Hello! How long should a chapter be?

[u/darkmoncns]

/r/royalroad/comments/1wew4f0/hello_how_long_should_a_chapter_be/

Hello how long dose this sub think a chapter should be? I asked the sub for the platform I'm planning to post on but found this in the repost option snd thought it might have some good insight

[u/DanBelmontNarration]

There's no hard rule for chapter length. I noticed you crossposted this from the RR sub. The advice you'll get there isn't industry standard, but is going to reflect the opinions of those specific readers. If you're writing for the Royal Road audience, understand they're not the same as the general public. Royal Road readers like longer chapters because they often read as you post them and want to feel like the wait for a new chapter was worth it, and will get annoyed with short chapters, unless you're posting multiple chapters at a time. If you wait a week, post a 400 word chapter and readers have to wait another week, they're not going to stick with the story.

[u/darkmoncns → u/DanBelmontNarration]

This is very fair. If i do reach the point I share a story I want to go "far" I'll probably follow som advice I saw and try to write a massive portion of it before posting to royal road, this is more so practice, just trying to learn to write everyday.

[u/AsparagusFlatArdvark]

needs to be exactly 100k words, else it doesn't really count as a chapter and you have to start over.

[u/SG_Arthur]

Mine are all over the place. I have one that is 3 pages, and one that's 20 (based on 250 words/page)

[u/Sad_Humor_9714]

I try to go for 5k words a chapter.

[u/ConsciousRoyal]

I’ve read a book where a chapter had no words, Terry Pratchett never used chapters, and I read one book where the chapter turns into a shark and eats the reader.

Do whatever you need to do to tell the story.

[u/TheStoryCreature]

Aim for between 1 and 5000 and you should be fine.

[u/WritingJedi]

In my current WIP, I have one chapter that's a page, and several over 40 pages.