Wow, I'm surprised Tiger actually finished this ~~L

Written by: Tiger

Chapter Longevity And Time Management

So, this portion of Writing Tips will focus on two things that usually go hand-in-hand. Those two things are chapter longevity and time management. When I talk about these two things, the main goal is to combine them to create multi-page chapters that don't involve time skips. I made this mistake myself with my first book. My chapters would be long, but some involved moving forward weeks or even moons at a time in just one chapter. This is a common mistake among beginners who want longer chapters, and need to provide more content.

Now, to get down to the specifics. Long chapters seem to have mixed opinions among the community here. While many like to see chapters that can take up to 10 minutes or more to read, some prefer shorter chapters that are easy to move through. I'm here to advocate for longer, better structured chapters, and I'll try to explain how to do that.

Say NO To Time-Skips

Longer chapters, let's say in the 5-10 page range, have numerous advantages over their shorter counterparts. If they're done right that is. If you want to create a 5-10 page chapter, you should do your best to avoid time-skips altogether. Adopt a system where time-skips only occur from chapter to chapter, and have chapters focus on a day or two. Not only does this make the story seem less rushed, it also forces the writer to provide much more detailed content on a particular situation. Detail will be a huge factor in chapter longevity, but I'll get to that later.

Now, continuing with the "time-skip" debate, you also have to limit the amount of time you make pass with each chapter. Skipping a moon or two every chapter is not going to build a good foundation for your story. As for myself,the time-management from chapter to chapter vary. Sometimes, I'll chunk together chapters that cover a few days before skipping forward a half-moon or more. At other times, I'll chunk together chapters that cover a week's worth of events before skipping that amount of time.

In short, time-skips should be controlled and infrequent. Though it may be a pain to cover one days worth of events in one chapter and make it long, it's very useful in creating a very detailed, very reader oriented story.

Down To The Nitty-Gritty (Detail)

This step in the process is probably the hardest obstacle you'll need to overcome. Naturally, writers want to skip past certain parts of writing to get to the "good stuff". However, in doing so, they can also skip vital bits of information. They also miss the opportunity for "expansion" as I like to call it. This opportunity involves expanding character relationships, creating sub-plots and other small, but significant additions to the story's core. I use a complex system when considering the greatest needs for detail over the length of the story.

Situation- What's the situation? Who does it affect? Why does it affect them? What part will they play in resolving this situation? What's their opinion of the situation? Etc

Characters- Who are these characters? What do they mean to the main character? To other characters? How can you develop relationships (friendship, love, rivalry, etc) between characters? What's their personality? What do they think? What do they feel? What's happening in their own lives? What role are they playing in the story? What future role will they play? How does their role/personality change or mature? Etc

Environment- Where is this chapter taking place? Describe it. Describe the time of day, the nature, your surroundings, etc.

Conversation- How can you flesh out the conversations? How can you make them more meaningful? (A good conversation not only provides valuable insight into the personality and personal life of the "speakers", it also provides more content for the story, and thus more content for your readers to digest.)

Plot- Where's the story going? How do the above sections affect the story? How can you integrate more detail into the plot itself? Can you deviate from the plot and create interesting subplots?

There are a lot more sections that you could throw in here, but these are some of the basics. Longer chapters provide you with a better window to improve the detail and overall substance of your story.

For sake of time, I'll limit each of these sections coming up to three points each.

Pro's Of Longer Chapters:

-Longer chapters engage your readers a lot more. The immense detail involved in a long chapter provides more content for your readers. The more content a reader has, the more they understand about the story. If your story is interesting and original, it should have no problem capturing their attention.

-Longer chapters force you to be creative. Creativity can be hard to come by sometimes. (Writers block is very, very real.) When you write longer chapters, they force you to be creative and spontaneous. They force you to think outside the box when it comes to expanding your story. You'll find yourself thinking up some great, unique ideas when you set the goal of a longer chapter. There's a lot of space that needs to be filled. But be sure it's not filled with "junk", and instead "treasure".

-Longer chapters give your story the feel of being professional. Short chapters can be very good, I'm not arguing that. But published novels sport lengthy chapters that give them a very professional feel. Personally, I like to make my books look as professional as they can be. Aside from the obvious grammar and spelling aspects to professionalism (along with a sound plot and story structure), length of chapters also play an important role. A bigger book is more serious looking book, as the saying goes. Yes, I just made that saying up.

Con's Of Longer Chapters:

-Longer chapters may discourage readers. Despite my support in favor of of longer chapters, I can recognize that there are some readers out there don't like them. Some prefer short chapters that take just minutes to read through. It makes it easier to navigate through a story, and then continue on to the next. Though I don't think longer chapters will significantly impact the number of readers you draw, it's something to at least consider.

-Longer chapters can lead to off-topic situations. Done right, detail in long chapters always contributes to the story in some way. (Whether that's to character development, future problems or anything else related to story progression). However, there may be times when you can't think of anything to write, and instead add something completely random to help fill in space. These off-topic situations take away from the story, and should be avoided if possible.

-Longer chapters can take a long time to finish. This is by far the biggest problem facing writers when it comes to longer chapters. They take a lot of time to perfect and complete. At times, it can take me more than a half-day of writing (8-12 hours) to do one chapter. In my case, I tend to take my time and make sure everything is correct when following my plot plans. This accounts for the time it takes for me to feel good about publishing a chapter. Though my school and work schedule allows me to get this amount of time, not everyone's does. The extracurricular stuff has to be taken into account when you're trying to grind out longer chapters.

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Hope this helped some of you guys! Longer chapters can be very beneficial to your books, so I hope you consider the idea carefully! If you have any ideas for a Writing Tips segment that you'd like to see us discuss, don't be afraid to suggest it. We have quite a few ideas already, but we'd also like to make some segments on what you guys want to know.