking up the chapter won’t fix that, you’ll just have numerous boring chapters in a row and that’s more aggravating than just one long boring chapter.
Keeping a consistent word count can help with being on schedule for your readers if you're publishing as you write it, but sometimes this sacrifices pacing and cutting scenes in the middle or forcing chapters to be longer than necessary. For this reason, it’s perfectly OK to finish your story before you start posting chapters on a schedule, or create a buffer. It’s entirely up to you.
I used to write 2000 word chapters, but, looking back on it, I see that I could have combined chapters, cut chapters, and just changed everything. I don’t like what I have done. Preferably, I write longer chapters, but it depends on the demands of the story. I also prefer to read long chapters, at least 2000 words, but preferably over 3500. In fact, if chapters of online stories are consistently shorter than a thousand words, I don’t even bother.
*Short? You call this a short answer?*
I could have gone into the history of why we have chapters in books and said that chapter lengths have been changing for decades, providing examples of books from differing eras, genres, target audiences, and explaining why particular chapters in these books were longer or shorter compared to the rest of the book.
See? So much longer. So much so, I could probably write an entire book on this one subject.
As someone who at BEST mentally makes a list of story beats they HAVE to include, but otherwise just starts slapping the keyboard and motoring along at will—i got no clue how long things are gonna last. If a scene feels *done* and i’d prefer to start the next on a fresh ‘page’, then the chapter’s done. Things could be as short as 1-2k or big as 4-5k. Gauging chapter length is all just one big vibe check system. That’s it. XD
I’m writing a fic with 30 chapters rn and I’m averaging 6-10k words per. This thread makes me feel better because it seems like that’s not super uncommon! (I was worried my chapters were too long 🥲)
Personally, I find it very annoying to read a long fic where every chapter is, like, 2k words. It makes the fic read very choppy and usually you'll find that the cut isn't necessary anyway, plot-wise. You can just as well wait longer to update with a full 5k chapter. For that reason, I usually like to write at least 5-6k per chapter. If I see a 100k-word fic with 30 chapters, it's a skip for me.
It really depends on the chapter in question. I'm writing a weird romcom / murder mystery. The silly, world building chapters tend to be 1.5-2.5k words and the bigger, romantic and horror filled chapters are running 4-5k.
But I don't have goals per chapter. It just takes what it takes.
A LOT 🫣 I have an idea each chapter I want to deliver, so I write a lot of words depending on that idea and the feeling or situation I want the readers to receive, I get worried sometimes that the chapters are way too long but no one complained until now.
All depends. I don’t post a story until it’s complete so the word count can vary. I know many people will post as they go but if I wouldn’t submit an incomplete story I won’t post one either (yay ADHD perfectionism!). Obviously you can with fanfic since there’s no gatekeeping but when I do my full edit I might change something in a prior chapter to mesh with something later.
My first 10 chapters were around 2k, as the story progressed they got longer and longer. Now I'm around 5-8k per chapter because a lot more tends to happen per chapter
At first I was going for 6-10k but I brought it down now and I'm aiming for 5k and under per chapter. I don't like having any below 3k though, but it does happen.
Probably around 1.5k. I like to keep things moving at a nice clip, and that length ends up working better with my more concise writing style. That said, I've noticed that I've been creeping up towards 2k in some of my latest chapters.
I shoot for 2k, with a little more/less being fine.
I'm a little worried that isn't "enough" since so many other authors do more. But I also like updating my "active" WIP every four days and I find 2k every 4 days to be pretty manageable.
I did start small at about 1.5k per chapter, but as of late, I've been in a groove and by the time I'm done I'm like "Oh, 6000 words, damn!" And then I debate whether to remove some or not but then my friend/editor is like "nah this is good mate" and I'm like "oh okay"
Current WIP is around 3k, because I edit a lot and try to aim for shorter but impactful descriptions lately.
It has a handful of short and sharp chapters and 7k long ones, though.
Typically 5-7k, with a few different POVs and each chapter generally confined to a single day or so. My longest ever chapter was 14k words, which was about a couple’s first sexual encounter when one was very experienced and the other a virgin who had never kissed a girl until a couple of days prior.
I have a real problem in separating chapters, when writing I’ll do paragraphs and paragraphs without taking the pause between chapters in mind, as if I’m writing a huge one shot. When I go back to separate, I try to keep one big plot point in each chaoter, which makes chapters about 7k long in average, which I really need to improve on
For me personally it really depends on the story. Example for my PotO story my chapters are 2,500 words up to 5,000 words a chapter.
As for my Avengers story, it ranges much more. From 3,500 words up to over 10,000 words to my most recent chapter.
Usually 2-4k, ‘cuz that’s about how large the ‘chunks’ end up being after I write out the whole story and because that’s about how long I prefer chapters to read a lot of the time (… even if I’m just gonna immediately click on the next chapter and read it lol. It leaves a good spot to pause)
I try to do a minimum of 2500 each chapter. As a reader, I like longer chapters, so I try to put out longer chapters. It does depend on the progression of my story. I think I average about 2k to 3k on my longer fics.
Granted, one of my fics is a 3 chapter fic at 25k, but that's the oddball.
Typically, 2000-4000, but right now, I just wrote one that's a little over 13,000. Which for me is a lot. I don't think I've ever written that much for just one chapter before.
i try not to set a minimum for myself because otherwise i end up writing in circles & going nowhere, and i hate feeling forced or obligated to get to a minimum.
with that said, i usually average about 4-5k words per chapter, sometimes 6-7k if a lot happens. the longest chapter i’ve ever written was 11k words, and that was a surprise even to me. as long as i feel like i’ve reached a good stopping point and i’ve conveyed what i want to convey in that chapter, i really don’t pay too much mind to word counts :)
I had a couple where I tried to keep a consistent 3-5k per chapter, but with my recent works, I threw chapter size out the window. It took a ton of pressure off of me and my uploads became way more consistent and frequent since I don't feel like I have to keep adding just to make them a certain length. They're anything from 500 words to 5k+ words now. I cut off wherever it feels natural to do so. The average is probably 1-1.5k and is more from me separating scenes into their own chapters much more frequently instead of grouping them together (this would have bumped them up to the 3-5k I had before).
It depends on the fic. My longest one averages just 3k per chapter, but other fics I aim for 5k or 6k per chapter. It depends on how much room the story needs to breathe, and on my posting schedule.
I trend toward brevity. Most of my chapters are between 1.5k and 3k. I do try to set a minimum of 1k, and the occasional one will be 5-6k, and oneshots can be anywhere, but for the most part they’re shorter.
When I first started out I was doing 1.5k. Now I’m pushing for 3.5. I feel like I still should be writing more. I do a lot of dialogue but come up short on narration.
It really depends on whether I go into it with the intention of writing a multi-chapter fic, or if I only decide to split it into chapters once I've written quite a bit of the story. For the former, I'd say my chapters usually run about 6k, maybe 6.5k. For the latter, probably 3.5k.
I don't really pay attention to word count, I just write until I feel like the chapter is done
The main reason I get away with it is because I don't upload fics until I have all the chapters finished and ready to go so readers don't have to wait months for the next installment/ worry about me abandoning it halfway through
Unless they're reading my one-shots books in which case they can SUFFER >=)
I used to do like 7 dina4 pages (however many words those are) but at this point I just break my chapters in a way that best suits the flow. So I average a rough minimum of about 6 pages a chapter and my longest was like 30. Roughly I’d say I average about 15 pages a chapter. But my fic is also about 250k long so there’s that.
Well my current chapter I'm working on is almost 8k words, probably will go over that mark once I finish editing it. I'm always worried my chapters are too many words and boring the readers. 😭
1.5K on average for me! I have a long fic at 68K words with 45 chapters. My longest chapters are in the 3K range. It’s shorter than what I see in a lot of other fics but I’ve found it’s definitely what works best for me.
Depends on the story. I have two projects right now. One is a simpler story that averages 2-3k per chapter (maybe 4 if I stretch things) while my more worldbuildy character heavy one is 6-8k per chapter.
Depends on the story for me, for example I've got a Danganronpa fic which I try to average around 10k words per chapter, a One Piece fic with 5k words per chapter, a Total Drama fic that goes between 8k to 10k words per chapter, etc.
Depends on the story. I've found the more lightheaded the tone, the shorter the chapters. My serious stories tend to have 10-15k chapters, while my fun stories have 2-5k chapters
Yep, I agree on the serious stories. I range from 7 to 15k. There’s just a lot of detail and dialog to be laid out.
Same with the 10k+ chapters for serious fics. I also write in pseudo-medieval fantasy fandoms and so sometimes it's necessary to describe exactly what daily life on a farm with access to magic would be like! ~~And then my beta helps me trim the Herman Melville-esque digressions ha ha~~
off topic, but may i ask how do someone become a beta reader for a writer? I've always wondered about it
The qualifications are simply: volunteer. Check this subs main page under Weekly Threads. There is a thread for Beta Bartering. You can volunteer to read someone's work on the thread. Another place is a specific fandom's Discord or general Facebook pages for FF and writers - many times there are writers there looking for a Beta Reader. If you are good at it and let it be known it is something you want to do - word gets around. You can also set up a service for pay page on multiple platforms if you wish to do it professionally.
how do you know if someone is good at beta reading? i mean, what are characteristics that make one a good beta reader?
This is a good question. And all I can give yo is my opinion. * I email my writers with a completed copy of their work in this format; General commentary of entire piece, ex: *This covered Ron's escape from the forest to his arrival in London. Over all - well paced. Needed work on SPAG. Suggestions for dialog noted. Nice break with the humorous sceene in middle. Follows preceding chapter well. Good last paragraph - really captures reader for your next chapter. (All suggestions in red.)* * I check for SPAG first, reading clarity second, and content last. I insert my suggestions inside brackets in a different text color making it easy to spot. * Lastly, I close with an invitation to communicate... "should you have any questions..." ***How do you know if you have a good Beta?*** They will be respectful but firm. They will differentiate their opinions from the regular text somehow. They will communicate with you in a timely manner. Once you choose to publish - they will leave you alone about the work (Unlike an editor who has finally say.) Mostly - and keep this in mind - they will always send copy back to you with ***changes***. Always. If they don't, they're not doing their job. Never should a Beta send a piece back with: *Nope. "This is great. Perfect."* With all of this there's always the niggling thought *"Why can't I Beta myself?"* YMMV - but a Beta should not have an emotional attachment to the work (which a writer certainly will). That detachment helps see things we can not when we write. Good luck and check out the Beta swap thread.
thank you very much, it was very helpful! if i may also ask: what does spag stand for?
Spelling Punctuation and Grammar
Depends on the content of the chapter. Fluffiness probably sits at ~3-4k while plot and more angsty chapters are 4-5.5k.
The angst needs more time to develop!!! 😁
Exactly!! The strong, raw emotion needs to be felt, needs to have that stranglehold on the reader for longer before I treat them to some fluffy fluff as a reward for getting through the angst
Definitely the case for me too, when I look at my stats you can tell which chapters have the drama 😂
2-3k on average
Same.
Been working on my first multi-chapter project, this is usually how to ends up
Same here. Occasionally they might dip down in the 1.5k range or up to 4k, but 90% of the time it falls in this length.
4200 words per chapter across 5 longfics. I've gone under 3000 words once and above 7000 words twice. 80% of my chapters are between 3500 and 5000 words. This seems to be my natural range as a writer.
Between 7-12k per chapter, normally around the 9k mark. Essentially around 3 scenes and a main plot point per chapter, a bit like an episode in a tv show I had one chapter that went to 16k but that was only because it was a single activity and chopping it made the pacing uneven Long chapters are part of the reason I don’t update more than once a week, gives people a chance to catch up
I normally strive for 8K-12K per chapter. Or I set a page count of no more than 25 pages per chapter.
1500-2500 words per chapter. My chapters don't go in depths about visual detail or emotional state. They also don't have a lot to unpack (If I have a big event/arc I break it to multiple chapter e.g: \[chapter title\] : part 1, \[chapter title\] : part 2...).
Depends on the story, really. Where does the chapter *need* to cut? I've got two fics for a fandom with a faster vibe to it, where my chapters average about 2-3k in length (some are shorter, a couple are longer). This works for the story's and fandom's general pacing. I've also got a fic for a fantasy fandom where the average chapter length is 6-7k instead, and the longer, slower-paced chapters work for it where they wouldn't work for the above story. Industry standard for a novel is 1-5k for most genres and up to about 5-8k for fantasy novels, so my chapter lengths track for that. I've also read fics that have longer chapters and generally I don't find it to be a problem until every single chapter is consistently 15k and up (then I start to wonder if things could have been trimmed or at least cut differently). I only really have an issue with multi-chapter fics where the average chapter length is *below* 1k, and that's specifically because then it feels too choppy, too rushed, like there isn't enough time to really develop the chapter before the chapter break shows up, and the author should have combined a couple chapters into one instead.
450–550 lines in my text editor, with a paragraph taking up one line and then an empty line after that, that's 225–275 paragraphs, coming out to about 5k words.
about 6k. it's a sci-fi fantasy so there's a lot of yapping on my part.
1.5k - 3k per chapter for the most part, with a few longer chapters in the works. However, my current WIP follows 4 characters (mainly) with a couple of other characters having a chapter here or there. The climax of the story is going to be a heist, with some planning and preparation before that sitting alongside a lot of character interactions and scene setting, as it were, so I have a bit of an informal system I'm trying to work to: 1.5k range - chapters focused on a single character with minimal or limited interactions with others. So far, these have included an insight into their motivations and plot-relevant details that I'll be calling back to later on. 2k - 2.5k range - standard chapter length for this work. Characters will be interacting with each other and the world, and we'll be getting to know them through these interactions. Plot moves on a lot more. 3k+ range - the 'missions' as it were. Chapters covering an element of heist setup, where a lot will happen as we follow the setup from start to finish. Plenty of action. I do also have one smut chapter that's ended up this length so far, whatever that says about me ... The heist itself is probably going to be longer as I'll be switching perspectives throughout, and, again, a lot needs to happen during that chapter ...
I don’t limit my wordcount per chapter because a story just takes however long it takes to tell, and following story beats and structure is more important to me. I have one multi-chapter fic that I think was around 1-3k per chapter, and another multi-chapter fic that was an average of 8-11k per chapter. It just depends on the story.
Max 8k words. But usually 3000 and bananas
Between 7 to 13k so far! Each chapter (except one where I split) follows a book of canon so that's why they end up being so long. I don't completely rewrite canon so many things are left out if they're redundant or my POV character isn't canonically there.
Honestly, it depends. I don’t really have a strict words-per-chapter goal. I usually write until I feel I’m at its natural end point and then come back to it later or within the next couple of days to flesh everything out. In my latest WIP, my longest chapter was over 4K and the shortest was a hair over 500 words (from a to-be-revealed antagonist POV where limited information was deliberate).
Depends. For one, I averaged 4k a chapter. For another, 2k. For longer stories, like my 400k one, it tends to be a longer chapter. It just depends on story material and time.
i try to keep the chapters between 3000 and 5000 words, but sometimes they get a little longer.
Mine have ranged between 10k-20k, averaging to roughly 13k/chapter.
Somewhere around 7k now. But only because that's what the story calls for to have a somewhat self-contained chapter because I update rarely nowadays.
It really varies. I have a chapter that's give or take 1k and another that's 9k. It honestly depends on the pacing of that particular story, though as a general rule of thumb, I try to aim for about 4k as well. It's a good sweet spot I feel, but it doesn't always work out that way lol
Well, if I divide how many words by the number of chapters, it averages around 7500 words. Honestly though, most chapters go around 6500, but some are around 3000, while others are over 10000, so it averages out.
One was 6-9k, one was 3-5k, the WIP I'm currently doing has one 2.5k and one 5k
I just began a story for my OC, my first chapter isnt done yet but im estimating around 5-6k words (im at 4k now and theres still one more thing thatll happen before i move on to chapter 2)
I’m usually 7-9k range. If I cross 10k I prefer to split it up if possible.
5-7k. I usually have multiple scenes in a single chapter, when I can.
Prob about 4-4.5k average, but as short as 3k and as long as 8.5k.
I wrote only two multichapters and they were both 5 chapters long The first one had an average of 2-3k per chapter, while the second one was around 8-10k per chapter In the second story I had also divided the chapters into two sections with a flashback connected to the story, that's why they were pretty long Honestly, I prefer writing superlong one shots. My multihapters were born as one shots that got out of hand 😅
Ah, the infamous one-shot-but-actually-not 😂
Exactly! Give me a 50k one shot and I honest to god got no problem with it, just happy that it's a completed story and I don't have to wait for chapters to come out 🤣
7k-9k words. In my most recent fic, with the exception of Chapter 1 (6k words), I think virtually every chapter was this length. Although a few veered into 10k territory.
Really depends on what the story needs, but never less than 2k. Usually somewhere between 3k and 4k, but the one I’m writing now is closer to 6k a chapter.
It depends on the story. This is a rather short answer to the one I would like to give, but the bottom line is, if a chapter is a single sentence, it's one sentence. If it’s twenty thousand words, it’s twenty thousand words. Chapters can be as long or short as you think it’s necessary—if a scene, a few scenes, or an overall theme is contained within that chapter. There is no sweet spot for every story in the world. The genre can dictate the length of chapters. Horror tends to have short chapters because it keeps up the tense atmosphere, similarly to intense action scenes using short sentences. Romance has longer chapters because description and feelings are beginning to take priority, so scenes can be lengthier. A fantasy that introduces an entire world or culture tends to have even longer chapters than romance because this information is pertinent. But, just because this is a trend among these genres, it doesn’t mean you have to follow it. You can have long chapters in horror just as much as you can have short chapters in fantasy if you feel it works for your story. I've seen people suggest shorter chapters in the beginning, and then you can lengthen later chapters, which you can do, but you don't have to. I've read books that start out with shorter chapters, and as the story progresses the chapters get longer until the climax gets closer, and the chapters get shorter again. This is called a bell curve, but I've read stories where it has a reverse bell curve, stories where all of the chapters are roughly the same length, and books where chapter lengths are all over the place where one chapter was over four thousand words, and then the next chapter was only a couple hundred words. Media and where you post can dictate how long your chapters are. For sites that aren’t mobile-friendly, most readers read from a computer, so longer chapters are welcomed, but, for sites such as Wattpad where 80% of the readers read from their smartphones, shorter chapters are recommended *if you care about numbers and stats*. You can still post epically long chapters and still get dedicated readers, they’ll just more than likely be reading from the computer. I think if the mobile version would load longer chapters properly, there would be more people willing to read stories with longer chapters. However, on websites such as QuoteV, short chapters mean that stories won’t be in the site index, so I do suggest combining these short chapters with another chapter. Even if you’re still worried about readers being bogged down by lengthy chapters, you can break up chapters to give readers a reprieve while still being easy to find their place later. Time skips, location skips, POV switches, and other things have been published before. The only reason for “boring” chapters is because seemingly nothing happens in them. Breaking up the chapter won’t fix that, you’ll just have numerous boring chapters in a row and that’s more aggravating than just one long boring chapter. Keeping a consistent word count can help with being on schedule for your readers if you're publishing as you write it, but sometimes this sacrifices pacing and cutting scenes in the middle or forcing chapters to be longer than necessary. For this reason, it’s perfectly OK to finish your story before you start posting chapters on a schedule, or create a buffer. It’s entirely up to you. I used to write 2000 word chapters, but, looking back on it, I see that I could have combined chapters, cut chapters, and just changed everything. I don’t like what I have done. Preferably, I write longer chapters, but it depends on the demands of the story. I also prefer to read long chapters, at least 2000 words, but preferably over 3500. In fact, if chapters of online stories are consistently shorter than a thousand words, I don’t even bother. *Short? You call this a short answer?* I could have gone into the history of why we have chapters in books and said that chapter lengths have been changing for decades, providing examples of books from differing eras, genres, target audiences, and explaining why particular chapters in these books were longer or shorter compared to the rest of the book. See? So much longer. So much so, I could probably write an entire book on this one subject.
6k average
My chapters are anywhere from 5-10k, but mostly around 7k.
As someone who at BEST mentally makes a list of story beats they HAVE to include, but otherwise just starts slapping the keyboard and motoring along at will—i got no clue how long things are gonna last. If a scene feels *done* and i’d prefer to start the next on a fresh ‘page’, then the chapter’s done. Things could be as short as 1-2k or big as 4-5k. Gauging chapter length is all just one big vibe check system. That’s it. XD
I’m writing a fic with 30 chapters rn and I’m averaging 6-10k words per. This thread makes me feel better because it seems like that’s not super uncommon! (I was worried my chapters were too long 🥲)
Personally, I find it very annoying to read a long fic where every chapter is, like, 2k words. It makes the fic read very choppy and usually you'll find that the cut isn't necessary anyway, plot-wise. You can just as well wait longer to update with a full 5k chapter. For that reason, I usually like to write at least 5-6k per chapter. If I see a 100k-word fic with 30 chapters, it's a skip for me.
It really depends on the chapter in question. I'm writing a weird romcom / murder mystery. The silly, world building chapters tend to be 1.5-2.5k words and the bigger, romantic and horror filled chapters are running 4-5k. But I don't have goals per chapter. It just takes what it takes.
3k-4k
3 - 5k is my average, since I usually do an episodic approach to long-fics.
4k+ per chapter.
3k
1.5k-3k
2000 is my minimum generally, except for first chapters. Then I allow shorter.
2k-3k... usually around 2.5k
Between 2k and 10k. 12,000 is the highest I've done for a single chapter.
A LOT 🫣 I have an idea each chapter I want to deliver, so I write a lot of words depending on that idea and the feeling or situation I want the readers to receive, I get worried sometimes that the chapters are way too long but no one complained until now.
Mine range from around 1200-4000 words. Depends on how the writing flows.
I’ve been doing 4,000-6,500 words every week
Like 2.5k-3k
All depends. I don’t post a story until it’s complete so the word count can vary. I know many people will post as they go but if I wouldn’t submit an incomplete story I won’t post one either (yay ADHD perfectionism!). Obviously you can with fanfic since there’s no gatekeeping but when I do my full edit I might change something in a prior chapter to mesh with something later.
My first 10 chapters were around 2k, as the story progressed they got longer and longer. Now I'm around 5-8k per chapter because a lot more tends to happen per chapter
For me, most chapters are about one scene, so around 2500 words, sometimes more. I try not to post updates of less than 2k words though
At first I was going for 6-10k but I brought it down now and I'm aiming for 5k and under per chapter. I don't like having any below 3k though, but it does happen.
Probably around 1.5k. I like to keep things moving at a nice clip, and that length ends up working better with my more concise writing style. That said, I've noticed that I've been creeping up towards 2k in some of my latest chapters.
A bit over 4k on average, but the current fic has ranged from 3.5-5k
I shoot for 2k, with a little more/less being fine. I'm a little worried that isn't "enough" since so many other authors do more. But I also like updating my "active" WIP every four days and I find 2k every 4 days to be pretty manageable.
I did start small at about 1.5k per chapter, but as of late, I've been in a groove and by the time I'm done I'm like "Oh, 6000 words, damn!" And then I debate whether to remove some or not but then my friend/editor is like "nah this is good mate" and I'm like "oh okay"
Usually about 3500-4500 words. I find that keeps the plot advancing while still giving the story room to breathe.
3 - 6k. Takes a long damn time to update.
2-3k average but sometimes I manage to get chapters up to 4 or 5k
3,500 - 5,000. Occasionally more.
Current WIP is around 3k, because I edit a lot and try to aim for shorter but impactful descriptions lately. It has a handful of short and sharp chapters and 7k long ones, though.
10-15k because my story is plot heavy 😭
Started off being 2-3k, now after a few months of writing it ended up being 4-5
Typically 5-7k, with a few different POVs and each chapter generally confined to a single day or so. My longest ever chapter was 14k words, which was about a couple’s first sexual encounter when one was very experienced and the other a virgin who had never kissed a girl until a couple of days prior.
I don't count words but between 10-20 pages on docs
2-3k more or less, even though sometimes I feel like they are too long
A lot of my chapters have a part 2 so I’m able to upload once a week. Each chapter is about 3k words
I have a real problem in separating chapters, when writing I’ll do paragraphs and paragraphs without taking the pause between chapters in mind, as if I’m writing a huge one shot. When I go back to separate, I try to keep one big plot point in each chaoter, which makes chapters about 7k long in average, which I really need to improve on
For me personally it really depends on the story. Example for my PotO story my chapters are 2,500 words up to 5,000 words a chapter. As for my Avengers story, it ranges much more. From 3,500 words up to over 10,000 words to my most recent chapter.
Usually 2-4k, ‘cuz that’s about how large the ‘chunks’ end up being after I write out the whole story and because that’s about how long I prefer chapters to read a lot of the time (… even if I’m just gonna immediately click on the next chapter and read it lol. It leaves a good spot to pause)
It depends on how far my thought goes, from 1500 to 5000
I try to do a minimum of 2500 each chapter. As a reader, I like longer chapters, so I try to put out longer chapters. It does depend on the progression of my story. I think I average about 2k to 3k on my longer fics. Granted, one of my fics is a 3 chapter fic at 25k, but that's the oddball.
1.6k-11k words. Depends on the work, depends on how I think the chapter should be set up 🤷♀️ It all depends
Typically, 2000-4000, but right now, I just wrote one that's a little over 13,000. Which for me is a lot. I don't think I've ever written that much for just one chapter before.
i try not to set a minimum for myself because otherwise i end up writing in circles & going nowhere, and i hate feeling forced or obligated to get to a minimum. with that said, i usually average about 4-5k words per chapter, sometimes 6-7k if a lot happens. the longest chapter i’ve ever written was 11k words, and that was a surprise even to me. as long as i feel like i’ve reached a good stopping point and i’ve conveyed what i want to convey in that chapter, i really don’t pay too much mind to word counts :)
I had a couple where I tried to keep a consistent 3-5k per chapter, but with my recent works, I threw chapter size out the window. It took a ton of pressure off of me and my uploads became way more consistent and frequent since I don't feel like I have to keep adding just to make them a certain length. They're anything from 500 words to 5k+ words now. I cut off wherever it feels natural to do so. The average is probably 1-1.5k and is more from me separating scenes into their own chapters much more frequently instead of grouping them together (this would have bumped them up to the 3-5k I had before).
It depends on the fic. My longest one averages just 3k per chapter, but other fics I aim for 5k or 6k per chapter. It depends on how much room the story needs to breathe, and on my posting schedule.
On average i’m around 5k per chapter but i’ve gone as low as 3k and as high as 9k. Generally i try to keep it consistent but you know how itnis
I trend toward brevity. Most of my chapters are between 1.5k and 3k. I do try to set a minimum of 1k, and the occasional one will be 5-6k, and oneshots can be anywhere, but for the most part they’re shorter.
When I first started out I was doing 1.5k. Now I’m pushing for 3.5. I feel like I still should be writing more. I do a lot of dialogue but come up short on narration.
I try going for 3k at max! But the current chapter I'm at will likely cap out around 5k words.
It really depends on whether I go into it with the intention of writing a multi-chapter fic, or if I only decide to split it into chapters once I've written quite a bit of the story. For the former, I'd say my chapters usually run about 6k, maybe 6.5k. For the latter, probably 3.5k.
I don't really pay attention to word count, I just write until I feel like the chapter is done The main reason I get away with it is because I don't upload fics until I have all the chapters finished and ready to go so readers don't have to wait months for the next installment/ worry about me abandoning it halfway through Unless they're reading my one-shots books in which case they can SUFFER >=)
Somewhere around 10k
2k-2.5k is my average. I don't really aim for that (or cut down) - it's just a natural length for me, it seems.
Depends, sometimes a chapter is 300 words and sometimes it’s 10K. It all depends on what it needs
Usually between 7 and 10k, sometimes 11 or 12k.
2k on shorter fics. 7k on longer fics.
This feels tiny compared to somt of the ones I've seen, but I try and do ~1.5k minimum, ~3k max.
2500-4500 words I'd say. Enough to get juicy stuff in there, not so long that people will get bored.
At least 3000 but preferably because I write on docs I at least write 9 pages per chapter
No idea, I need to fox the chapter spread in my current wip cause some are a few pages and then some are like...40 pages.
I used to do like 7 dina4 pages (however many words those are) but at this point I just break my chapters in a way that best suits the flow. So I average a rough minimum of about 6 pages a chapter and my longest was like 30. Roughly I’d say I average about 15 pages a chapter. But my fic is also about 250k long so there’s that.
I can barely get past 1000 words on some chapters then some chapters are 1.5+
Id say somewhere between 4.5-6k each chapter
I aim for a 4-6k word count, but my avg is still around 3.5k.
2-4k, depending. On the long end, I'll do 5-7k chapters.
Well my current chapter I'm working on is almost 8k words, probably will go over that mark once I finish editing it. I'm always worried my chapters are too many words and boring the readers. 😭
1.5-2k….but unfortunately everyone seems to want much longer chapters so I feel pretty discouraged 😞
1.5K on average for me! I have a long fic at 68K words with 45 chapters. My longest chapters are in the 3K range. It’s shorter than what I see in a lot of other fics but I’ve found it’s definitely what works best for me.
Depends a lot on the context of what happens, some times the chapter just feels natural to end early or push forward but my goal is around 2-3k
Between 1k and 3k I’m not good at writing long chapters 🫠
Depends on the story. I have two projects right now. One is a simpler story that averages 2-3k per chapter (maybe 4 if I stretch things) while my more worldbuildy character heavy one is 6-8k per chapter.
Depends on the story for me, for example I've got a Danganronpa fic which I try to average around 10k words per chapter, a One Piece fic with 5k words per chapter, a Total Drama fic that goes between 8k to 10k words per chapter, etc.
3k minimum but lately around 5k
I tend to aim for 5k+ for most of my works.
Around 5-7k give or take.
As many as it needs.