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Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:20 pm
steward says...



So guys, I'm planning to write a story (somewhere around 25,000 words) and was wondering if that still needed or could be divided into chapters. :D :D
-Thanks guys., :)
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Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:34 pm
Blackwood says...



I would say yes, 25k is a ton to read in one go, and although its never compulsory to divide anything into chapters I would could still get a good 7 or 8 chapters in there in manageable hunks. You could divde it however you like, perhaps you might want to go with large chapters perhaps 5 parts, up to you.
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Tue Feb 25, 2014 10:36 pm
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eldEr says...



Well, what you've got here is a novella (a work between I think it's 16k and 36k words or something along those lines). There's really no right or wrong way to divide up a work of such a length, but here are some options:

Chapters! The most obvious, most beloved and most used method of dividing any work that's over a dozen thousand words. They can be short (600-2500 words) or long (2500+ words. By my standards, anyway) depending on your preferences.

Parts! Usually, this means that there are between two and four parts in the work, separating major events and whatnot. They're not actually considered chapters (I'm assuming because they're a gazillion words long each, so hey). Not my favourite method, because it gives the reader very few tangible opportunities to put the story down and get to work.

No divisions whatsoever: Seriously, just write everything and don't divide it at all. I mean, that can get pretty exhausting to read, but if the story's good enough it probably won't matter much!

If you're going to post it on YWS though, I'd suggest dividing it into parts that are between 1.5k and 2.5k words long :P Anything more will probably seriously intimidate reviewers. ;)
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Wed Feb 26, 2014 11:13 am
Tenyo says...



Personally I don't really mind novels that don't split into chapters. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favourite novellas and doesn't have chapters.

There are positives and negatives to each option.

No Chapters
Ultimately what you want is for your reader to keep reading the novella. I've seen a few interesting psychology experiments (that I won't go into unless you want me to because it will take me aaaages to explain.) But basically, the more is readily available, the more people will consume- which means that your reader will keep reading until something absolutely compels them to stop. Then when they come back they'll be jumping right back into the story.

The negative is that for young or less competent readers it's much harder to read continuously without the chapter breaks.

Naturally our minds work by breaking apart large chunks into smaller pieces, and we use those pieces to reconstruct things. The more pieces floating around at once, the harder it is to piece them together. By having no chapters you've got the plot points of an entire novel drifting around at once with no way to sort them. A competent reader will be able to use a bit of brain power to sort them into plot strands or sequences, but younger readers will struggle to do this.

Long Chapters
Chapters form milestones for you and your reader. It can encourage your reader to continue reading by making them think 'oh, just one more chapter.' The benefit of longer chapters is that they can be mini-episodes within themselves, which means you can assume your reader will put the book down at the end of one, and you can re-introduce them at the beginning of the next one. That gives you more control over how you lure them in to the plot and where it goes from there.

The negative is that it can have the opposite effect to that first part. I know a lot of people who don't read because they say 'if I had a day off when I could just read a whole book then I would.' It can be the same with people who don't want to start reading a large chapter if they don't think they have time to finish it.

Short Chapters
Short chapters meet in the middle between long and none. You have the benefit of none in that the stop-points are less obvious and so your reader will just keep reading- but also the benefit of long chapters in that you still get that 'just one more chapter' effect.

The negative is that you need a decent amount of page space to look at anything in depth, which is fine for younger readers who are looking for action, but anything worth chewing over will loose its effect if broken by a new chapter. You also loose the structural benefits of long chapters, since short chapters don't have space for much structure.

In the end
Generally, I'd say split it up first into parts as you write it, in a way that best helps you think. When you're done and you've done the first major edit that chops out all those redundant scenes and adds half a dozen more in, then you can start thinking about how you want it to be read.
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Remember: the plot is nothing more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.
— Ray Bradbury