chapter length?

[pebhorses]

I'm having trouble deciding if my chapters are long enough, about how long should a chapter be once you're done with editing?

[Spacepirate]

Such a vague question...

Anyway, chapters length should be as long as they should be.

Seriously, they can range from a couple paragraphs to a loads of pages, so there's no real set trick to how long they should be, use your own eye to judge where it should be.

I would suggest keeping it relatively consistent throughout though, so don't put a very long chapter after 5 or 6 one page chapters.

Put a chapter where you think you need to, so generally when the setting changes (time etc...), or after a cliffhanger, or after a change in tone (or maybe the break induces the change in tone).

There's no right or wrong answer.

[Majyk]

I'm probably going to repeat everything that's been said, but whatever:

Chapter length depends on you. End the chapter wherever you feel it should end. For me, chapters usually end up somewhere around 3,000 words and 5,000 words, but it's completely up to you. Don't try to force it. As Spacepirate said, though, you should try to keep them consistent.

[v.w.123]

It kind of like a play you end the scene with the end of a conversation or the end of your characters being in one place. Or you end with a cliff hanger. Cliff hangers are best when you just ended your first chapter and you want to keep your readers interested specially if your story hasn't really started yet. Also, when there are breaks in time like you move from one time to two or three years later or even days later. Or when there's something your implying happened (like some one killing, raping, or having sex) but don't wanna go into detail. EX.
She crawled into bed on top of his sleeping body. He opened his eyes looked up at her. She smiled and rapped her arms around his neck. {end chapter}

The next morning she woke up to......


Hope I helped...

[Shaun]

Typically speaking, no longer than 5,000 words. You can break that rule from time to time, but it's best to keep them under that limit to facilitate the reading process. Readers don't sit down and read for hours, on average. Some of us here do, but most people don't. So, having a good, mid-length chapter is a great way to facilitate reading.

In terms of minimum length...doesn't really matter. Average chapters should at least be a few thousand words long, and shorter chapters should really be few and far between (if all your chapters were 300 words long, that would be a very strange book to read).

Hope that helps.

[MiaJuliana]

In the books I have read, the length of chapters has varied from extremely short (3-4 pages) to extremely long (10+ pages).

The length of your chapters is really up to you, the author. I would say to not worry about chapters now, when you are writing. Once you are done, go back and divide the book into chapters. End the chapter when:
1) The action begins to wind down. Or, if the story has not really gotten into the action yet, end with a cliff-hanger. That will keep the reader interested.
2) It has gotten too long. Depending on which audience your novel is appealing to, you don't need to make te chapters too long. Some people will sit down and read for hours, others don't have too long of an attention span. You want to give your reader time to breathe.

[SapphireSeaBird]

It can depend on the book itself, and on how you want to present it. Different lengths have their pros and cons. Short to medium length chapters mean that a book can be comfortably read in short... Sessions, or whatever you want to call it. I know people who will only stop reading at the end of a chapter, and short chapters mean if they've only got five minutes they can still do this. When used effectively, short chapters can also help to build tension, but if overused they will make the story very disjointed.
Longer chapters often flow better but they can become tedious. I've read books with ridiculously long chapters before, and to be honest I didn't find it too encouraging when I sat down to read and found that, after reading for 10 minutes, I still had 12 pages to go before the end of the chapter.

If the chapters are causing you grief, try scrapping chapters altogether, write the whole novel, then go back and pick out the places you think ending a chapter would make it more effective. Like v.w.123 said, you could end on a cliffhanger to encourage the reader to keep reading, or you could round it off nicely at the end of a scene then start the next chapter in a completely different place.

In short, the content of a chapter is more important than length. If you've got a cliffhanger or tense moment, use a chapter ending to highlight it. As a general rule, start a new chapter when switching scenes, settings or character viewpoint.