I was just leafing through a couple of the books on my shelf and noticed that Children of Blood and Bone has 80-something chapters that span around 500 pages. It got me thinking about chapter lengths and whether people – readers or authors – have preferences for this.
Most of the books I read tend to have chapters that are between 10 and 20 pages long. It can of course vary depending on whether you’re reading paperbacks, hardcovers, special editions etc. But generally I consider a chapter under 10 pages to be short, and a chapter over 20 pages to be long. Then there are outliers, like Camus’ The Plague which has just 5 chapters in the entire book.
Now I’m just a little curious how other people look at this. Do you have preferences for chapter lengths? Do you find it easier/harder to read either? Any thoughts on the matter in general?
by Noisetaker
3 Comments
Yeah good question. I like consistent pacing in a book, so for me the shorter the better. Chapters over 20mins are a no go for me. I prefer about 10min give or take.
I find chapters that are too short (fewer than 10 pages) to be distracting; more than 100 pages can feel like a slog. I think chapter lengths that vary can be telling — a short chapter can punctuate a certain part of the story, and an occasional longer one can hold together a longer segment of a story in one spot.
I think it really depends on the genre of book too, because certain genres just lend themselves better to shorter or longer chapters.