Can a chapter be too long?

[shamguy4]

My first chapter is kinda long...
It starts out with my character awakening from a strange dream, this takes a just a page. Then he goes down to breakfast and we meet his family, that seems to take a few pages. Then he runs through the streets to get to work, this also seems to take a few pages. then after that he leaves work to come home and that is my character on a regualr day. here the chapter ends...

but its like 20-30 pages...
is that bad? especially for a first chapter?

[Saeltari]

For me, unless it has me by the throat, yes, it would be a problem. My attention span is limited, short chapters make me feel like I am moving in a book.

[HareBrain]

You've spent 20-30 pages describing "a regular day" in the life of your character???

[Peter Graham]

You should read some James Joyce - most of his sentences go on for 20-30 pages.

Your chapter seems to be divided into four distinct phases - dream, family, trots off to work, comes back again. If this is taking 20-30 pages, then presumably things are happening. So why not divide this down into two, three or even four chapters?

Regards,

Peter

[mygoditsraining]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

You've spent 20-30 pages describing "a regular day" in the life of your character???

If he's a secret agent, that would be awesome.

Cubicle monkey, not so much.

At the OP:

If you feel that it works as a "Chapter", by all means keep it as it is, but the warning is that it might lack momentum as a result.

Some books have no chapters at all, or exist as only a single chapter (e.g. Flann O'Brien's 1939 novel At Swim-Two-Birds starts with "Chapter 1" and never sees Chapter 2). It all depends on what you're trying to achieve.

[mygoditsraining]

I thought I'd just add: Paradise Falls by Don Robertson has a 16-page paragraph in it.

To paraphrase Chekov*: "If shoe fits..."



*the Star Trek one, not the playwright

[Marky Lazer]

Originally Posted by shamguy4

My first chapter is kinda long...
It starts out with my character awakening from a strange dream, this takes a just a page. Then he goes down to breakfast and we meet his family, that seems to take a few pages. Then he runs through the streets to get to work, this also seems to take a few pages. then after that he leaves work to come home and that is my character on a regualr day. here the chapter ends...

but its like 20-30 pages...
is that bad? especially for a first chapter?

I don't think so. Maybe a million pages would be too long...

[Boneman]

I've read chapters that were really long, and were okay because they added so much to the story.....Shogun springs to mind. The opening Chapter is 29 pages long, chapter 7 is 39.... and it sold over 10 million copies! Mind you, Jaqueline Susans' 'Valley of the Dolls sold 20 million - there's no accounting for taste.......

I guess you need to ask yourself the same question, does it do that? If it takes a few pages to describe him running to work, a lot had better happen, because if it's just a description of the pavements, road, cobblestones, the shops he passes, the traffic lights, the pedestrian crossings, etc etc etc it could be an exceedingly boring day at the office........

[shamguy4]

no, actually there very little scenery because like I state on page 12 section 5 part 7 (lol...) "He had no time to take in the usualy scenery that met him, as he ran down the corridor headed for work"

its mostly talk and learning about the character and the area he lives in

My first chapters are very crucail and lead way to the rest of the book

[jojajihisc]

Just go without chapters for the whole book that way people are less apt to connect your verbose day-in-the-life description with a single chapter.

[limubai2000]

I'd whack it in half. Cover the dream and family as chapter 1 and chapter 2 as going to and coming back from work. Seems like a logical thing to do and is sort of a "natural" division of scenes.

My .02 cents, your mileage may vary.

[Ursa major]

In another thread, someone has just reported enjoying reading Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, which in the edition I read had chapters of about 40+ pages and one of almost seventy. Now while I didn't much like the book (and hated its sequel), the chapter length was not an issue. That a couple of the chapters should have been pruned down to a dozen pages or less was an issue, but it was the overlong, meandering content that was the problem: splitting these chapters into a number of shorter ones would have made no difference to the reading experience. (By the way, the sequel that I hated had short chapters.)

[daisybee]

Originally Posted by shamguy4

My first chapter is kinda long...
It starts out with my character awakening from a strange dream, this takes a just a page. Then he goes down to breakfast and we meet his family, that seems to take a few pages. Then he runs through the streets to get to work, this also seems to take a few pages. then after that he leaves work to come home and that is my character on a regualr day. here the chapter ends...

but its like 20-30 pages...
is that bad? especially for a first chapter?

Hi-

Personally, by messing with your sequence you may be able to make what seems quite run of the mill (I assume stuff happens to make it a non regular day??) a bit more attention grabbing.

Unless something catches you in the first page/chapter etc, people don't usually carry on reading...and the chapter needs a bit of a hook to make us want chapter two-so what happens when he gets home? At present it sounds like a short story rather than an installment if that makes sense.

If you open with him running to work, and recall the dream and breakfast etc as flashbacks/memories etc of what mafde him late for work then I think a sense of intrique would be better created.

This is just an opinion, and little to do with the length of your chapter-you just have to make sure something happens in it that makes us care, if you do then we'll keep reading regardless usually.

Peace.

[shamguy4]

I show him in his natural element. How he hates work, how he acts towards his family and how he deals with an interesting talent he has....

Yes it already starts with an interesting piece plus he bumps into someone and later learns this person play an important role.
The second chapter gets right into the heat of things... well sort of.. first he finds out some stuff...then things happen

[Nik]

Hmmm...

Depends, IMHO, how the contents of the chapter are divided. I've read several books where different POVs are marked with time-stamped titles, and the chapter just gathered a bunch together.

I've also seen complete chapters that were just a sentence or paragraph in length-- And we're talking normal length, rather than 'Joyce', here...

I've been lucky with one novel-length tale where it naturally fell into chapters, with titles yet ! My current tale (SoM) will have to break by days...