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How to structure your novel chapters

Chapters are the all-important building blocks of a novel. But how exactly should a first-time novelist develop and structure them in a manuscript? And what makes for a successful chapter, anyway? We asked veteran authors to share their best advice.

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But what exactly is “too long?” Should you try to keep chapters about the same length? Can one chapter run much longer or much shorter when compared to other chapters? 

“Every novel has a unique rhythm to it. A chapter enhances and builds on that rhythm.”

“Novel chapters don’t need to be the same length,” says Wineberg. “Every novel has a unique rhythm to it. A chapter enhances and builds on that rhythm. If a chapter works, it doesn’t matter what the length is.”

The shortest chapter in her novel On Bittersweet Place runs three and half pages, she says, with the longest 16 pages. “I wasn’t concerned about the length of chapters as I wrote the book. Chapters ended when they needed to, and if they didn’t end in a satisfactory place, I revised them.”

Even though Hemans likes short chapters, “the events or scenes in a particular chapter may require more description, exposition, dialogue – all of which can lengthen or shorten a chapter.”

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In her novel Tea by the Sea, the chapters run “short to medium length,” says Hemans. “As I moved deeper into the novel, the length of the chapters shifted toward medium length. Overall, they are balanced.” The length was determined by “what this book called for,” while a different novel “would likely demand a different treatment.”

According to Nguyen, “In the first draft, my chapters tend to be about the same length (averaging about 12-15 pages), but in revision, they can dramatically expand or contract based on the needs of the story.” 

In his forthcoming novel, Bronze Drum, Nguyen says, “several chapters were shrunk into a single scene because I found the rest to be extraneous; other chapters were expanded because they combined multiple chapters.” For him, a chapter should accomplish “important narrative work” While valuable to him, he’s less concerned with “a reading rhythm.”

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Umrigar loves “mixing it up” with chapter length. “I think there’s something monotonous about a novel with chapters that are approximately the same length.” With this goal in mind, she “sometimes breaks up the storytelling with a one-sentence chapter that lasts about two pages. Or a short chapter with a repeated refrain, so that it reads like poetry.” 

According to Yuvi Zalkow, author of A Brilliant Novel in the Works, “My default position is that the chapters are roughly the same length, but I also think that it can be really fun and useful to shake things up.” 

For instance, in his forthcoming novel, I Only Cry with Emoticons, even though most of his chapters tend to run 20-plus pages, one chapter is just five pages. It occurs late in the novel, providing “one sweet moment for the main character amidst a lot of messiness in his life. I wanted to keep that chapter short and sweet and quiet. I wanted to give the two main characters some breathing room.” 

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Wineberg agrees. “Sometimes a short chapter can offer a needed pause between longer ones,” or a leave a “strong emotional impact on the reader…that a long chapter often can’t achieve.” 

“Fractured attention spans don’t have the concentration they used to,” says Bell. “That’s why we now see shorter chapters and more ‘white space’ in current novels.” In the past, he says, writers felt that they needed to meet the “expectation that a chapter would be a certain length, which meant not too short – not just a page or two.” That’s “antiquated” thinking today, he states. 

“In my thrillers, I have scenes of various lengths,” Bell says. “The action scenes consist of an objective, obstacles (where conflict comes from), and an outcome. The outcome is usually a setback of some kind, which creates suspense – the reader wants to turn the page to see how the character gets out of the trouble.” When you’ve hooked your reader, “you pile on more trouble in the following scenes.”

He also includes short scenes, as short as a half page, based on what “feels right.” These tend to be places where he wants to get into his protagonist’s head, “where my lead character is reflecting, analyzing, reacting, and I feel it’s important for the reader to get that glimpse.” If not there, “it might be a ‘jump cut’ to another location, a swift transition, or an observation by the character (I usually write in first person).”

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He doesn’t use chapters in his Romeo series. He separates scenes by white space. “This is immensely freeing. It also gives the reader many options to pause for a breath or put in a bookmark – which is the main reason for chapters in the first place.”

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