Average novel chapter length

A novel has 12 chapters some of the chapters have 25 pages and some have 37 pages how many of each size chapter does the novel have if the novel is. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate. Plotting a novel by the numbers live write breathe. The other thing is that chapter lengths are important if you want to keep your book on the straight and narrow, otherwise youll end up with a tome thicker than a tectonic plate and busting 800,000 words. I personally read in bite size pieces, and extremely long chapters tend to bore me, unless theyre extremely interesting. Oct 18, 2017 from these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. Well, as to be expected with a book niche like ours, somebody decided to write an article for a howto site on how to go about writing and publishing a light novel in america. Beginning writers often ask how long the chapters in the novel they are working on should be. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. Before you decide your average chapter length, its a good idea to think about the purpose behind dividing a book into chapters.

With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and even memoir. Check out similar books that are on the market to see if there seems to be any consensus on chapter length. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. And when someone breaks said rules and goes on to win awards, its tempting to continue reading plotting a novel by the numbers. Apr 05, 2015 i appreciated your information on word count and novel length, particularly since you broke it down by genre. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. It makes quite a difference whether you want to publish a childrens picture book, a 50recipe smoothie book, a science fiction novel or a technical encyclopedia. You get to decide the typical length of your scene. I was looking for an accurate number for this as well, yet couldnt find one, so i did the research myself and got some rounded numbers. Books with much shorter sections become bestsellers all the time. What is the average chapter length in a young adult novel. Im so blessed to have found helping writers become authors and all your writing craft bookstotally changed my life.

Try it on some books with chapter lengths you like, and dont be surprised if it varies. Never write a chapter longer than 4,000 words bookfox. The standard minimum is 50,000 words, and the average number for a full length novel peaks somewhere at 90,000, with around 250 words. And this ebook page length differs significantly depending on the book genre. Ive seen very strong opinions on this, most on the side of keeping chapter lengths within a particular work within a narrow range. Klems of writers digest says that there are no hardandfast rules and that each chapter in your book tells a ministory that forwards your overall plot. In other words, in a 75kword novel with an average chapter length of 3000 words, chapters should range from 27003300 words. I generally write horrorfantasy, as a result much more description is required to properly tell the story. Whatever you do, stay within manuscript length recommendations. Ive been writing a fanfiction and ive averaged about 1800 words per chapter. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. Tips and tricks by writerkellie kellie bowe with 4,362 reads. Somewhere around the 20page mark is about the average.

However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Dec 15, 2009 now, on to chapter length consistency. Incidentally, you have probably already divided your novel into chapters using your instincts. The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found in the black company, with an average chapter length of 11,300 words. This helps you keep the chapters as focused as possible so you dont ramble. I tend to think of chapters as the beat or rhythm to the book. In comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonlycited range of 80,000100,000. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count.

For writing i would conclude, that some readers like my mother use chapters to plan the time for reading. I use a book mark to remember where i was, but stop reading also in the middle of a chapter. Oct 27, 2018 chapter length matters more than you think. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. Mar 26, 2014 so if youve been wondering about chapter length, my best counsel is to. Your guide to the world of wattpad by whatsawhizzer whatsawhizzer with 52,566 reads. Childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of a certain size. If the story is well written and manage to keep my attention, i could care less how long the chapter is. Even if you dont have enough words to qualify as a novel, it will ultimately fall into one of the other categorizations.

That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. A story is technically a novel at 50000 words, but this would be a very slim novel. While no chapter within a novel is an island, it can work as a short story where you have a decided beginning, middle, and end. I tend to be a very unconventional author when it comes to chapter length and word count for the entire novel. Does this mean that every chapter must end up somewhere in this range. Rules of the road chapter length and chapter length. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. How many pages of an actual book does one chapter of a manga. Or is there a way i can decipher what scenes i had written previously before knowledge of scene structure and average those to estimate this novels word count length.

New writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. A first book, is preferred by publishing houses to be anywhere from 60000 90000, any more than that and apparently, they tell you to do some slashing, because they dont want to risk spending lots of money on print costs then have you novel be just like the other thousands of novels out there that dont make. The answer is that there is not a fixed length or a precise word count you should follow when creating chapters for your book. Although the length of fiction is genredependent to an extent fantasy novels, for example, tend to be on the thicker side, sticking to the ideal novel length is still the best advice. In summary, the commonlycited range of 50,000 to 80,000 words does not accurately represent the actual ya books being queried and sold.

I havent heard a bit of criticism on my chapter length since then. Oct 21, 2009 a story is technically a novel at 50000 words, but this would be a very slim novel. May 12, 2012 new writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000 words, but in truth, chapters can be as long or as short as you need them to be. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity hacker. There is no rule that establishes best practices for chapter length. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words.

Check with your publisher to be sure there isnt a set format for chapter length. To give you a general idea of the average chapter length, the range is usually between 3,000 to 5,000 words. How long is an average chapter for a novel and how do writers. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Lets assume you have a ya contemporary at 60,000 words averagish length. Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths per genre and what appeals to publishers within the current marketplace. Youre writing your first novel, and you know you must shoot for around 80 to 95 thousand words. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. And when im reading, i definitely notice, you know, with my editorial clients, i have manuscripts in front of me all the time. When dividing a manuscript into chapters, how long should each chapter be. This makes me wonder if publishers choose book sizes based on average scene length, to create the illusion of a certain. So if youve been wondering about chapter length, my best counsel is to. I usually read stories late in the evening an advantage of being insomniac, hehe, so i dont have problem to read long chapters.

That sounds flippant, even dismissive, but its true. My chapters are ordinarily 10 pages doublespaced word docseach page at 250 wordsalthough sometimes my pages have fewer than 250 words since i use a lot of dialogue. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Sep 18, 2017 in summary, the commonlycited range of 50,000 to 80,000 words does not accurately represent the actual ya books being queried and sold. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre. Jul 18, 20 the longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found in the black company, with an average chapter length of 11,300 words. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length you book should be. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. The correct answer is that a chapter is exactly as long as it needs to be.

Chapter length is very hard to compare, because there is often a large variation in one novel, let alone the entire young adult genre. Another way of determining chapter length is to use the scenesequelscene or sequelscenesequel approach. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. Sure this can get pretty complicated, but it doesnt have to be. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. They can vary in length between just a couple of pages and 50 or 60. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. How to create chapters in your novel ny book editors. Several years ago, my son wrote a short story that i found to be very good, as did many of his teachers. So the length of these affects the pacing of your story, and the way the reader. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length.

Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. When it comes to chapter length and layout, my rule is uniform throughout all my works. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. New writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000 words, but in truth, chapters can be as long or as short as you need them to be. Jun 05, 2017 childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. The ideal length of the chapter is the length that is needed to express all you want to express. Now initially i thought that this was entirely fine of a chapter length. This is not to say that all modern novels worth reading are shortchaptered, or readers wont be interested in your book if average chapter length. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words.

Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. The standard minimum is 50,000 words, and the average number for a fulllength novel peaks somewhere at 90,000, with around 250 words. The collection as a whole posted an average chapter length of 6,100 words. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. I definitely notice when a chapter is a lot shorter or a lot longer than sort of what has been established. Controlling chapter lengths in your novel advanced fiction writing. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. What most writers do is just write the chapter, and finish it when it feels right to finish regardless of length. As far as word count goes, there was another question posted that pertained to that, and the answer i gave for that question should give you a guideline for the different types of books. Dr 1 manga chapter 2 pages of a novel 1 manga volume 19 pages of a novel how i got my answer.

Some novels contain 50 or more and some extremely rarely contain none. Mar 03, 2015 17 thoughts on how long should novel chapters be. This is why writers vary chapter length, so they can keep within the 80k, 90k or 100k words of the average novel. Why chapter length matters more than you think medium. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. For a writer scrambling to keep up with all the dos and donts, the writing profession can seem full of arbitrary rules. How to calculate your books length before writing helping. The average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. If you are telling the story from the point of view of a. My love project is now an ambitious low fantasy epic with ten povs. Jun 26, 2017 or is there a way i can decipher what scenes i had written previously before knowledge of scene structure and average those to estimate this novels word count length. But remember, this is more of a guideline than a rule. If you want to make it comfortable for them, count the length of a chapter in novels you like. At this point, ive usually got one scene per chapter.

Writing a first novel that doesnt represent too much of an economic gamble for a publisher makes it so much easier for the publisher to say yes. When im dividing my manuscript into chapters, how long should each chapter be. Jun 06, 2009 chapter length is very hard to compare, because there is often a large variation in one novel, let alone the entire young adult genre. The average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. Word count for novels and books is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. How many chapters would be average for a novel of that length. Chapters for his first and bestknown novel the notebook average about 3,200 wordsthe perfect length for casual readers. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the. And as you can see, it varies, depending on the story.