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Chapter length



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Sun Mar 01, 2015 4:18 pm
Afternight says...



I've been writing this thriller story the first part of which I've already put up on the site but I have a problem with the chapter length. No matter what I do I can’t get the chapter longer than 2 pages. It’s like the story is made of a lot of short stories. I've also tried connecting two chapter but that doesn't seem to work because the characters jump from one area to another. Any ideas?
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Sun Mar 01, 2015 4:31 pm
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Tenyo says...



For me personally, I always start off with really short chapters during my first draft. They usually double in length when I do the second, so you could try getting through the first full draft and see if that works.

Reading the chapter you put on YWS, it looks like you've covered the bare basics of what needs to be included, but not the rest, and it's the rest that brings it to life.

What I'd recommend is to grab your notebook, go sit on a train and write everything. Pretty soon you'll come to a block, when you'll have covered all the basics and you'll need to delve deeper. Lighting, noise levels, body language, special positioning, colours, they all play a part in the way we see the world. It's all that excess information we take in without realising it, and by sitting down just to write you'll have to force yourself to open up to the everything else that your scene needs. Once you've passed that block it'll be easy, but this is the best way I know of how to figure it out.

If you're not a train frequenter then anywhere public will do, somewhere with a lot of sound and movement where you can sit and be still.

Try it out! And if it doesn't work you can come back and spam me =]
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Mon Mar 02, 2015 4:10 pm
LadySpark says...



There's nothing wrong with short chapters! If that's your style, so be it. Some people like 10k chapters, some people like 1k, and other's like some in the middle. It's all about your personal style. To connect the chapters, try to continue your thoughts through the chapters to make it flow.

How I'd do it is, plot out your chapters. It can be as detailed as you want, or as simple as you wish. Once you've done that, plot out your chapters in chunks. Like chapter 1, 2, and 3 are in a group together, and 4, 5, and 6 are together. In these chunks plan one event that continues through them. It could be an attack from a monster building up, or simple what happens during a certain day. That way, you train yourself to continue your story through the chapters, and you can start new plot themes as you go through.

Don't forget though, it's only your first draft! It's totally okay for things to not be perfect. Don't worry about it, really. With practice and editing, I'm sure your story will start to flow!
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Mon Mar 02, 2015 5:13 pm
AttackOfTheFlash says...



Hello!
The advice above is fabulous, and I recommend following it. :)
I agree plotting each chapter out helps. It helps me, at least! When planning out a story I often write a chapter number/name down and make little bullets under it. Like a list.
If your chapters are short, it's perfectly okay. Personally, I struggle to get my chapters over 3,000 words. It's just your style. Have you ever read a book by James Patterson? His chapters are only a couple pages long! Writers (even published authors) have their own styles. Yours is unique, just like everyone else's. :D
Best of luck with your draft!
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Tue Mar 03, 2015 1:22 am
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Pretzelstick says...



I think that there is no right or wrong answer, because to be honest, every writer has their own preference and pace of the chapter. Some like to write short chapters and other longer ones, and then some people like reading longer or shorter chapters.

I used to have this problems like you where I always thought that all of my chapters in my novel were to short and I really worked on making them longer, but I honestly ended up squishing things in and it made my writing worse. When I let go and realized that every chapter is different and that there are no rules concerning chapters, I felt much better and I could write more freely.

I am also one of those writers who don't write in chapters anyways, I write the scenes that pop into my head and then later on down the road, when I am getting them ready to publish on YWS, I organize them in chapters and page and so on.

My last piece of advice is just to go with the flow of your writing, every chapter will have a different pacing and length and that is perfectly okay.

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