Balancing Between Story Structure and Word Counts/Length

[ReadLight]

Hello random internet authors.

Recently I've been thinking about chapter lengths.

Before I begin, I want to say this: everyone has different writing styles, and that's okay.

You may have a completely different writing style from me, and that's also totally fine. However if that's the case, you may not get what I'm trying to ask.

Anyway here I go. (It's pretty long)

I've read on a post before that suggests chapters should be 1k to 2k words long. I've once done a poll in my book to survey my readers chapter length preferences (currently a relatively small sample).
The results showed that most people prefer around a 3k words per chapter range.

I tried to aim for that, but I always go over. My chapters are usually 5.5k words long.

Here is why:

When I write a story, I try to keep it structured. You know, have the beginning resonate with the end, and if I hung a gun on a wall in scene 1 it should be fired before the end of the chapter. That kind of things.

Some stories can be structured in beats.
Beat 1, character experiences mild inconvenience and tries to solve it.
Beat 2, to solve the inconvenience, character does/goes to XYZ.
Beat 3, XYZ works/is worked on, and inconvenience solved.
Beat 4, but the XYZ has caused/stirred up/revealed another problem.

Repeat beat 2-4, or don't, until you feel that the story has told everything you want it to.

Beat 5, problem solved, character change/learn, or don't, and is ready for the next adventure. Optionally put a cliff hanger here for future chapters and stuff.

I try to do that when I write, but the result is that I often go over that 1k, 2k, 3k word count. One solution to that is to just write 1 beat per chapter or a few beats per chapter.

But in that case, I'm then also worried about the quality of the chapter. I can leave cliffhangers and unsolved mysteries, but the chapters own story, I feel, should be completed by its end.

Otherwise the reader may finish reading the chapter and wonder: "What the heck was this chapter about?"

I don't know if I had expressed my issues clearly, but for those who have read to this point, thanks. And also, do you have any thoughts to share about this?

Does anyone else have the same issue as me out there or have my alien identity been revealed?

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Don't worry about the structure of each chapter until your later edits. The first draft is not going to be structured well but once you have enough of a story to know how you want it structured then you can get your structure down. This may not work for some but it worked for me.

 

[whitewoman]

I just try to do a thousand words a day, do a quick edit pass and upload. It's more about forging the habit for me. My schedule has been fucked recently so I I just skipped a day but ima continue it tomoz. I've learned that forming habits is more about focusing on getting over cheat days then focusing on staying on it. Flexibility yknow

 

[RepresentingPride]

Hello random internet authors.

Recently I've been thinking about chapter lengths.

Before I begin, I want to say this: everyone has different writing styles, and that's okay.

You may have a completely different writing style from me, and that's also totally fine. However if that's the case, you may not get what I'm trying to ask.

Anyway here I go. (It's pretty long)

I've read on a post before that suggests chapters should be 1k to 2k words long. I've once done a poll in my book to survey my readers chapter length preferences (currently a relatively small sample).
The results showed that most people prefer around a 3k words per chapter range.

I tried to aim for that, but I always go over. My chapters are usually 5.5k words long.

Here is why:

When I write a story, I try to keep it structured. You know, have the beginning resonate with the end, and if I hung a gun on a wall in scene 1 it should be fired before the end of the chapter. That kind of things.

Some stories can be structured in beats.
Beat 1, character experiences mild inconvenience and tries to solve it.
Beat 2, to solve the inconvenience, character does/goes to XYZ.
Beat 3, XYZ works/is worked on, and inconvenience solved.
Beat 4, but the XYZ has caused/stirred up/revealed another problem.

Repeat beat 2-4, or don't, until you feel that the story has told everything you want it to.

Beat 5, problem solved, character change/learn, or don't, and is ready for the next adventure. Optionally put a cliff hanger here for future chapters and stuff.

I try to do that when I write, but the result is that I often go over that 1k, 2k, 3k word count. One solution to that is to just write 1 beat per chapter or a few beats per chapter.

But in that case, I'm then also worried about the quality of the chapter. I can leave cliffhangers and unsolved mysteries, but the chapters own story, I feel, should be completed by its end.

Otherwise the reader may finish reading the chapter and wonder: "What the heck was this chapter about?"

I don't know if I had expressed my issues clearly, but for those who have read to this point, thanks. And also, do you have any thoughts to share about this?

Does anyone else have the same issue as me out there or have my alien identity been revealed?

Generally, in a chapter of 5,5k words, you can find some paragraph who be used to make a chapter END to divide the chapter. Even if you don't find one, you don't necessary need to cut your chapter, just publish your 5,5k words in a single chapter, if readers like your story they will continue to read it. It's not because most reader tend to read 1,5k/2k words chapter that they don't read your chapter too, if it's engaging from beginning till the end , they will not find it boring and read the whole chapter without a break.

 

[ReadLight]

Generally, in a chapter of 5,5k words, you can find some paragraph who be used to make a chapter END to divide the chapter. Even if you don't find one, you don't necessary need to cut your chapter, just publish your 5,5k words in a single chapter, if readers like your story they will continue to read it. It's not because most reader tend to read 1,5k/2k words chapter that they don't read your chapter too, if it's engaging from beginning till the end , they will not find it boring and read the whole chapter without a break.

Hope restored. Thanks.

I just try to do a thousand words a day, do a quick edit pass and upload. It's more about forging the habit for me. My schedule has been fucked recently so I I just skipped a day but ima continue it tomoz. I've learned that forming habits is more about focusing on getting over cheat days then focusing on staying on it. Flexibility yknow

I'll give it a try

Don't worry about the structure of each chapter until your later edits. The first draft is not going to be structured well but once you have enough of a story to know how you want it structured then you can get your structure down. This may not work for some but it worked for me.

I'll try.
Thanks.
And sleep well.

 

[Succubiome]

Hello random internet authors.

Recently I've been thinking about chapter lengths.

Before I begin, I want to say this: everyone has different writing styles, and that's okay.

You may have a completely different writing style from me, and that's also totally fine. However if that's the case, you may not get what I'm trying to ask.

Anyway here I go. (It's pretty long)

I've read on a post before that suggests chapters should be 1k to 2k words long. I've once done a poll in my book to survey my readers chapter length preferences (currently a relatively small sample).
The results showed that most people prefer around a 3k words per chapter range.

I tried to aim for that, but I always go over. My chapters are usually 5.5k words long.

Here is why:

When I write a story, I try to keep it structured. You know, have the beginning resonate with the end, and if I hung a gun on a wall in scene 1 it should be fired before the end of the chapter. That kind of things.

Some stories can be structured in beats.
Beat 1, character experiences mild inconvenience and tries to solve it.
Beat 2, to solve the inconvenience, character does/goes to XYZ.
Beat 3, XYZ works/is worked on, and inconvenience solved.
Beat 4, but the XYZ has caused/stirred up/revealed another problem.

Repeat beat 2-4, or don't, until you feel that the story has told everything you want it to.

Beat 5, problem solved, character change/learn, or don't, and is ready for the next adventure. Optionally put a cliff hanger here for future chapters and stuff.

I try to do that when I write, but the result is that I often go over that 1k, 2k, 3k word count. One solution to that is to just write 1 beat per chapter or a few beats per chapter.

But in that case, I'm then also worried about the quality of the chapter. I can leave cliffhangers and unsolved mysteries, but the chapters own story, I feel, should be completed by its end.

Otherwise the reader may finish reading the chapter and wonder: "What the heck was this chapter about?"

I don't know if I had expressed my issues clearly, but for those who have read to this point, thanks. And also, do you have any thoughts to share about this?

Does anyone else have the same issue as me out there or have my alien identity been revealed?

I'd say do what makes sense to you!

Whatever you write, it's going to restrict your readership in some way -- you shouldn't jump through a lot of hoops and cripple your writing style just to do things that might please some people.

You have a solid logic for why you're doing things the way you are currently, and I imagine the people who like the way you write will really like it, which can be just as big as hitting large numbers anyways.

 

[AverageMaidLover]

To add to what others have said, my most popular series is one where all chapters are 20k+ words, and on my newer series I routinely break 5-6k on a lot of chapters. The majority of readers will stick around for longer chapters if it's interesting.

 

[ReadLight]

I'd say do what makes sense to you!

Whatever you write, it's going to restrict your readership in some way -- you shouldn't jump through a lot of hoops and cripple your writing style just to do things that might please some people.

You have a solid logic for why you're doing things the way you are currently, and I imagine the people who like the way you write will really like it, which can be just as big as hitting large numbers anyways.

Make sense! You have my thanks.

To add to what others have said, my most popular series is one where all chapters are 20k+ words, and on my newer series I routinely break 5-6k on a lot of chapters. The majority of readers will stick around for longer chapters if it's interesting.

Wtf 20k word long chapters? I'ma gonna check it out.

 

[AverageMaidLover]

Wtf 20k word long chapters? I'ma gonna check it out.

It's the one with the maid with blue hair (also my profile picture). When I started writing but hadn't actually posted online yet, I thought people expected like novel-length updates at a time, so I wrote and designed that story specifically with that in mind. Obviously I was a bit mistaken on what the web novel norms were

 

[Sp4de]

Yea, you shouldn't really worry about chapter lengths. I have a typical length between 2.5-3k words and that's only because I went with that when I first started writing. I would stick with what you do, get into a habit of it, and don't worry about anything else. 5k+ word long chapters can actually be really nice, especially if you don't post every day. When your readers are waiting a few days to see from you, and then you drop a nice long juicy chapter, then they'll appreciate you for it.
On the other end though, more chapter counts will also get you more views and higher numbers. You could post every day and make your chapters 1.5-2k words long, giving you constant engagement, holding readers' attention, and pumping up your numbers. You just have to ask yourself if you want to utilize that strategy or if you believe in the quality of your work enough to where you don't have to bother doing that.
Wisher Beware and its sequel Ecdysis are great examples of super-high quality works with long chapter lengths but only once weekly posts. Yet they top the charts regularly.
It's up to you. I think the most important thing is actually writing at all, everything else be damned. So long as you have a habit and you can write consistently, you don't have to worry about chapter lengths or posting frequencies. That will all fall into place based on your output.

 

[EliseValkyria]

My advice is to only make the chapters as long or short as they need to be.

Don't try to reach a predetermined word count in each chapter as it will end up dragging the story down in both ways for something as silly as a number that doesn't really matter in the end. If the idea of the chapter is short you will have to see how to stretch it, and if the idea is long but doesn't fit you will have to tell things that you might want to tell or give a better context.

Just do the chapters as far as you think you have said all you have to say about it.

My chapters vary a lot depending on the topic of each one, usually one of a normal day in a coffee shop has a length of only 1 800 words, while in other occasions in a battle there are chapters of up to 10 000 words.

And to this day nobody has complained about it, because they are for the content, not a number. If a battle is interesting they don't mind if it is longer than normal, and the same happens the other way.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

You need to have every chapter be EXACTLY 3400 syllables. EXACTLY. And not 3400 words.
SYLLABLES.

WHY? Because it is a dodecahaiku and a sign of great craftsmanship.

 

[ReadLight]

I want to thank everyone who has replied to this post. I have since decided that I'll aim to write my chapters and stories well, instead of worrying about their length.