How long should chapters be?

[u/Maiuchan]

I'm working on my first published fic; I wrote it the whole story and am finalizing edits thanks to some lovely advice from friends and family who beta read for me. I actually want huge into reading fanfiction until I started writing, and now I'm wondering if my chapters are too long.

I'm my head I broke my story into six chapters, each chapter is between 2k-6k words, but the more I read the more I wonder if I should have more chapters that are shorter. Is there a consensus or am I overthinking? Thanks!

[u/Berriesinurmicrowave]

Because mine's daily I only write mine like 100-1000 words long but that's mostly bc it's daily and I'm a lazy bi-

[u/KathyA11]

They should be as long as they need to be. Some need to be longer, while some need to be shorter.

[u/TragedyWriter]

As long or short as you want them to be. I like mine between 2 and 3.5k personally, but people go up to 5k or 10k.

[u/Bluejayy_W0]

Honestly, it all depends on what vision you have for each chapter. If you want to dig deep into a character's psyche, or if you want to flush out changes taken place in the aftermath of an intense scene, it doesn't matter. It all depends on the rise and fall of action in the scheme of your story. If a character's family dies in a massacre, that'll take a lot more detail and more deep feelings to write about, and therefore, more words. If a character adopts a pet, that's including less info in comparison to the scenario I just mentioned, and therefore, requires less words due to lack of intensity. But then again, it depends on what your intentions are, how intense you want each scene to be, and why. It's YOUR story, do whatever the fuck you want, dude. I always say, if Shakespeare can make up his own fucking words, then you can do whatever the fuck you want in your writing too. But as for me personally, I like to have my chapters be between 3k to 8k words. My writing preferences match my reading preferences, but then AGAIN, everyone is different with their intentions.

[u/NotACyclopsHonest]

If the chapter has said all you want it to say, that’s how long it should be.

[u/Railaartz]

There's no rules! I typically write up to 2k of words. For the chapter I like a lot though, I managed to go up to 7k of words instead.

I kinda prefer quality over quantity though, so it fluctuates how many of words my chapters have. As long as I'm happy with them, everything does. Even if it only has around 800 words.

Some people like to go waay above that, up to 10k and beyond. If I read a story with this much of words, I'll typically split the fanfiction to read over multiple days, instead of just one. But it won't affect how much I enjoy the storyline or anything.

Writing and reading to me, is about enjoyment and getting the stuff out there, instead of trying to fit certain numbers. There's already been plenty of fics that are short, yet they're also amazing and of high quality☺️

[u/fanime34]

There are no rules for chapter length.

[u/Financial_Project528]

I usually shoot for around 5k with no more than 8k per chapter, but this isn't a hard and fast rule. A chapter should be a break that feels right to you.

[u/lappelduvide94]

Typically in long fics I see chapters being around 5k words per chapter, but it’s up to you how quick or slow you want the pacing to be.

[u/Accomplished_Area311]

I’ve had chapters be 100 words and I’ve had chapters be 10k words. Each was as long as it needed to be for me to tell the story.

[u/Wise_Owl5404]

You're overthinking it. Make them as long or short as feels good for you,

But if you ask me chapters are way too short these day, I'm not 10 I didn't just learn to read chapter books. I'm a full adult, able to read ordinary novels.

[u/Ozdiva]

A chapter should be as long as it is. There’s no rules.