Is there any kind of rule on how many chapters should be in a book, or how many words there should be per chapter?

I'm working on outlining my nano novel, and the outline calls for only 17 chapters. Is this normal? Will they just be long chapters? Should I rewrite my outline to include more? What are the general standards for chapters?

I don't think there's any kind of rule. I've read books where chapters are 2-3 pages long (usually each chapter is a different point of view), while others are 20-40 pages long. I read books either way, it doesn't matter to me. I personally like it when long chapters have little places between scenes, so I can read just a little at one time, but it doesn't really matter. Too short chapters sometimes annoy me, too long chapters sometimes annoy me, and sometimes I like both of them. Just do what feels right, what helps the book flow the best, and be a bit flexible. If you think it'd work best if you shaved a chapter or added one, then do!

Being a thriller writer as well as a fantasy writer, I prefer short chapters of generally 4 to 10 pages, but there really aren't any rules when it comes to chapter length.

*echoes Jonathan*

I prefer shorter chapters, and I usually have 24 to 40 of them, averaging 2000 to 3500 words per chapter. It's just personal preference.

My NaNo has something like eight chapters. Some of that might change in revision, but yeah. There are no rules for chapter length, as far as I know. Just do what fits the story and your preference.

Also, chapter lengths can be changed in many instances. I've done this in several novels which had long chapters by simply cutting the chapters into halves or thirds.

I'm at 15 chapters as of 50,000 words. So yeah, that's between 3 and 4 thousand words. I think it would be about six MS word pages...

Mostly, I try to do longer chapters, but I usually have three or four "break places" with the five asterisks or whatever. That breaks up the scenes so the reader isn't confronted with a full four thousand words to read. (Basically what Celearas said.. =D)

eruheran

Agreeing with all the others. No rules. Do what works best for your novel - because chapter length has an effect on style. Short, choppy chapters add suspense. (Some writers start a new chapter with each scene.) Longer chapters have a more drawn-out feel, just as long sentences do vs. short sentences. Also agreeing that it's easy to change chapter length later. Work with your outline for now, and when you get to the point of editing, cut and paste as necessary.

I outline by plot points and events, not chapters. Then I write the entire story without chapter breaks. Only in later drafts do I bother putting in chapters. Usually about every ten (book-size, not regular word processor sized) pages.

I am writing YA, though.

Most of my chapters seem to land at about 1.9k words. Does that sound too short? Some are shorter, and others are longer, but they seem to range around that number.

That sounds fine to me, but I'm a thriller writer, so I like short chapters.

That's perfectly fine. Subliminal is averaging about that, although it will grow quite a bit in editing.

I like a lot of chapters, but it often doesn't end up that way; my novels aren't long enough for many chapters. Each chapter, on average, is about 1,250 words to 2,000 words long. I just end the chapter wherever I think it should end.

Ok; thanks.

That's what I thought as well, Luke. It's bound to change in editing anyway.

In my freshman story class, I was taught that every chapter needed to be a complete plot line. We studied stories that had examples that were very simple. Sometimes a conversation could take a chapter because it had its own story arc and plot line. If a plot line has multiple perspectives, I don't tend to divide those perspectives into chapters because single paragraph chapters feel too much like excuses to have more chapters. I don't think you need to strive for a number of chapters, I think you should strive to finish your story. Most of the Chronicles of Narnia only have about sixteen chapters. I know that because I would happily read one of the books every night for many weeks of my childhood.

I recently was looking into this, Rin, so it was interesting to read your post, thanks. I want to do a plot line for each of my chapters; hopefully it will make them more interesting, and have more depth to them.

I am not an exact word count chapter person. I range between 5-8 thousand words a chapter, I think, although 6,500 seems to be where I normally fall.

Color me confused; in my experience (as a reader and a writer) it's very rare that a "complete plot line" is short enough to be a chapter, or that any two "plot lines" of one story are at all similar in length. It's important to end the chapter at a natural break if you can, but sometimes even that isn't possible. In sum, it's very nice when you can fit a small story arc into a chapter, but this isn't all that common and certainly isn't necessary. (Also, wouldn't this rule out cliffhangers entirely?)

Well ... of course not! It's standard practice to have multiple scenes per chapter (a scene being the span between two breaks in place, time, or perspective) if the scenes are too small to be chapters in their own right ... though it's very important to explicitly separate them with typographical breaks (three dots, a horizontal line, a blank line, ...) or (for discontinuities in time or place) connect them with a narrative transition.

When I was actively counting words, back in high school, I aimed for two thousand or 2,500 words per chapter, as I averaged somewhere in that ballpark anyway and that made keeping a running total for the book as well as the chapter much easier. Nowadays (when I can use a computer program to check word count, and do so only at the natural end of a scene) my chapters range from about 1,500 words to over 4,000.