The Numbers

[CloverReef]

This is actually something I think about a lot. Like way more than I should: word count. I really do obsess over it. I have a certain number range in which I try to keep most of my chapters (though some deviate if there isn’t a natural scene end within the range). And as a reader, I get intimidated easily by long chapters. 

As readers, what are your thoughts about word count (or page count)? What’s the ideal length for the first chapter of a story you’re reading for the first time? 

As writers/readers, do your preferences when you write differ from your preferences when you read? 

[Tcr]

Obsession?  You?  No, say it ain't so!  Lol.

As a wildly ranged reader of all sorts of weird random stuff...  To me, the numbers don't matter much.  If I'm engrossed in a chapter, for example, I'm not likely to notice if it's five pages or twenty-five pages.  In the flip side of the statement, if it's boring and drags on for all unnecessary eternity, then five sentences feel like five hundred pages.…

As a writer, I'm bad...  I set myself up, not with a word count, butane average page count (for ones which I'm trying to publish).  It has to be an average of ten pages!  No more, no less!  The line must be drawn here!

On here...  I tend to go with what a chapter feels like...  If it feels complete to me, I end it...  Which isn't always a good thing, as sometimes a chapter isn't entirely done.  So my page counts vary wildly...  From as little as two and a half to as much as nine....

[sweetmamajama]

Personally I hate short chapters. When I see that a story has like 20 chapters and get super excised to read that shit and then discover that all the chapters are like super short I get pissed! So I’d take a longer chapter any day. But I get it, super long chapters can be a pain in the ass for a reader and sometimes intimidating. So honestly medium is the best. Now idk how much this is when it comes to word count, so the words “long” and “short” are subjective. So I don't think I helped much here...but I gotta get that post cred! #thuglife

[CloverReef]

30 minutes ago, sweetmamajama said:

Personally I hate short chapters. When I see that a story has like 20 chapters and get super excised to read that shit and then discover that all the chapters are like super short I get pissed! So I’d take a longer chapter any day. But I get it, super long chapters can be a pain in the ass for a reader and sometimes intimidating. So honestly medium is the best. Now idk how much this is when it comes to word count, so the words “long” and “short” are subjective. So I don't think I helped much here...but I gotta get that post cred! #thuglife

 

That is helpful. It’s good to know not everyone gets intimidated by a longish page of text like I do. 

[sweetmamajama]

Just now, CloverReef said:

It’s good to know not everyone gets intimidated by a longish page of text like I do. 

Well depends how long are we talking? Cuz Kit Kat’s shit is intimidating as fuck! Fucking 40 page chapter! That’s beyond thug life! That’s some gangsta shit!

[Tcr]

2 minutes ago, CloverReef said:

That is helpful. It’s good to know not everyone gets intimidated by a longish page of text like I do. 

Haven’t I said that many times?  lol.

33 minutes ago, sweetmamajama said:

Personally I hate short chapters. When I see that a story has like 20 chapters and get super excised to read that shit and then discover that all the chapters are like super short I get pissed! So I’d take a longer chapter any day. But I get it, super long chapters can be a pain in the ass for a reader and sometimes intimidating. So honestly medium is the best. Now idk how much this is when it comes to word count, so the words “long” and “short” are subjective. So I don't think I helped much here...but I gotta get that post cred! #thuglife

On a personal level, I feel that if you have the same, repetitive nature of a two page chapter system without any change, it becomes boring and monotonous IF you don’t keep the audience’s attention.  A ten page chapter that draws you in can feel like a two page one; a one paragraph chapter (which, admittedly, pisses me off), can feel like a twenty page chapter if it’s plain boring…  Longer chapters are fine, if they’re not draw out to impossible sizes by multiple tangents, thus boring people to death.

[sweetmamajama]

4 minutes ago, Tcr said:

a one paragraph chapter (which, admittedly, pisses me off)

Fuuuuck yeah! Ppl who do that should be stoned to death! Long live the Matriarchy!

[Desiderius Price]

18 hours ago, Tcr said:

As a writer, I'm bad...  I set myself up, not with a word count, butane average page count (for ones which I'm trying to publish).  It has to be an average of ten pages!  No more, no less!  The line must be drawn here!

I go with word counts because page counts are so easy to manipulate (font size, page size, font type, spacing, etc) – I remember playing with those back in school when a teacher would specify “X” pages and I’d come up otherwise short. 

I’ve tried 3Kwords, I’ve tried 25Kwords, and I’ve settled on a general rule of thumb for 6k-8k.  However, I’ll tolerate less/more if the chapter/circumstances demand it.  At 10k I’m generally looking to see if there’s a good way to divide it.  Below 5k, and I’m considering whether the chapter should be condensed with another, or something should be added.  Too short, and nobody gets engaged to click that “next” button, and too long, well, both makes it more daunting to me as an author and gives fewer natural “resting points” for the reader to set aside and come back later (I mean, if it’s a really long story, they need breaks).

 

 

[CloverReef]

3 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

I’ve tried 3Kwords, I’ve tried 25Kwords, and I’ve settled on a general rule of thumb for 6k-8k.  However, I’ll tolerate less/more if the chapter/circumstances demand it.  At 10k I’m generally looking to see if there’s a good way to divide it.  Below 5k, and I’m considering whether the chapter should be condensed with another, or something should be added.  Too short, and nobody gets engaged to click that “next” button, and too long, well, both makes it more daunting to me as an author and gives fewer natural “resting points” for the reader to set aside and come back later (I mean, if it’s a really long story, they need breaks).

 

Do the numbers you prefer to write with match what you generally prefer when you’re reading?

[Desiderius Price]

9 hours ago, CloverReef said:

Do the numbers you prefer to write with match what you generally prefer when you’re reading?

I haven’t really counted, well, until now. 

If I look at Harry Potter (using google, rounding), I’m getting HP SS/PS 4500, HP CS 4700, HP PoA 4900, HP GF 5200, HP OotP 6800, HP HBP 5600, HP 5500 words/chapter.  More googling, Hunger Games is about 3700 words/chapter.  The Hobbit, 5000 words/chapter.  Fahrenheit 451 is 15400 per chapter (only 3 chapters).

Overall, my personal guideline, I find it useful to me, letting me know when it might be time to cut back, or divide a chapter, especially if I’m getting long winded/overly-verbose in a particular section that I’m not trying to make the focus to the chapter.  In the end, I know when I read my material, they generally don’t seem too long/short, so it works for me.