Chapter Size

I talked with my sister the other day and she mentioned that the chapter sizes in my first draft (12 pages per chapter) are too small. I extended it a little bit but i'm just wondering what do you guys think is a reasonable chapter size for a YA book?

I'd say anything from 5-15 pages, depending on the story. Shorter or longer chapters can work, but they're harder to pull off.

I'm currently reading a YA book with less than 8 pages per chapter. It's a suspense novel, so the short chapters help the story maintain its quick pace. (As a general rule, the shorter the chapter, the faster the pace of the story.)

I'd ask your sister why she thinks the chapters are too short. It could be a problem with your writing, or it could be her personal preference. (Is nothing much happening in any given chapter? Are you not spending enough time setting up the scenes/characters? Are the chapter breaks at awkward places? Etc.)

I usually find 12 to 18 pages a good range for a final draft chapter.  ^*

However you mentioned a first draft, so I think your sister has a good point in telling you to write more. "Why?" because it is your first draft you are most likely going to find some errors that need to be fixed, thus reducing your page count.

I'm not to sure about YA books page length, because I jumped from children's books to adult books when I was a kid completely ignoring the YA section.

edited 2nd Mar '11 7:46:12 AM by EldritchBlueRose

Has ADD, plays World of Tanks, thinks up crazy ideas like children making spaceships for Hitler. Occasionally writes them down.

Ah well my viewpoint as that I am trying to get the barebone plot done and touch on some subplots, I can add stuff in the next draft. But I can also see your point. The reason I was previously going by a set chapter count was to establish a system. Just because that's most comfortable to me. also The way I build each chapter is

Beginning>Event>cliffhanger

My objective is to have every chapter end with some kind of hook or question unanswered so the readers have incentive to keep reading.

I actually like books that have lots of smaller chapters.

Nice and convenient.

Or you could be like a certain popular writer... and not use chapters at all.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! ~ GOD

^ No. Not just no, but HELL NO. Chapters are extremely useful in breaking up a reading session. End an episode, an arc, switch perspectives, give a breather, anything really. Chapters help to break it up into readable chunks.

As per size it matters not so long as the end product is good. The chapter can be a paragraph or it can damn near be a Doorstopper on its own. There's really no good rule of thumb.

Lots of authors don't bother with chapters. I don't like that, though.

Short chapters are nice. Like, 5-10 pages. Much more manageable.

Upper limit... I don't know. Could you get away with 30 pages? Much more than that and you'd probably have to start calling them "acts" or "volumes" or something.

edited 3rd Mar '11 12:55:36 PM by BobbyG

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I think that chapter length should really depend on the length of the novel itself.

Shorter chapters are easier to read, you know? But I also believe that there's such a thing as too many chapters... for example, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle has no fewer than 127 chapters, most of which are about a page long. This is a stylistic decision on Vonnegut's part, and while I adored Cat's Cradle for the most part, the amount of chapters bothered me because it seemed to give me less incentive to pick it up and read it because I knew that finishing a chapter was not an accomplishment in that novel. Also, it kind of interrupted the flow of things.

I don't know if anyone else has the same problem; maybe it's just me. Either way, that's how I feel.

On the other hand, chapters that are too long can be really, really tedious. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but I know that I've read a few novels with ridiculous chapter lengths. But again, it all depends on the length of the work.

If your novel is long, I'd shoot for around 20-30 chapters, and if it's short, 10-15. Once again, that's just my judgment and how I like my novels :P

I wrote a novel that's about 136,000 words and 29 chapters long; the chapters vary in length from around 2,500 words to 7,500, and the average length is around 4,700 words. I'm really proud of how I did that, but once again, that's just my opinion.

I hope that was helpful :) If it was convoluted, let me know, and I'll try to make myself clearer.

(Edit: You're referring to page lengths at the top of your post. For comparison, my chapters are generally about 9 single-spaced pages with 11-point font in Microsoft Word; the extremes are 5 pages long and 13 pages long.)

edited 3rd Mar '11 3:56:01 PM by Volatin

I'd rather not bother with such (relatively) useless self-questioning, so I apply a single rule: if I have reached page eight (Liberation Sans 11pt, default inter-paragraph spacing) without closing the chapter, I just keep going and going until it closes itself, regardless of amount.

Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?

The length of chapters can vary. You could have long ones that take a tenth of the book like Eion Colfer's works (Artemis Fowl, Airman) or short one that span 2-6 pages like James Patterson (Maximum Ride, Dainel X).

Also, keep in mind about section breaks. Eion Colfer uses them at a good pace, while Suzanne Collins of The Hunger Games fame never uses them, ever (which I find extremely annoying, as you can tell). James Patterson's chapters are his section breaks.

Keep in mind that James Patterson's works are Love It or Hate It, due to accusions of Mary Sues. And his short chapters worked in Maximum Ride, while it failed big time in Dainel X (my one-star review of it can be found in the Literature section, thank you very much).

Phew.

EDIT: On a unrelated not, I keep thinking about the actor of Edward every time I see James Patterson's name. I don't know why, but it's very strange.

Feel free to discuss about anything I included above.

edited 4th Mar '11 2:07:39 PM by chihuahua0