I've been thinking a lot lately on what makes a chapter and how long those chapters should be. The hazards of starting a new book, I guess.

Have you ever asked anyone, "How long should my chapter be?" and get the accurate but not overly helpful answer "as long as it needs to be"?

Because I have. And It wasn't really helpful.

It was true.

But it wasn't helpful.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

When deciding how long a chapter (or scene) should be, there are so many things to consider. There is no one answer for how long a chapter should be. There are really good chapters that are tens of thousands of words long. And there are good chapters that are one sentence.

Stephenie Meyer famously communicated a lot in her Twilight series with several "chapters" that were just blank pages titled the name of months.

A chapter needs to be as long as it needs to be to communicate what you want to communicate. That's it.

And that is true!

But, if you're like me, you're probably wondering how you know what a chapter needs to communicate. And how you know how long it takes to communicate that.

You're probably also wondering, how long is a good length for a Wattpad chapter?

I don't have an easy answer for you either, I'm afraid, but I've noticed a couple things that work for me.

And that's what this is about. How do I decide when a chapter works in MY books?

I'd love to hear what works for you, though. How do you decide what to put in a chapter? Is it intuitive or do you use a formula of some kind?

~ * ~ What is a Chapter? What does it do? ~ * ~

The first thing I do when I think about a chapter is ask myself why the chapter is in the book. For me, I've noticed a couple super common reasons:

- To develop character

- To advance the plot

- To set up future events or plot twists

- To build on something I mentioned in a previous chapter

- Some combination of the above.

Each chapter needs to do something.

You might remember, in my introduction to this book, I mentioned being asked "why is this scene in the story?" It was a good question for me to be asked, because it helped me see that the chapter served no purpose to the STORY overall.

When I first started writing, I was under the impression that I just wrote everything that happened to my main character from the beginning of the story to the end of it. I'd read enough to know I shouldn't detail her showering or brushing her teeth, but everything else was fair game.

And that wasn't the best decision for me. Because things happened in every chapter, but not every chapter had important information. And they definitely lacked that "missing piece" that felt like I accomplished something. I wasn't giving the reader something to hold onto or look forward to.

And I do think that every chapter should give the reader something. Answers to previous questions, hints at future issues, details about a character or their past that are important to the story. Things like that.

~ * ~ What does that look like? ~ * ~

It looks like a lot of different things depending on the story I am telling. It could look like the hero meeting the person who will become their mentor. It could be a scene showing the humanity of someone we thought to be a villain. It could look like the main characters in a romance getting into an argument about which way the toilet paper roll goes on the holder (it's over. Look it up).

No matter what it is, though, it has to have a purpose to the overall point of my story or the development of my characters.

If you're a pantser (discovery writer, gardener, chaotic hot mess, whatever your preferred term is), you might find that you write scenes sometimes that don't really have a role in your story. That's OKAY! That's what editing is for.

For me, I sometimes write scenes I needed to write in order to understand the character or plot better, but the reader doesn't really need to know that information now or maybe even at all. It's important backstory for me to have explored, but it ends up on the cutting room floor before anyone sees the book.

Figuring out what's important information the reader needs and what's important information only the author needs can seem difficult or even impossible at times.

I'm sure that's something I'll get into a little more when I discuss revision and editing later (which I'm sure will be an adventure. I love editing), but for now, let's just allow that chapters, for me, have to say something or add to the story in some way. Set something up or pay off something I set up earlier. Expand on the world, the conflict, or the character.

And they have to do all that while keeping the reader engaged in what's going on.

*Phew* That sounds exhausting!

The good news is, the longer I've been writing, the easier these kinds of decisions have become. Over time, the decision of what needs to be in a chapter, when and how to reveal things, etc. have become more intuitive. I don't have to think as much about it as I did when I started.

But now that I sat down to write this chapter, I had to think about it. And it was a lot to think about! So I've tried to keep it as small as I can. But I'm notoriously long-winded.

Hopefully, some of what I'm about to say will help others struggling to figure out how chapters work. This is by no means a comprehensive list or formula, because it's already very long, but it's sort of the basic bones of what I tend to put in my chapters.

If you're an experienced writer who knows how chapters work, this may not help you. And if you're a beginning writer trying to understand how chapters work, this might not help you either. Because no two writers are exactly alike.

I hope it will be a good starting point for discussion about what to put into chapters or how to break up scenes in a novel.

Before we continue, I should point out that I write romantic comedy and/or romance, so that's the lens I'm writing this in. I suspect the process would be similar for other genres, but I'd love to know if there's things I missed!

I'm definitely not looking for information on historical or sci-fi or fantasy chapters that might be different than what I listed here. Except I am, because I'm looking at stories in that genre and it feels like I'm a brand new writer all over again!

I'm going to split this here to make it easier to read on Wattpad, so click over to the next chapter for How I, Eliza, Create a Chapter.