1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. Welcome to Lake Valor!
    Catch, train, and evolve Pokémon while you explore our community. Make friends, and grow your collection.

    Login or Sign Up

Short Chapters or Long Chapters?

Discussion in 'Creative Zone' started by UnstoppableGamer, Jan 18, 2017.

Tags:
  1. UnstoppableGamer

    UnstoppableGamer Attention Seeker~


    (Azelf)
    Level 1
    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2017
    Posts:
    966
    PokéPoints:
    ₽1,435.0
    Great Ball ★★Poké Ball ★Dome Fossil ★★★Gardevoirite ★★★★
    So, to readers and writers, do you prefer reading longer chapters or shorter chapters? What's your idea of a longer chapter?
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  2. Megarai111

    Megarai111 Elizabeth 3rd

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2014
    Posts:
    1,853
    PokéPoints:
    ₽41.6
    The chapters I write are usually pretty long. I either have to restrain myself from writing more or chop chapters up (nice alliteration there) into multiple chapters.
    When reading a book, I usually don't mind longer chapters, as long as I still have points where I can stop to take a break or stop because I have to head to bed or something like that. When I'm reading a story online, I prefer shorter chapters because it's harder to keep my attention with longer chapters. Stories online fail to catch my interest in general because it's inconvenient, in my opinion.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  3. Skittle

    Skittle daijoubu

    Swablu
    (Swablu)
    Level 24
    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2017
    Posts:
    1,153
    PokéPoints:
    ₽3,602.3
    Comet Shard ★★★★Dawn Stone ★★★★Love Ball ★★★★★Galladite ★★★★Whipped Dream ★★★★
    I just write to get the point across without it spanning too long. My chapters usually hit around 3000-4000k. I do so to keep the reader's attention while not boring or intimidating them with the sheer length of the chapter. And it's convenient for me as well as I seem to type about 1000 words an hour without distractions (and when has writing without distractions ever happened?).

    A longer chapter to me is around 7000 words. At that point, a chapter becomes a drawl to read.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
    Nova Ozuka likes this.
  4. Nova Ozuka

    Nova Ozuka Hex Maniac

    Joy
    (Togepi)
    Level 25
    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2017
    Posts:
    448
    PokéPoints:
    ₽2,366.3
    I prefer longer chapters when I read since short chapters don't hold my interest long. To me a short chapter is around 2000 words or lees.

    That's about how long I like to write my chapters and for the same reason. I don't want my chapters too long or too short, so I try to keep them right in the middle.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  5. UnstoppableGamer

    UnstoppableGamer Attention Seeker~


    (Azelf)
    Level 1
    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2017
    Posts:
    966
    PokéPoints:
    ₽1,435.0
    Great Ball ★★Poké Ball ★Dome Fossil ★★★Gardevoirite ★★★★
    So, what I've learned is.
    A.) My chapters are short...
    B.) Y'all be committed to writing a lot o' words.

    Definitely gonna work on this in the future...
     
  6. Cadbberry

    Cadbberry Dad: 76.... Or Cad: 76

    Cosmo
    (Eevee (KS))
    Level 12
    Joined:
    May 25, 2014
    Posts:
    4,535
    PokéPoints:
    ₽654.3
    Marshadium Z ★★★★★Love Ball ★★★★★GS Ball ★★★★★Mewnium Z  ★★★★★
    I like to have long chapters to read on and on when I write it is usually short stories but if I had a full story then I would be writing long chapters, if you write shorter chapters then people can get a bit antsier and so it would have to be a faster writing to turn out chapters, though that's just from what I have seen.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  7. Reckless

    Reckless Won't take the easy road

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2013
    Posts:
    2,113
    PokéPoints:
    ₽666.6
    Depends on the language style for me. If it's a case when I'm reading a text where i need to break out a dictionary every five words or so, the shorter, the better. On the other hand, of the language used is more simplistic and direct, I'd easily read a few chapters at a time.

    POV is also something I'm iffy about. I wouldn't say I'm overtly fond of texts that include POVs from several characters. I'd much prefer if they sticked with two at most.

    And! 1st person writing style! Not the style for me! (Sorry, Hunger Games....)
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  8. DecemberWildfire

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2017
    Posts:
    66
    PokéPoints:
    ₽84.0
    I sometimes like to have a variety of both. But either way, the chapters have to be interesting enough for me to want to continue reading. When I write, my chapters usually end up long, but now and then I'll have short, choppy ones because I didn't like how it sounded when I tried to combine the content into one chapter.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  9. SyWry

    Legendary Egg
    (Rayquaza Egg)
    Level 1
    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2017
    Posts:
    964
    PokéPoints:
    ₽1,606.1
    I don't like to write long chapters. Over time it just becomes so large that I lose some of the interest in writing it. A long chapter is around 7,000 words for me. I generally like to write until I hit a natural break then I end a chapter. Usually that is around 3,000 to 4,000 words. Going further becomes a drag. As for reading longer chapters...I used to like reading long chapters then...I read a 36,126 word chapter, CHAPTER. I never want to read chapters that long again and half the 77 chapters are 21,000 words long. I would quiet the story but its just too good. I don't like long chapters any more.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  10. ClefairyKid

    ClefairyKid (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻)

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2016
    Posts:
    781
    PokéPoints:
    ₽854.6
    Psychium Z ★★★★Poké Doll ★★Waterium Z ★★★★Ice Stone ★★★★Love Ball ★★★★★
    hmm, when it comes to real life books and print, I don't really care about the length, long is fine.

    If we are talking online fan fiction, I only read very few and specific fan fictions, and honestly I always prefer those to be quite short. I actually naturally prefer what I think people call "one shots" anyway, so that might be why. I just find that with the nature of fan fiction being so varied in quality, that I as a reader (and not a writer of it) tend to want to get to the meat of a thing quickly and easily, because often when I persevere with something longer, it ends up being longer than some of my real life novels and then doesn't turn out to have been worth the time, whereas the shorter stuff I can more easily discern if this is going somewhere or not early on. Basically I like fan fiction to be short and high quality rather than long and drawn out, quality over quantity every time.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  11. Sheep

    Sheep Supporter

    Xerneas Egg
    (Xerneas Egg)
    Level 10
    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2014
    Posts:
    4,317
    PokéPoints:
    ₽2,366.0
    Longer chapters for both reading and writing. I don't like to feel things are over sooner than they should be. My preference for chapters is at least 2,000 words, but that's the bare minimum... Ideally I'd love to see somewhere around 4-6k. It's nice to click on a new update for a story and see the scrollbar go down really far.

    idk, I'm just not into drabbles and such for this reason. So little goes on and I can't find myself enjoying mini stories that are so short.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  12. Azazel

    Azazel Better count your blessings

    Diancie Egg
    (Diancie Egg)
    Level 8
    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2015
    Posts:
    6,615
    PokéPoints:
    ₽4,559.5
    Shorter ones to give me a bit of a break in between ^^
     
  13. Beffie

    Beffie clear your cache

    beautiful and perfect
    (Feebas)
    Level 36
    Joined:
    Apr 1, 2016
    Posts:
    1,073
    PokéPoints:
    ₽2,170.2
    Crown of ValorDawn Stone ★★★★GS Ball ★★★★★Gardevoirite ★★★★Cooler Gary Oak ★★★★★
    As a reader, I prefer shorter chapters. I usually like looking at something for shorter times, it's not in my interest to sit down for like 10 minutes reading a single chapter.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  14. kindred

    kindred Collector

    friend
    (Moltres Egg)
    Level 20
    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2016
    Posts:
    284
    PokéPoints:
    ₽205.8
    for reading, it depends on what mood i'm in. i'll read either short or long chapters depending on what the subject is or what mood i'm in. for writing i used to be able to write pretty long chapters but lately i'll do these short one shots to get myself back into writing since i'm pretty rusty at writing for my own desire and not for school.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  15. Writer4fun

    Joined:
    Jan 15, 2017
    Posts:
    69
    PokéPoints:
    ₽62.4
    I currently average about 4,500-5,500 words per chapter (a bit on the longer side) although my earlier chapters hovered around 3,500. If it's a key plot point, I don't set a limit. I had a single chapter dedicated to a full 6 on 6 battle that was about 7,800 words long but it was so far in the story that the people who have been reading & following the story since chapter 1 didn't mind the length.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  16. LadySmugleaf

    LadySmugleaf Cries in Poetry

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2014
    Posts:
    2,010
    PokéPoints:
    ₽1,085.9
    I like to read longer chapters, but I normally write shorter chapters, usually 1-2k words. I want to get up to 3k words a chapter, give my readers little more meat, but I'm not that motivated.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  17. Drew Blackstone

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2017
    Posts:
    50
    PokéPoints:
    ₽58.7
    With reading, I don't really care much about length if the writing is good and it's not obscenely long. With writing, most of my chapters are around 1000 words.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  18. Eclipse

    SkittleBox
    (Staryu)
    Level 82
    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2015
    Posts:
    6,121
    PokéPoints:
    ₽7.0
    Marshadium Z ★★★★★Dragon Fang ★★★★Luxury Ball ★★★Comet Shard ★★★★Mewnium Z  ★★★★★
    If I'm reading them, you say? Chapter length doesn't matter too much for me if I decide to read, because if I'm reading, I set aside a fair chunk of my time so I can focus on the reading, and usually to get through several chapters at once if I can help it. I don't read in passing; I like to savour it, and devote as much time as is necessary to really absorb, appreciate, and ruminate on the material.
     
  19. ConfettiCat

    ConfettiCat ( ☞ゝω・)☞

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2015
    Posts:
    522
    PokéPoints:
    ₽564.8
    Blue Orb ★★★★★Whipped Dream ★★★★
    When reading, the chapter lengths never really bother me so I'm usually fine with anything. I'll enjoy a lot of things as long as I enjoy the plot, and reading is always a nice thing to do. With writing, I never have had a specific word count to reach, I've always just stopped writing where it felt right. The chapters I've written has been about 1,000-3,000 words (so inconsistent), although I haven't typed anything in Word recently so I wouldn't know how long my recent works are.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  20. Aewynessa

    Pidgey
    (Pidgey)
    Level 1
    Joined:
    Jan 24, 2017
    Posts:
    98
    PokéPoints:
    ₽219.4
    Staff of VerityCrown of ValorBig Nugget ★★★★★
    I write and prefer long chapters. I usually set a goal of 6,000 words per chapter in the current fanfiction that I am writing. I've set this goal to motivate me to describe events in adequate detail and to not glance over unimportant events. If I've overshot my goal by a lot, then I know that I should simplify some things to make the chapter less of a drag and more entertaining to read.

    As such, I've defined long chapters as 7,000-9,000 words and short chapters as 5,000-6,000 words, according to my standards. Anything under 3,000 feels really short, and anything over 11,000 feels super long.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...

Share This Page