Have you researched the length of chapters in successful contemporary novels?
In the best-selling novels I have studied, it appears there is a standard length of between twelve and fifteen pages. There are exceptions, but not many exceed that length. If this is the publishing industry standard then we should take note.
However, the best-selling, award-winning author, Sharon Creech, of Walk Two Moons, The Wanderer, and Bloomability fame, has chapters that are a quarter, a half or three quarters of a page. And one of her chapters is only one sentence.
It is rare for chapters to be longer than fifteen pages. Those that are twenty plus pages, are usually split by two landmarks.
I believe a chapter should only be as long as what you have to say, and no longer, but fifteen pages or less seems reasonable.
When I'm writing on paper, I always use both sides of 8 and a half pages in a small notebook, but when I type it up, the it covers about 5 A4 papers in word (Apart from the first chapter which is shorted the then others). But when I go over the whole thing again and edit them, I do what to make them longer so all are over 3,500 words.
Good question, Louise.
This is my first attempt at writing a historical fantasy novel about chivalry. When I started I had no idea about chapter building. I experimented. I wrote five large sections. Section one 10,000 words. Section two 30,000 words. Section three 50,000 words. Section four 30,000 words, and section five 20,000 words.140,000 words in total.
I will not write large sections for book two in the series. I have learned the hard way. I now have a better understanding of how to write chapters. In future novels, I hope to save myself the enormous and unnecessary amount of time I have spent editing.
I have done many edits. I am in the process of breaking up the sections into chapters, and adding famous poetical and historical quotations where necessary. I search through my sections for cliff-hangers/earth-shattering events/landmarks. These will be the ends of my chapters. I will make sure that none exceed fifteen pages.
I will then read through each chapter a few times before adding a title and possibly a quote. I will then add a Landmark. The first Landmark is to give the reader hints as to what to expect in the chapter, but without spilling the beans. The secondary Landmark will be the dramatic end to a chapter.
I will also check my sign-posting, topic sentencing, spelling and grammar where necessary. For those unfamiliar with my last statement, I will explain what I mean. A topic sentence is self-explanatory, it explains what is about to happen. Unlike Landmarks which give hints as to the entire events in the chapter. Sign-posting informs the reader where he or she is at that moment, and what they might expect to happen next.
The common mistakes I have made are, 'Repetition' and what is known as 'Shoes and Socks' problems.
Where I have repeated my self in some way, I have cut the text, or blended what has not been repeated with the original passage earlier in my novel.
'Shoes and Socks' problems occur where my plot and storyline is not as straight as it should be. It involves later passages of text, that should have been placed much earlier in my novel. I will only cut this text if it is necessary, and not merely to ease the editing process.
I will then concern myself with the final word count. I will not take large chunks of text out of any particular chapter, if I exceed the 130,000 maximum word guideline in the Wrtiers' and Artists' Yearbook. I will only cut where it is necessary, but every word must earn its keep.
Good luck.
I do not write with twelve to fifteen pages in mind, or have a set word target. I write what I believe needs to be said at the time. The final cut will determine the length of my novel in words, and how many pages there are in individual chapters.