Writing a novel: How long should chapters be?

I will answer only from my own experience and perhaps that will give you a different twist. Please keep in mind that anything said here is done to offer assistance and objectivity from an outside set of eyes. You describe your novel as a "long and winding epic story" and then use "blah blah blah" to describe page content. You are using dates to order events chronologically on a time line as though the successive dates will assist the reader in remembering where they are in the story line. It sounds like you are wondering if your outline is too much of a factual description of events, sort of like a documentary, reporting WHAT happened and hoping the reader will find just the factual events themselves intriguing enough to read the novel to the end. I think your overall question is a bit deeper than just chapter structure but I may be way off base. With that said, I offer a few suggestions that may help you put the bloom on what you are writing. Poe said that if a story couldn't be read in an hour sitting it was not worth reading. Right or wrong I have always kept Poe's opinion in the back of my mind when it comes to chapter formulation. Is the chapter able to stand on it's own merit, so that away from the other chapters, a reader may be able to enjoy as a work of its own? You might consider using methods such as flashback to break up the straight line of succession. You could use one or two chapters to go back in time and set up a pretext for the events to come ....so by experiencing the characters or plot in different sequence the reader may gain insight to the characters or circumstances. Also, rather than presenting events as points on the time line, you may be better served to relate events as to how they impact the climax of the story instead of simply when they happened within the story. In a persons life, an incident may have occurred in childhood and then another incident in adult life. The two events are far apart on the time line yet both are pivotal to the central character and plot of the novel. I hope this makes sense and gives you some perspective. Chronological ordering of your chapters is not a bad idea at all, just be sure to avoid monotony and keep your story line multi dimensional. best of luck! queenoffundy

i dont think there is any hard and fast rule about this. a chapter is an end of a thought or a scene (if you will). i have seen some that are as short as a page or as long as like 30 pages.

Your book sounds fascinating; but in my view, 180 pages is too long for a chapter. Perhaps you could divide the novel into 10 parts rather than chapters, and include several chapters into each part. That will mean your novel will have alot more chapters than 10, but that is fine if it's an epic. Good luck anyway, and I wish you success with the book.

In a novel each chapter should always end at a point where the reader will want to turn the page to read the following chapter. A novel is not like a journal, unless the main character is writing their own journal to tell the story. You can start at any point in the story or on any date, and then give a back story for each character, or have the main character reflect on what happened a decade ago. You can compare what happened then with their life now and gradually show the impact of the past on what has since happened to that character.

I don't really think that there is a specific length for chapters. I think that it is perhaps better to keep them shorter, but ultimately it's really up to the author to decide how long they want the chapter to be.

I've read amazing books where chapters lasted for pages and pages, and I've read books with chapters that are less than one page each. I've read books that have no chronological order, and I've read great books that have everything exactly dated. It really just depends on your writing style. I personally like it when authors do their best to NOT fit the norms set for them by what other authors tend to do, and I also really like it when authors are less (conventionally) organized, more retrospective, and put some kind of symbolism/personal significance in the overall "organization" of the book. I can't think of any good examples offhand, but when I do, I'll post them on here. Of course it's up to you, though - you're the author, and it's your book.

I like the setup. HOwever make sure that you have an interesing story to tell... I would read about different writing techniques and read good novels to help me in my writing if i were you. Good luck in your task. I hope that you accomplish your mission

The length of the chapters depends on the matter of the chapter. If the chapter revolves around the main plot it needs to be a long chapter but if the chapter tries to nourish the main plot it can be a bit short one. But we come across novelists who write their novels with chpaters that are of reasonable size.

Oh, I can tell this is going to drive you crazy. Maybe you can break up the novel into each event. Have each chapter be an event instead of a specific time period. End each chapter with a led in to the next to maintain the flow. It would be like having a bunch of mini-novels all put into a big one with the overall theme being your life. Of course, this is just a suggestion.

I really don't think it matters. Many books have chapters that are roughly 20 pages long, but some books I have read have chapters that are aroung 3-5. Robert B. Parker's books have chapters that are really short, but are 280 pages total. So he ends up having like 70 chapters. I feel that you should keep writing that chapter until you know its over and has a good last sentence that will make the reader want to turn the page and read the next chapter right away.

Such a good record this time you all things. After the recall, it still has a reference. Can be immediately read it back in front of what had happened.

Hi, you are the author omniscient and you know up to which level the events in the novel can go. Remember the plot construction. It has to be Compaq not like the novel of Dickens. You know the characters and you know the theme as well. So make an assessment before you proceed. Remember the read of the novel should never be boring and mundane. There is always room for novelty. Take care of them and your novel would surely hit the stand.

it depends.It may be short or long as long as you get the message through your readers, it is all right

Sounds to me like what you need to do is break it up into parts--Part I, Part II, and so on--and then break the parts up into Chapters. Sounds like you might also want to think about pacing: Chapter 2 being the longest chapter doesn't seem to make much sense in terms of pacing. (And 180 pages? That chapter might be a Part all by itself.)

I like to read books with very short chapters. Mary Higgins Clark does know how to make short chapters. I like reading her books. Maybe you can make your chapters really short, if one day takes up more than 10 pages, then sub-divide into 10 am, 12 noon, 2pm and so on. I like the words big also. No point reading a novel with words as small as pocket size Bible.