

Then, you bake the dough to turn it into bread before cutting it up into slices.ĭuring the first phase of editing, start dividing your story into chapters by creating an outline. Think of the process as like making bread-you begin by mixing all the necessary ingredients together to form a dough. “It’s during the editing phase when you’re most effective at correcting flow, pacing, and logic,” says NY Book Editors. This also helps you figure out what a target chapter word count might, as a consistent chapter length gives readers an anchor while engrossed in your novel. This is when you begin to have a structural feel of your story. Sectioning your story into chapters is best done during the first phase of editing your initial draft. Most writers and editors advise that you start writing freely at first, then assess later on where to place chapter breaks.
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Literature on chapter breaks often notes the best method is to know primarily “when and how to end a chapter.” It’s not a matter of how many words you use, but how you utilize your plot or sequence of events to compel your audience to keep reading. Klems further advises to “let your content dictate your chapter length, not the other way around.”įor fiction novels, the number of chapters varies - some may go as far as 50, but the general average. Klems of Writer's Digest says that “there are no hard-and-fast rules” and that “each chapter in your book tells a mini-story that forwards your overall plot.” When it comes to chapter length, Brian A.

Fiction Novel Chapter Word Count and Breaks We’ve broken them down here for easy reference. Of course, there are distinctions between writing chapters for fiction and non-fiction. It is important to end a chapter with a gripping thought-one that would compel your reader to get back into the story after taking a little break. A sensible chapter length gives room to build up suspense-yet, it should end the chapter precisely at that point when your reader needs a breather to process the events which ensued in that part of your story.
