# How short is too short?



## Vore Writer (May 13, 2008)

I'm asking because the majority of the chapters in my story are a page long. The story I'm writing is a mystery, maybe even on the lines of being a thriller, and one of my biggest influence in that genre is James Patterson. I'm certain part of it is on style, but I'm not sure if it's a nasty habit or not.

There's a lot more I want to say, but right now my mind is blanking out.


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## Adelio Altomar (May 13, 2008)

Vore Writer said:


> I'm asking because the majority of the chapters in my story are a page long. The story I'm writing is a mystery, maybe even on the lines of being a thriller, and one of my biggest influence in that genre is James Patterson. I'm certain part of it is on style, but I'm not sure if it's a nasty habit or not.
> 
> There's a lot more I want to say, but right now my mind is blanking out.



Look at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.


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## Kiriska (May 13, 2008)

Too long and too short are a matter of preference for the most part. How many words is it? "A page long" is rather subjective considering variables in font, size, and spacing.


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## Lucid (May 13, 2008)

There is no such thing as too short really.  I mean I've seen books that like almost every page is a new chapter and then some where chapters are 50 pages long.  As long as the pacing is good chapter length doesn't matter...


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## Vore Writer (May 13, 2008)

Kiriska said:


> Too long and too short are a matter of preference for the most part. How many words is it? "A page long" is rather subjective considering variables in font, size, and spacing.



I'll have to say about 650, give or take a hundred words. Some pages are mostly description and some are dialogue, and I use Courier New, ten with no spacing.


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## kitreshawn (May 14, 2008)

As people have said there is no really set length to a chapter, and some people decide what makes a chapter differently than others.

A chapter is kind of like a paragraph.  Every paragraph has one topic that it is talking about.  Every chapter has one piece of the story that it is talking about.  So long as your chapters each have a goal and get that goal accomplished than you are fine.

That said if every chapter is about a page long there are a lot of things that could be going on that might not be all that good.  You may be breaking to a new chapter when you really do not need to.  You may be rushing the story forward in places where you should be stretching it out.  It is even possible that when you "design" a chapter you don't have enough stuff to go into it.

But then again it is perfectly possible that everything is fine and you just write short chapters.  It is impossible to tell without an example.


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## Kiriska (May 14, 2008)

650 words sounds plenty fine to me. I really wouldn't see that as only a page, especially with your size 10 font and no spacing. If you ever printed that in a book, the sizing would be completely different and result in more pages. Adjusted to the Courier New, 12 point, double spacing (which is what I usually use), that's about three pages already.

But yeah, emphasis on the "does it feel right?" to actual technical details.


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## M. LeRenard (May 14, 2008)

It's too short if you cut it off too early.  That's really all I can say.


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## TakeWalker (May 14, 2008)

What MLR said. If you're getting across what you want to get across, and the chapter sizes don't cause the story to flow choppily, then you're simply writing chapters as long as they need to be.


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## Poetigress (May 14, 2008)

From what I remember of reading the first couple _Maximum Ride_ books, if you're emulating Patterson, short chapters are the way to go.  Most of the 'popular' (or 'commercial' or whatever you'd want to call it) thrillers I've read recently have had very short chapters.  I don't know if that's a genre preference, a nod to shorter attention spans, a natural outgrowth of the thriller's pacing, or some combination, but I've definitely noticed short chapters as a trend.

That said, though, I wholeheartedly agree that chapters should be as long or as short as they need to be within that particular book.  Style, genre, audience, pacing -- all these can influence chapter length, but in the end, if it feels right for the story, that's good enough for me.


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## Vore Writer (May 14, 2008)

I'm certain it feels right to me. I tell what's important in that particular chapter, and move on. As for flow, I think it flows nicely but it wouldn't surprise me if it's choppy in some places.

Thanks for the replies.


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