How Many Words in a Chapter: Manuscript Chapter Length
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
“How many words in a chapter” is a frequently asked question when writers are putting together the pacing of a novel or other full-length manuscript. Is this something you've always been curious about? One of our Good Story Learning members asked this the other day:
How long should my novel chapter be? How many words in a chapter are necessary or required?
But I’m not sure “How many words in a chapter” is the right question, actually. Chapter length isn’t necessarily about one number, it’s about what’s necessary for the story you’re telling, what your genre conventions are, and what you can keep consistent.
Consistency When It Comes to How Many Words in a Chapter
Nobody seems to focus on consistency when it comes to how many words in a chapter. I don't think it's necessary to establish a clear-cut rule, such as "Middle grade chapters shall be no more than 2,000 words and always be at least 1,200 words." I could come up with numbers like that, but each book has its own style. For example, a 10,000-word chapter in any kind of book would be quite tedious unless the level of action in that chapter made it seem to move quickly (otherwise known as pacing in writing, or the perceived speed at which a passage of writing progresses). Genres with the expectation of quick pacing, like thrillers, tend to have shorter, tighter chapters, and more of them.
Once you decide how many words in a chapter works for your project, given genre expectations and target age group, remember to keep things consistent. Writing your chapters at similar lengths will help maintain the pacing of your book and will meet reader expectations. As a freelance editor who reads many manuscripts, I can tell when a chapter is significantly shorter or longer than what was established previously.
A book teaches readers how to read it. If you set a pattern of how many words in a chapter, stick to it. (Some variation is okay, but you want to get into a groove.) A great way to keep the pacing lively is by writing shorter chapters—just remember to stick with this plan and not have longer chapters peppered in unless you absolutely need them.
If, on the other hand, you write a lot of lengthy chapters, the pacing might suffer because readers will sense that the story is moving slowly. To avoid this, ensure that action flows freely within these chapters instead of using a lot of dense blocks of information. Should you find any chapters to chop, consider how many words in a chapter suits the project, then chop chapters up or reorganize your scenes.
If a project has one chapter that’s 2,500 words and another one that’s 500 words, I might advise the writer to consider combining them and then splitting the resulting chapter into a more even 1,500 split. That would be a great place to start if you’re looking to restructure your chapters.
Consider How Many Words in a Chapter Are Actually Working for You
When I'm working with clients for my editorial services, one of my main rules is to make sure that each chapter is pulling its weight in the story. If a chapter isn't doing enough, it doesn't have its place in the novel. Or if a long chapter isn’t doing much, it needs to be trimmed.
For a chapter to earn its keep, it should do one, or preferably more, of the following things:
introduce a character or something about the character,
change something about a character relationship,
move the plot forward.
In terms of plot development, there has to be action and forward momentum—something physical needs to happen that helps push the story forward. On top of this, we should learn something new about the characters, and character relationships can also change. Notice that I didn’t say anything about how many words in a chapter are needed to achieve this. The right number of words depends on the genre, target audience, and the needs of that particular chapter.
It's important for each chapter to have substance. I often see chapters that are only 500 words and act as transitions between two bigger chapters. Or chapters that only contain dialogue, which can move too quickly, if characters don’t get any reaction beats. Are these chapters long enough? It depends on what they accomplish, and also the chapters around them.
Do inconsistencies in chapter length mean that a writer has to scrap the whole chapter and start over, or can a client revise their chapter so that it works more effectively? This is the question you should be asking, instead of, “How many words in a chapter?”
Hopefully we’ve been able to illustrate why maintaining consistent chapter length is important, and how to deal with chapters that don't fit your novel's existing rhythm.
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