Questions on chapter length (and a touch of shameless story promotion...)

[theskimblishone.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned in my intro, I've been working on a genre-bending gay vampire/paranormal romance (we have humour, librarians, garden gnomes and undead who really look undead), and posting it to my journal. (Linky here, if anyone's curious.) What's so different about writing this story, for me, is that it's my first multi-chapter work where I'm deliberately writing short, one-scene chapters - with a max word limit of 2000 words. I'm averaging around 1500 words a chapter, and I've only come close to my word limit once.

Now, a pretty common saying is that a chapter is as long as it needs to be, but in my browsing around the internet, there seems to be a bias against reading short chapters. I've seen people make comments that they won't read a work if the chapters were under 1000 words. (I've written chapters that were under, or just slightly over, that mark.) The argument seems to be that, especially for online fiction, a reader doesn't have enough time to get into the chapter, and back into the story, if the chapters are too short.

Personally, I much prefer shorter chapters for online fic - I don't have forever to spend at the computer, writing or reading (and I don't have a printer) - but I feel like I'm in a minority, and I don't want to be writing something that isn't enjoyable to read!

So I'd be very much interested to know, as a general question to the comm - what are your thoughts on what constitutes a readable chapter length? (I know, ideally, a chapter needs to address a point or event that moves the plot or characterisation forwards, and anything that fails to do that is more of a divison based on word length.) Do shorter chapters deter, or encourage, you to read - online fiction, published fiction? If a story is updated frequently, would you be more willing to read short-chaptered fic than if, say, you had to wait a month or more between chapters? Does anyone actually try to write to a relatively short word-limit, and how effective do you find it, both for writing and reading?

Thank you for reading, and any replies you care to make - I'm rather curious to know if I'm the only one who really enjoys writing and reading short chapters!

Comments

[starlight83.livejournal.com]

For me, the bias against short chapters is only relevant to serial fiction. When I follow a story while someone is actively updating it, even on a regular basis, I get really frustrated by short chapters that don't *accomplish* anything significant in the plot. For me, a readable chapter length in a serial piece of fiction is one that manages to take the plot a step forward...something that gives me enough time to remember where I was at in the story, get back into it, and learn something new.

If you have a fast paced plot, short chapters can work really well. They keep things moving, make your reader feel like they're whizzing through rather than slogging.

In published fiction, or fiction that is posted as a complete whole, chapter length is pretty much irrelevant to me. Although, if I'm reading something on my computer, I do prefer chapters to be somewhere under say...10,000 words, because past that the scrolling tends to become a bit much and it's harder to find my place again if I need to leave and come back to it.

[theskimblishone.livejournal.com]

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts! A lot of the comments I've read seemed to look at word length in general, without looking at whether or not the chapter actually drives the plot forward. (I hate reading anything that's even vaguely filler-ish myself, so I totally hear you on that.) I'm going to keep in mind the three points you made with regards to chapter purpose, though, because that's a nice, neat summary, and I think that'll help me craft chapters in general. Thank you!