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j. d. worthington · 25th December 2007, 08:50 PM

As has been said by others, there really is no hard and fast rule on either chapter length or on using (or not using) chapter titles. Frankly, the best thing is to tailor your practice to fit each tale. Some will have fairly short chapters, others quite long. Moorcock, for instance, has a chapter in The Brothel in Rosenstrasse that comes out at something over 60 pages, iirc; while Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass has one that is only a brief line.

Essentially, when it comes to chapters, a story will normally define a chapter's ending by it being a dramatic pause; sometimes this will be a "cliffhanger" ending that the tale (or chapter) has been building up to at that point; sometimes a transition from one scene of action to another, or one character's POV to another, etc.; but it is usually defined by the internal logic of the tale itself -- so no arbitrary numbers are set as a rule.

On the subject of chapter headings: Again, it should be by the requirements of the story. Some chapter titles are descriptive of the general gist of that chapter; some are a quotation that has been broken into segments, so that the entire quotation is gradually revealed over the course of a subset of chapters (or an entire book or story); sometimes they are statements made in ironic contrast to the text, whether on the level of story, tone, message, etc. And not all stories require such -- in fact, with some, it is a distinct disadvantage, a distraction, and unnecessary. (One note being: if you're going to have chapter titles, it helps if you put as much thought into them as you do into making your text as a whole as good as possible.)

While there are hard-and-fast rules for submitting material, when it comes to actually writing a book (or story, etc.), the "rules" are more "guidelines", and much more flexible, allowing a greater leeway for artistic freedom and self-expression. So the best advice is to not set some such arbitrary rule for yourself as something that can't be broken. At most, set it as a guideline for general practice, but something which is always open to change depending on the needs of whatever story you are telling at the time.....

25th December 2007, 08:50 PM	#30 (permalink)
j. d. worthington Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Location: Texas Posts: 8,635	Re: Chapter Length. As has been said by others, there really is no hard and fast rule on either chapter length or on using (or not using) chapter titles. Frankly, the best thing is to tailor your practice to fit each tale. Some will have fairly short chapters, others quite long. Moorcock, for instance, has a chapter in The Brothel in Rosenstrasse that comes out at something over 60 pages, iirc; while Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass has one that is only a brief line. Essentially, when it comes to chapters, a story will normally define a chapter's ending by it being a dramatic pause; sometimes this will be a "cliffhanger" ending that the tale (or chapter) has been building up to at that point; sometimes a transition from one scene of action to another, or one character's POV to another, etc.; but it is usually defined by the internal logic of the tale itself -- so no arbitrary numbers are set as a rule. On the subject of chapter headings: Again, it should be by the requirements of the story. Some chapter titles are descriptive of the general gist of that chapter; some are a quotation that has been broken into segments, so that the entire quotation is gradually revealed over the course of a subset of chapters (or an entire book or story); sometimes they are statements made in ironic contrast to the text, whether on the level of story, tone, message, etc. And not all stories require such -- in fact, with some, it is a distinct disadvantage, a distraction, and unnecessary. (One note being: if you're going to have chapter titles, it helps if you put as much thought into them as you do into making your text as a whole as good as possible.) While there are hard-and-fast rules for submitting material, when it comes to actually writing a book (or story, etc.), the "rules" are more "guidelines", and much more flexible, allowing a greater leeway for artistic freedom and self-expression. So the best advice is to not set some such arbitrary rule for yourself as something that can't be broken. At most, set it as a guideline for general practice, but something which is always open to change depending on the needs of whatever story you are telling at the time.....