In every writer’s life there comes a time when the question of chapters comes up. How do you divide your story into chapters? How long should you make your chapters? How long is too long or too short?

I’m not going to tell you I have all the answers because that would be silly. Besides, there are probably more opinions on chapter length and how you should divide your story than you know. But I will tell you what I do and why.

How do I divide my stories into chapters?

That depends on my story.

• If it’s a novel my chapters are most likely going to be around 2k words long give or take a few hundred.
• If they are novellas they will most likely end up between 1,000-1,500 words in length or possibly closer to 2k.
• If they are pocket books, they will be on the shorter side of 1k.

Why?

Uh, because that’s what I personally like? I actually don’t know how long the chapters in my first book were. And I do have one novel with chapters sitting right at 4k each. But with that one I had a reason. Each chapter featured a different hymn and making them shorter would have been a little awkward with so many different hymns coming in so quickly. However, after that I decided that 4k was too long.

Why?

Because it takes longer to read a 4k chapter than a 2k chapter. (I know, I just shocked you all with that bit of wisdom.) When I was proof listening to my book on audio, each chapter took about 30 minutes to listen to instead of the usual 12-15 minutes for my other books, and that just felt too long.

So, how do I divide my story up?

I don’t write by chapters. (Hymns in the Hills was the exception.) I just write. After I have reached the end of the story I find out how many words my story is and then figure out how many chapters there would be if each chapter was around 2k words. Then I start formatting. I do try not to end a chapter with only a little bit of a scene left. I know some people don’t like how I end my chapters, but honestly, I don’t care. As a reader I almost never pay attention to chapters unless they are really long, or if I am bored with the book or scene and am looking for the end of the chapter and wishing it would hurry up!

Could I do something different?

Of course! Like I said before, there are many, many ways to divide stories into chapters. Some people like to stop their stories in the middle of something exciting. Some like long and short chapters in their books. Some writers write by chapter and so the length may vary. And the list goes on.

Do you like longer or shorter chapters? Or do you even notice? If you are a writer, how do you divide your chapters? Are they all similar in length or do you have long and short ones?