Ideal Chapter Length

grimbous

grimbous

Really Experienced
Hey all. Grimbous is the name. I rediscovered this site a few weeks back and I've been hooked ever since. I'm spending way too much of my free time on here. lol I haven't written this much in years!

Some question I thought I'd throw out there to the community. What do you feel is the ideal chapter length here on CHYOA? Why? Do you have different preferences as a reader than as a writer?

This may have been discussed before but I didn't see it.

I think my preference would be somewhere between a page to roughly two to three pages long. When I say page I am using my browser window as a guide here. This is my preference as both a reader and a writer. Anything shorter and I find I can't get a flow going, anything longer and I feel like I should just go sit down and read a novel. Really short chapters I find downright jarring, but I understand some people might like lots of little options along the way.

When I am writing on here I am finding that I just do breaks anywhere it feels right. Anywhere where something significant has happened to move the story forward and a new interesting possibility has opened up. Once in a while I just do a chapter break to manage the current chapter length, but usually the former.

Anyways, what do you folks think?
 
grimbous said:
What do you feel is the ideal chapter length here on CHYOA?
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I think there is no general answer to it. Depending on the kind of story, it could be 10 words or 5000.

grimbous said:
Why?
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- If it is a quite linear story without many points for possible branching, 2000 words could fit some chapters. Published novels seem to have chapters with up to 5000 words (or even more) but for reading online I think shorter chapter fits better. If I read a printed novel I usually bookmark at the end of a chapter, though I previously expected the length and only start reading if I have enough time for that.
- For stories with many branches, you could end a chapter if there is a good point to branch out. So whenever you can ask an interesting question, you could end the chapter.
- For 2nd person CHYOA stories or game like stories, I would prefer shorter chapters to have the control over the character you are personifying. Even if it is only a single sentence or a word.

And as usual, the answer probably lies in between.
 
Unlike mtM, I do have fairly strong preferences on length, though keep in mind all this is just me. For one thing I find myself intensely irritated by any "chapter" less than both around 100 words and a good solid paragraph long.

On the other hand anything more than around 2000 words and my mind kind of glazes over in "wall-of-text" mode unless broken up somehow, like with --- line breaks or pictures.

Furthermore I find that I personally am fond of stories with meaningful user/author interactions, such as [Quests] and ones with lots of comments I can read...

Hope that helps!
 
My opinion?
Build-a-bot or similar - any length for creation, normal length once story begins.
Normally - 100+ words and a good paragraph minimum, 200+ words and three paragraphs preferred.
Sex scene - Enough words of sexyness to fill the screen. I HATE stories that say "And he put her dick in her and they fucked until he came. He pulled out. 'That was great babe.' He said, and left." I need description.

I can handle pretty much any length of text, so long as it is both interesting and on-topic. I can't read a scene where the PoV repeatedly changes, and obviously I can't read something boring.
 
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lol, I agree with GenericEditor. I hate it when the sex scene is "She sucked, he licked, they fucked, he pumped, he left, the end".

Honestly, it depends on the story, and the author. Some authors can make long chapters, and keep your interest. Others, it is like "Just get on with it". I personally grew up around novels, and love reading novels. If the author writes chapters that long, as long as the contend is good, then sure, long form is fine.

Of course, it also does get annoying with those stories that have paths leading to the same chapter, because I find I read them to see if anything was changed, then realize it was a copy and paste once I get to the end. Grah!
 
hard to say, i'm still relatively new to all this as I try to find story paths that follow on relatively organically from my own ideas, and try to flesh out those chapters as much as possible with enough character insight and sexuality. some chapters I've seen tend to be relatively quick in order to keep the action quick, but also tend to lack substance in order to get to the sex or whatever sexual situation lies at the heart of the story being told.

my big issue usually involves trying to find out how to bring a story to a satisfying end, which is always difficult as stories tend to have so many possible avenues of exploration, and of course the old saying being that 'stories never die'.
 
Whenever I write a chapter, my goal is to see a single plot point or noteworthy scene through all the way through its completion. There are obviously exceptions, because some plot points will be way too big for a single digestible chapter, but generally speaking a prospective chapter should totally cover one fully-formed idea.

I can admit very short chapters annoy me as both a reader and as an author.
 
I really dislike long chapters. Typically these have parts that I could see branching from but the author had a singular vision when writing it. The medium is Choose your own, not let's read a linear story.

It really depends on the author. I can forgive a long chapter if it is well written and formatted. And a short chapter if it makes good use of the medium.
 
I tend to write longer-than-usual chapters, from what I can tell by comparing mine to others. My usual chapter length seems to be right around a thousand words, or three pages on MS Word with default settings.

However, sometimes I'll have a "bullet chapter" where I want an option to come up for which I'm deliberately limiting the reader's information. For instance:

You jump off the bottom of the fire escape ladder and tear off down the alley as another bullet from the sniper's rifle whizzes by your ear. Time to get out of sight! A quick glance around reveals a door to your left, another one further away to your right, and a manhole with its cover ajar just a few paces away.

There's no time to think - pick one!​

And, that's the chapter in its entirety. I think that as long as one doesn't do this sort of thing too often, an ultra-short chapter can lend to the sense of urgency, make it feel more like it really is a decision which must be made in a split second. Of course, the reader could take hours to ponder if he/she wants to, but since there isn't really anything to base an intelligent choice on, it still feels like a spontaneous decision. Of course, if I'm submitting a "bullet chapter" like this to someone else's story, I will always follow up immediately on at least one option with a longer chapter, because otherwise I'm not really contributing anything.
 
I like to be around half a page to 2.5 pages pending on how I feel how long the chapter should be.
 
Zekar said:
I really dislike long chapters. Typically these have parts that I could see branching from but the author had a singular vision when writing it. The medium is Choose your own, not let's read a linear story.
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I'm afraid I can sometimes be guilty of that. Most of my choices which actually lead to different threads are in the first four chapters... after that, I tend to go linear.

I will often place my chapter breaks not necessarily at places where the protagonist has a clear choice to make, but rather at a place where the plot may turn; which is not always the same sort of place. The easiest way to put it is that instead of asking, "What will you DO now?" the general question is, "What HAPPENS now?"
 
Xenolan said:
I will often place my chapter breaks not necessarily at places where the protagonist has a clear choice to make, but rather at a place where the plot may turn; which is not always the same sort of place. The easiest way to put it is that instead of asking, "What will you DO now?" the general question is, "What HAPPENS now?"
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I tend to use What Happens Next. But that's mainly due to each scene ending at a place where the protagonist can do something, but also another character or event could happen.
 
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