New to writing? Wondering how long a chapter should be?
There are no rules and no magic number.
Let me explain.
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Think back today… what did you do?
- Chapter 1
You woke up, you got up, you got dressed, had breakfast, checked your email / social media, and then went to work.
- Chapter 2
You arrived at work, checked your work email, got some work done, and had a coffee. Your colleague invited you to lunch
- Chapter 3
You and your colleague met up for lunch, you both ate the same thing (how cool is that), you complained about work, then, without warning… a bomb goes off
- Chapter 4
Dazed and confused you make your way to the front door, and emergency services sirens are in the background, there is confusion all around, dust and debris everywhere, your glasses are dirty and your ears are ringing… the fire team arrive.
- Chapter 5
And so on.
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In the example above, the story goes from one chapter to another, and if you count them, the wordcounts aren’t the same. The chapters don’t always switch from location to location either… they do however switch chapters at important moments, where you don’t necessarily need to fill in the details, and that’s a great place for the reader to fill those in for themselves.
Too summarise, there is no magic number, just keep writing until you feel it’s a good time to switch chapters 🙂
Hope this helps, and happy writing.
Brett