I hear this question a lot. How long is a chapter supposed to be anyway?
Of course, the correct answer is usually “As long as it needs to be” — within reason. There’s actually a rationale behind keeping your chapters shorter, and it has to do with your readers and their attention spans. In days of yore, when readers appreciated a flowery turn of phrase, they liked their chapters long and convoluted. Nowadays, they like a bite-sized chapter that they can read in the doctor’s office, at the beach, or just before bedtime.
So how long is too long? The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 words, with most authors aiming for the lower end of the scale. You want something short enough that when the reader goes “Maybe one more chapter…” they can rationalize it as only about 10 to 20 minutes’ worth of reading time. That way, you’re more likely to hook them into reading that next chapter–and maybe even the one after that if you work it right.
So keep it short and end each chapter with a page-turning situation. They won’t be able to put it down.
