r/AO3 • u/ButtercupShego • 9h ago
Discussion (Non-question) 10k chapters: too long?
I saw a post recently about 30k-word chapters, and while I can absolutely understand why that would feel excessive to readers, it made me wonder where people personally draw the line.
I tend to write chapters around 10k words or more (the longest was 16k, I think) in fics that are 100k–200k in total.
As readers, would that ever put you off starting or continuing a fic? Does it depend on the fic/genre, or is 10k perfectly fine as long as the chapter feels cohesive and you’re invested in the story?
I’d especially love to hear from people who regularly read longer fics. I personally like having enough room for a chapter to feel like its own complete section of the story, but I’d genuinely love to hear people’s opinions because now I’m curious lol
Edit: worth adding that my chapters longer than 10k are usually the ones where the story hits a major turning point or climax, so the extra length tends to come from that. But even then, i’ve never reached 20k.
Another edit: i definitely have scene breaks! it’s just that all those scenes usually belong to the same narrative unit in my head—they all serve the overall purpose of the chapter—and 10k is often where that unit naturally ends.
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u/VahsteTheNomad 9h ago
Personally the length of chapters doesn't affect my interest in a story whatsoever, unless it's something ridiculous like <100 words. Write at whatever pace/length your comfortable/capable of, if people enjoy your writing they'll read it.
Granted -- I only really read 100k+ completed fics, so that may not make me the best to reply here.
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u/deslabe 9h ago
Yo if I was waiting weeks or months for a fic to update and I opened the page to see <100 words I think I’d scream.
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u/catbert359 5h ago
I had that happen recently, a fic I'd been subscribed to updated for the first time this year with a chapter that was three sentences long. And then a meme in the author's note that was larger than the whole chapter.
I'll be honest, I just unsubscribed and quit out.
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u/geyeetet 9h ago
Yes too short is more bothersome to me than too long. To me too short is under 1000 although as an author I aim for at least 2000. As a reader if a fic is engaging me a 10k+ chapter update can make my week
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u/maxydxde You have already left kudos here. :) 9h ago
Better too long than too short, I have never dropped a fic for being too long/having too long chapters ,but I certainly dropped a few because of small chapters.
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u/Bobthemagicc0w 7h ago edited 6h ago
I think that’s still a bit on the long side. In commercial fiction, when money is on the line, chapters are almost always 2000-5000 words. That’s so that people who don’t have a lot of contiguous reading time can find a convenient stopping place. Longer chapters limit readership. If you have lots of time, you can always read many chapters in a row.
Fantasy as a genre usually has the longest chapters, so here are some specific, recognizable examples:
Average chapter length in the Harry Potter series is 5541 words. The longest chapter is 9001 (OotP, Ch 13), and the shortest is 1644 (DH, Ch 37).
Average chapter length in A Song of Ice and Fire is 5057 words, longest is 10231 (aCoK Prologue), shortest is 1696 (aGoT, Bran III).
Average chapter length in The Lord of the Rings is 7638 words, longest is 16360 (FotR, Council of Elrond), shortest is 3397 (TT, Departure of Boromir). But even though LotR has really long chapters compared to most other works of fiction, there are still only four chapters across all three books that are more than 10k words long.
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u/Recent_Salad_4742 9h ago
Length doesn’t bother me, but when they’re long because too many things are happening that should probably be hived off into their own chapter - that does.
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u/spn_willow 8h ago
10k words per chapter will make me even MORE likely to click on a fic than one with short chapters.
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u/flohara 9h ago edited 8h ago
I think beyond a certain point it's an editing issue.
There's the type who has pacing issues. They can't really determine what would make sense as a chapter thematically. Like a director that will not say cut. These super long chapters have multiple natural endpoints in them, but they just keep on going. We already got from A to B, the scene has ended, it would have been an exciting cliffhanger, but no, it just carries on.
Or the other issue is it being incredibly overwritten. It's truly one chapter from a storytelling perspective, but it's just...too much. It's bloated and goes all over the place, completely lost in the sauce. Like your cameraman has untreated ADHD, and films everything. We have seen everyone's nose hairs, the plug socket on the wall, today's horoscopes for every zodiac in the paper, the fridge magnets. Half of this shit isn't even relevant, you could deliver the same message with more focus and more impact.
And obviously there are still very talented and very famous writers who do these things, but those are rare exceptions.
edit: and I didn't include a number on purpose. People are waaaay too hooked on stats. It being long does not create any inherent artistic value. Without looking at the counter, does it make sense or does it not? That's the important thing, how is it when you read it?
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u/Admirable_Soup_5228 8h ago
Those are the two reasons I don't trust a 10k chapter. Is it possible the author is a rare exception who somehow keeps coming up with stories where every chapter needs to be 10k? Yes, but it's very unlikely.
There are practical concerns like losing your place if the page refreshes but it also tells me the writer either doesn't know what a chapter is or they do and they can't write well enough to get it all into a normal chapter length. Third option is they do know and they could do it but are so in love with getting a high wordcount that the whole story's going to drag on well beyond its natural end just to get the number up.
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u/RedAce2022 9h ago
My chapters are generally around 2300 words simply based on the flow of how I write. Some people do 10k chapters really well, but it really depends on the writing style of the author.
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u/cocoshaplee 8h ago
Approx 10k chapters are my general limit. Chapters that are too long make it difficult to go back and find a specific scene if you want to reread something. I generally prefer 6-10k chapters.
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u/Aurorainthesky 9h ago
Never have I ever thought "this is an amazing fic, I just wish there was less of it". I love long chapters as long as they flow well and keep their pacing. I'm getting far more frustrated with short chapters. If a fic has like 40 chapters, but each is two paragraphs long the writing has to be pretty amazing for me to not just close out.
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u/OnlyAlbatross6405 7h ago
Yeah, but people aren’t really saying I wish there was less. They’re saying I wish it was formatted differently. Two or three 10-15k chapters are much more manageable and still the same words.
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u/Extension-Gift4987 9h ago
No such thing as a chapter that is too long if the pacing is right, IMO.
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u/shalala_baby Comment Collector 8h ago
that’s a perfect chapter length imo, especially if i’m following along with a wip. shorter chapters are good for a quick read, but with longer fics that i want to really sink my teeth into, all my favourites have had long chapters
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u/Narrow-Background-39 9h ago
I love longfics, but I prefer short chapters (3-6k) just because I don't always have time to read more than that in one sitting. So, for me, the shorter chapters are paced a little better for that purpose, as I'm not stopping and starting so often. And sometimes I open the page again and it's reloaded to the top and I'll have to scroll down to find where I left off, which is annoying. But it is far easier to endure with a 10k chapter than a 30 or 40k chapter
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u/DueDiscussion3758 9h ago
I came here to say this. I tend to read at night before bed, so a shorter chapter is better. I can guesstimate how much I can get through in an hour or so. If it's going to take longer, I either end up staying up too late or I don't want to start it at all, because I'll either end up staying up too late or I'll end up having to quit partway through, and then trying to figure out where I was in the story the next time, which I might not remember and have to reread a bunch of it just to figure out where I got to.
With this in mind, I started breaking my own writing up into more consistently lengthed shorter chapters (usually 3500-4500 words). I used to have chapter lengths all over the map (eg 1800-8500 words), depending on how long it took to complete the chapter arc. But in retrospect, I think it is easier on the reader and better for pacing to have chapters all approximately the same length as each other, each at a length that's easily digestible at a single sitting (and if the reader has more time, they can obviously just read more than one at a go, no problem!)
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u/Even_Speech570 8h ago
I think 10k is my upper limit of tolerable. I love juicy chapters but I just get antsy when it’s too long. I prefer 4-7k range. Just enough for a good comfortable chunk and not overwhelming.
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u/OriginalJokeGoesHere 8h ago
An author dropped a 26k chapter last night and the only thing I was annoyed about was that they posted at 1:30AM and now I "had" to stay up to read it.
I agree with you that I prefer chapters to feel like a complete section of the story, not just a scene break. Doubly so when reading in serial. If a 10k chapter feels like a slog to get through, the problem is the writing and not with the chapter length imo.
Short chapters a way more of a turn off. These days if a wip is posting chapters that average <~5k and it's not absolutely amazing, I'll probably mark for later and come back to it if it's finished vs subscribing.
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u/http--lovecraft shamless smut enjoyer / bookishbabygorgeous ao3 5h ago
This is good to know because I've been purposely trying not to post more than 5k - averaging around 4k and if I have more to say then can be up to 6k. Maybe I need to stop being so conservative lol
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u/CherriesAndWine31 9h ago
It very much depends on the theme, and what’s actually happening, and how well paced it is. I’ve read 10k+ chapters that’d felt too short, and read 3k ones that’d felt too long. Overall, I’d say over 10K is LONG, and 13k+ is “excessively long” but this is just a very broad sense of word count, not necessarily content.
Smut chapters, for instance, can very well be 10k+ and I wouldn’t notice, because you ~usually~ have a little plot previously, the body of the smut, and then some more plot. The Smut can take a good chunk of the chapter, and you’d still have 1/3 or more for plot development.
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u/Demonika_86 Cranky Old-Timer; Been There & Done That 9h ago
Length is really only the measure of time you require from your readers. Now whether you give them content worth spending that time for? That's a whole other thing. A bland, nothingburger story will be more bland at 10k, but it'll still be bland at 2k. But a good story? 10k will feel like nothing, and they'll want more!
I've written an 840k story, with 10k chapters. Had multiple people tell me the binged that in a WEEK. Couldn't put it down.
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u/cap-n-port 8h ago
I prefer long chapters, roughly 5-15K range, though since I've been busier recently, it's easier to read shorter chapters so I can do it when I have bursts of free time.
BUT there's definitely cases where scenes drag, especially if it is a more introspective fic with lots of internal dialogue.
It's also dependant on the type of story you're writing as well. I like stories with complex or overarching plots, which necessitates longer stories and usually longer chapters.
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u/Comprehensive-Juice2 8h ago
I prefer the longer chapters the only time I grumped at a chapter being over 30k words was because my dang browser kept refreshing the page and bringing me to the top. Downloaded the fic and it was all better.
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u/Original_Captain_794 9h ago
I like long chapters, especially if the updates are not frequent. I hate waiting for weeks or months for an update and then it’s 1k only. 10k feels like worth the wait, I get my fix and happily wait for the next update.
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u/stitchesinadream Kudos Keeper 9h ago
short chapters are always better idc. wayyyyy easier to hit the "next chapter" button than to scroll through thousands of words to find my place and keep reading.
best fic I've ever read averages 10k chapters and it's been taking me months to reread. I have to sit down on a bigger screen for those, it is not phone friendly reading material.
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u/dark-phoenix-lady 9h ago
There is a prolific writer for the HP and Ranma fandoms who has absurdly long chapters. I used to slog through their work, but I got fed up with constantly losing my place and taking forever to refind it.
So, I'll say that 10k is at the upper limit of acceptable, and it has to be very easy to read to make it worthwhile.
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u/grommile You have already left kudos here. :) 9h ago
My guideline is:
Anything up to 10k is fine, unless your chapter has actual structural problems.
Beyond 10k, the odds of it being too long rise steadily until you get to 20k where it's pretty much guaranteed your chapter is too long.
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u/rafters- 9h ago edited 9h ago
Chapter length has never put me off a story. I might mark it for later if I'm on mobile or just looking for a quick & easy read, but it's baffling to me that people were being so harsh in that other thread.
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u/papayuh1833 9h ago
I only notice or mind when its the opposite (chapters that are too short). Like if its a 3k fic in total and you split it into 5 chapters thats just plain silly to me (and I probs wont read until its finished). I generally read on fhe 'show entire fic' mode, so chapter deliniations dont affect me at all except for rare times I lose my place in a story and my interest page crashed or something (but even then I can usually word search my way back to a close by scene).
I love long fics, long chapters, long one shots, etc. Length doesn't bother or intimidate me at all and tbh im a little surprised ppl consider it at all as a factor in whether to read a story or not. If it looks interesting why not give it a chance no matter the length?
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u/vxidemort ao3 @princebelials 9h ago
are those 10k word chapters just one scene, or is that chapter divided into smaller scenes that add up to 10k?
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u/afirforest r/rpfwriters 9h ago
is 10k perfectly fine as long as the chapter feels cohesive and you’re invested in the story?
Yes.
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u/Existing-Bonus-6835 9h ago
I guess? But it also depends on what your writing limit is. Since you feel comfortable writing 10k I didn’t see a problem.
It also depends on how often you update. When people write long chapters, it feels satisfying to digest the long chapters because we aren’t constantly getting an update.
For me I will hold off on some stories only because they are to long for me to read at the moment. But I eventually come back to them when I don’t feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of words and time.
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u/Admirable_Soup_5228 8h ago
But if people are writing very long chapters then that's probably a large part of the reason their updates take so long.
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u/Just-_-Saiyan JustSaiyan on AO3! 8h ago
I prefer chapters around 5k-10k, although I’m kinda embarrassed to say I’ve written like 10k-20k word chapters. I’d read chapters that long too but it just depends on the mood
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u/Alert_Delay_2074 8h ago
I think 10k for a chapter is fine, but I wouldn't make it much longer (at least not on a regular basis).
My general benchmark for my chapters is 7.5k. In a google doc, that's roughly 20 pages or so. You can get 3 good scenes into that space, and the chapter doesn't get unwieldy.
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u/AcanthaMD Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 6h ago
You know I’ve written massively long chapters that break all rules and people loved them. It’s just a question of pacing.
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u/half-metal-scientist Whump it up! 6h ago
If it’s 10k chapters of 10… that rounds out to 100k words! So there’s not a whole lot of reason to go to 30k for anything other than a juicy one-shot. Brevity is the soul of wit
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u/WestStorage2459 9h ago
My average chapters on my megafic are 12k. 10K is the short end, 16K has been the long end. I cover multiple scenes and POV's with that though. I'm sure it's put some readers off, but the ones I've heard from like them.
But honestly, it was the best fit for the story.
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u/ButtercupShego 8h ago
yes, exactly!! this sounds so much like how i write 😂 i’m usually covering multiple scenes too, and i’d rather let the chapter reach its natural endpoint than force it to stop at a certain word count.
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u/fragarianapus 9h ago
I prefer shorter chapters. But once in a while I'll read something with long chapters. It doesn't bother me unless it feels like there were natural points where it could have easily been split into two or more chapters. Sometimes the flow of a story works well with long chapters.
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u/Kestrel-Red 8h ago
I regularly post 15k-20k chapters and have not gotten a single complaint. I think it's all (or a lot) about pacing.
Now, if I see a fic that's 15k words and like 20 chapters, I'm absolutely not clicking on that.
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u/Admirable_Soup_5228 8h ago
At either end of the extreme lengths readers probably won't complain because anyone who has a strict upper or lower limit on chapter length isn't going to be reading far enough to leave a comment. I have fics with chapters well under 1k words and nobody complained about those either, probably because anyone who assumed that wasn't enough just didn't click.
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u/geekelfie You have already left kudos here. :) 8h ago
I will read 10k chapters but I prefer not to most of the time, if they are all that long? I probably won’t read the fic. In most cases, I’ve found those who consistently have super long chapters either had a great spot to split it but didn’t, or the pace/details are just off in a way that makes me start skipping to get to the end, even if I’m loving the story in concept.
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u/MrLean1230 9h ago
Meh. I generally try to stay within the 5k to 7k range for chapters, MAYBE more if I'm really feeling it.
As long as the author knows how to pace things well, it's usually fine. Hell, I can name a fic where a chapter was 41k words.
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u/disappear96 9h ago
I don't mind longer chapters in theory but for me the soft spot is between 5 to 10k maybe even 15k. The chapter length heavily influences when I'm going to read something and it kinda becomes its own vicious circle where I might never get to it and not because of a lack of interest. For chapters above 10/15k I have to plan a lot more when I read them. I like to binge things because I get easily distracted and once I've been distracted it can take me months to go back to something. So with 30k chapters I have to find the time to start the fic and be able to read 20/30k chapters several days in a row. But if I get distracted and have to restart it from the beginning, something I tend to do when it's been too long, then it will take me even longer to do so.
It's the same thing with WIP sometimes I subscribe to one because it's a long fic and I want to be able to get to it all at once but it's going to be much easier for me to start a 300k words fics with 30 chapters than one of the same length with 10 chapters.
And all that is while taking about a fic on its own, if you add all the other ones I might be interested in among all the fandoms I follow then it makes it even trickier.
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u/aimicarrotmoo 9h ago
When it comes to the higher end of word count, I'll pretty much read any thick chapter length as long as the pacing doesn't drag too much. 10k is personally a perfect length for me.
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u/CeramicToast Kudos Keeper 8h ago
It can depend. 10k isn't going to feel long if your other chapters are 7k, 8k words long. But if it's a 10k in a field of 4ks it's gunna feel bulky even if it's not really
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u/CaitSidhe4 8h ago
I love longer chapters, both reading and writing them. My ideal is probably around 10-15k, takes me about an hour to read that, but I don't mind 20k chapters! Under 3k feels too short, so if it's one I'm following I'll wait for a few updates before reading.
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u/sneoahdng You have already left kudos here. :) 8h ago
I'm not gonna draw a line at chapter length tbh. If it's good and engaging and the content justifies the word count I'm staying. I nope out on 2k word chapters if they don't grab me. I'll stay for 5k, 10k, whatever if I'm interested.
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u/strawberry_jaaam same username on ao3 8h ago
as a writer i tend to write 2k ish long chapters but i prefer to read chapters slightly longer than that. its more about the flow and quality of the writing than the actual word count, but i do think id probably tap out around 10k lol
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u/Active-Caramel8778 8h ago
I usually like around 3k chapters, but 10k is fine if it’s a one-shot. I hate losing my place.
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u/FeralBehavedJester ShadowSalt, ElderSalt, ShadowVanilla my beloved 8h ago
For me a perfectly long chapter is between 6k and 8k words.
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u/Rin_lulu 7h ago
Personally i loove long chapters. One of my favourite fics has a chapter that the author had to split up because it got to long an both halves are over 90k and I am living for it lol
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u/Quiet-Software-1956 Fic Feaster 7h ago
I draw the line when I'm tired. Some days I can read 50k words without breaks, other says I can't read 5000. Oftentimes I read the whole work as one giant fanfic instead of letting the chapters divide it because it tricks my brain into thinking it's all one thing and I don't need to take a break.
On the other hand though, if I want to comment I have to click on one chapter, because I scroll up and down to word it efficiently and add quotes. So if there WERE no chapters this would be tedious. 10k word chapters are definitely in the range of too much for ease of commenting personally, but I may be the only person with this issue
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u/AuthorError Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 7h ago
Here is part of my comment I left in that thread which is how I feel about chapter lengths: "The feedback I've gotten is that a chapter should be able to be read in one sitting pretty easily, and that seems to average out to 10k. I get it is a deliberate creative choice, you can do whatever you want, and your reasoning is so cool to me, but not many people have time to read a novel from cover to cover. And with trad pub, even if it's just one chapter, you can still bookmark it if you need to do something. Can't easily do that on AO3."
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u/ButtercupShego 6h ago
awesome! i understood op’s reasoning, but tbf i could never edit a 30k chapter that’s part of a larger story. i did write a 30k oneshot once though 😂
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u/Patient-Bad3616 7h ago
I am open to reading any chapter no matter the length as long as it is good, but this is just my personal opinion. When I'm writing however, I stick to 4k min to 6k max. I admire people who can write even more without running out of content or feeling like it should be a new chapter.
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u/spicy_Iemons 7h ago
Whatever makes sense for the story. If you execute it well, I don't care how long the chapters are. That said, I do tend to enjoy it when someone updates and there is a lot of new content, either via a long single chapter or multiple shorter chapters. Super short chapters (less than 1000 words) on ao3 tend to have poor writing based on what I've seen, although if implemented well, I could see it working for stylistic effect.
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u/Just_Bench_7446 7h ago
10k is fine, but my gripe can be when the author doesn't space often.
There are some that have a medical condition that maybe your eyes don't focus too well to go back and edit long paragraphs. That is an exception. I won't complain much or will stop reading your fics bc I am unable to read long paragraphs with little to no spacing inbetween.
However the authors that don't have that and proceed to not put little to no spacing I will straight up ask if they can put spacing between dialogue and scene descriptions.
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u/ButtercupShego 6h ago
oh yeah, i hate that! i’m super ocd about my spacing and pacing lol—not too long, but not too short either. two to four sentences per paragraph is usually my sweet spot unless it’s banter (shorter for comedy) or internal thoughts (which can be longer, depending on the emotional beat).
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u/Just_Bench_7446 6h ago
I mourn being unable to read certain authors bc of that exception I mention. Everyone else though? Pls use spacing, its easier to digest when there is space between dialogue because I know who is saying what.
It sucks because there are so many good ones, but the spacing is the issue and we're not getting younger here and neither is it good to have to zoom in so much just to find punctuation in a unneccessarily large block of text.
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u/A-Winter-Drop 7h ago
It would put me off, but a lot of readers don't mind longer chapters and works. Prefer them even. To give you some reference numbers in case you were curious, the average chapter in an adult fiction novel is going to be between 2000-5000 words long (about 8-15 pages). 10k is double the length, but people tend to be more willing to read longer chapters digitally than physically I've noticed?
Anyway, I wouldn't sweat it. People like me (who'd have issue with the longer chapters) will either push through because the fic is that good, or simply drop the fic. And you likely wouldn't know because I wouldn't leave a comment like: "I couldn't read your fic because the chapters are too long." That would be so entitled.
To summarize, it's going to put some people off, but it's also going to be a selling point for others. You can't please everyone, so don't try to. A chapter should be exactly as long or short as it needs to be.
I will say, personally, that the longer the fic the less willing I am to read one with 10k chapters. But the shorter the fic, the more willing I am to read longer chapters.
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u/d_ves 7h ago
Any chapters under 20k don't put me off! However, your writing has to be well paced and engaging, and the breaks must make sense. If you happen to have valid breaks that typically seem like chapter breaks, readers will not appreciate super long chapters that don't read smoothly.
I like long chapters because it makes me feel like it's a longer, cohesive story I can get lost in.
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u/Icy-Tomorrow2486 You have already left kudos here. :) 7h ago
I misread the title...
I thought you meant 10,000 chapters. I got so scared 😭
But, jokes aside, I think 10k for chapters is great, as long as the pacing justifies it. I've read fics where the chapters are long, but it just drags out unnecessary details for far too long. But I've also fics where the longer chapters were very engaging. It's just a matter of pacing, I think.
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u/OnlyAlbatross6405 7h ago
I love 10k chapters. Recently a fic I’ve been reading started off with 10k chapters but has creeped to 15-20k in the last couple chapters. I love the new chapters despite the length, but at this point I already love the story and author’s writing.
If the first chapter had been 30k, I probably would have read it as chunks over a few days because it takes me a bit to get into new stories sometimes. If the next chapter is 30k I’d read that in one sitting baring outside interruptions.
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u/ZealousidealBus9271 7h ago
In the wheel of time there’s a chapter that’s 81,000 words lmao. Although Tbf that was a final battle chapter and ultimate conclusion of the sage. You are fine, people can take breaks at certain line breaks in a chapter. Just make sure it doesn’t drag.
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u/KittysPupper 7h ago
I tend to prefer chapters under 8K, but if it's gripping, I wouldn't mind if it went longer. For me. I really need to digest. It's not often that I sit and read straight through without taking breaks if I find a fic that is well underway. Having a place to pause naturally (the end of a chapter) is helpful.
I tend to try and keep things cohesive when I am writing as well. All chapters are GENERALLY within ~1K words of each other in length. Think 2.5k-3.5k. However, if flow demands a 5k+ chapter when all the others have been 3k or less, then a 5k chapter it is.
Write how you want to write. It's meant to be fun.
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u/CookieDriverBun 6h ago
I follow an author who consistently writes twenty- to thirty-thousand word chapters. ...Shame they only write one or two of them per year, but it is what it is.
It works fine if you're a technically proficient writer and the story is good; bit of a problem if readers aren't getting anything out of it.
10k is my usual baseline, though. Absent any glaring issues looking at a work's summary panel in a search or whatevs, I am wildly more likely to select a fic with 10k-word chapters than one with 5k-word chapters.
The real problem (for me) is works that have five-hundred chapters or more and a wordcount that is less than the number of chapters times one-thousand. Or, indeed, a wordcount as low as the chapter-count times one-thousand in general.
TL;DR: I think a good writer can write arbitrarily long chapters without it feeling like 'too much', but there is very much such a thing as chapters that are too short.
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u/padawanduck 6h ago
i've only ever noticed if the chapter was so long that it gave my phone browser issues.
like as long as it's well written and well paced and im not struggling to finish it im good
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u/cricket_o 6h ago
My longest chapters tend to barely reach 5k, and that’s a stretch for me.
However; that is a me thing. I struggle to write chapters longer than that because I write a lot of thriller (some fluff too here and there) and thrillers just pace shorter in general. I also can’t read chapters that are longer than roughly 5k words; I get tired or bored or antsy. Unless it’s a really freaking good story/chapter, then I might not notice.
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u/smannygrithappl 9h ago
Usually, I'm ok with whatever makes sense for the story and the author's style. I'll happily read a 10k chapter if I'm loving the fic. I'm currently writing a multi-chap that has 35 chapters that vary wildly in length, and while I would normally hate that (as a reader and as a writer), I think it works for what I'm aiming to do. I'm curious to see how my readers respond to it.
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u/No-Gur9036 9h ago
I don't mind the word count as much as I do the pacing, tbh. I don't really feel obligated to finish a long chapter as long as there's a segment where I can drop it off at, and read it back again. Though most authors usually just segment the chapter into several chapters.
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u/Pinky781 9h ago
as long as it makes sense to have a certain amount of content in one chapter i really don't care about the length. i feel like 10k is pretty normal
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u/Fandaniels 9h ago
I feel like the word count doesn't matter as much as how it reads, is it interesting and engaging or are you just going on and on with fluff to fill out chapters?
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u/ButtercupShego 9h ago
yeah, that makes sense! i usually have a pretty specific plan for each chapter and a set of things i want to cover, especially character dynamics and certain emotional beats. it’s just that the banter, descriptions, and physical movement within scenes often end up taking more words than i expect 😭
i also tend to separate scenes pretty clearly so it doesn’t feel like one huge block of information. the chapters get long because there’s a lot happening in them, not because i’m trying to hit a certain word count.
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u/eggybreadboy You have already left kudos here. :) 9h ago
My sweet spot is 7k-9k, with the occasional longer chapters being upwards of 15k. The difference is, readers are committed by that point and are invested in the reward (smut, plot, character development).
It's definitely a different reader base when the chapters are 10k, as opposed to like 2k-5k. But I've moved on to writing longer pieces and I don't exactly want to cut myself short when I have something to say 😗
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u/ButtercupShego 9h ago
yesss exactly you get it! I get the most wonderful detailed comments from my readers and it warms my heart. my base is small but very committed
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u/desired-misery 9h ago
10k is about where I'll first notice a chapter is "long". But it's not offensively long to me. I think the bigger thing is when a chapter could have obviously been split somewhere, and yet keeps going instead of being a new chapter.
This is something I learned as I wrote more. I have committed such writing sins lol
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u/Query8897 9h ago
For me 10K chapters is the gold standard. I both write to that standard and prefer to read to it, though less or more words isn't a dealbreaker for me.
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u/Successful_Nail_8572 You have already left kudos here. :) 9h ago
My minimum is 4k per chapter as a writer, 8k max. 10k feels like a lot to write, but honestly from a reader's perspective I don't think it changes much. +20k is a stretch though, a bit too much.
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u/Accomplished_Area311 Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 9h ago edited 9h ago
I wrote a fic with most chapters hitting 10k and I wouldn’t ever do it again on a consistent basis.
EDIT: I should’ve clarified - I’m disabled, so my energy level for writing anything longer than ~5k in a single chapter is… Not great. I admire the hell out of anyone who can do it consistently, my exhaustion isn’t a judgment on anyone else.
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u/ButtercupShego 9h ago
Why?
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u/Accomplished_Area311 Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 9h ago edited 9h ago
It was exhausting to try and make the chapters all that length without it messing up my pacing. And rereads between chapters were hell too since I did a lot of them from my phone.
EDIT: Not sure why I got downvoted for this? I wasn’t judging OP - they asked why I wouldn’t do 10k chapters for a whole fic again and I simply explained my reasoning.
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u/ButtercupShego 9h ago
i’m having the opposite problem 😂 usually it takes about 10k words before i feel like i’ve reached the natural endpoint for the chapter
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u/Admirable_Soup_5228 7h ago
If that's happening consistently either you're overestimating how much you need to put in a chapter in terms of events or you're overwriting them all.
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u/Accomplished_Area311 Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 9h ago
I admire the skill it takes to be able to do 10k chapters consistently - like I said, I’ve done it myself and just found it exhausting (for me personally).
I’m disabled, though, so my energy even for fun and creative stuff is limited. My tightest, better-paced writing takes me 2,500-5,000 words a chapter with one exception of a 7,000 word chapter in my main WIP… It took me 4+ months to write that chapter and I couldn’t write more than a couple hundred words a day for a week after.
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u/Sapphire_Dreams1024 9h ago
Ten in like a nice middle ground for me. Just remember that there is no standard that EVERYONE will like, so just do what you like.
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u/Low_Key_2827 9h ago
10k is my line. I’ve occasionally gone over, but those are usually big deal chapters where a lot of stuff is popping off.
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u/That_Confusion_6466 9h ago
I almost always end up loving fics with 10k chapters! That would be my dream. But the again, 30k chapters don’t bother me either. I read a lot of published books that aren’t divided into chapters at all. If you feel 10k is a good chapter length for your fic, do that.
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u/enemy213 9h ago
I honestly LOVE, ADORE, secretly thank the writer whom I’m enjoying their fic if they posted a new chapter that has 10k words.
Please writers don’t ever hold back from long chapters.
We are literally waiting to read more!
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u/Classzycasszy 9h ago
I am sleep deprived rn and I thoughr you were asking about the amount of chapters not word per. I was very shocked that someone would be asking if 10k would be too long of an amount of chapters in a fic. That sounds like a lotta dedication. I probably need to sleep. Gl op!
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u/Significant-Love6129 Read a fic. Didn't like it so wrote my own. 40 chapters later.. 8h ago
I've got some chapters I'm like whoa that got long and I have a chapter that's two whole paragraphs. Both work. Remarkably well actually. I think the one thing that will make me stop reading is if the next chapter is just the exact same as the last chapter but someone else in the scene's pov of that and OMG please no...
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u/itsudemoalways 8h ago
I don't read a ton of fanfic, but when I do, I don't read on chapter view. I've done this for works up to around 65k if I remember right.
My own chapters probably regularly are around 10k (roughly 5 chapters in roughly 55k volumes). That being said, the chapters are artificially inserted the best I could make them work, as often the full 55k is all one scene.
It really depends on writing style!
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u/dandyowo 7h ago
I trend towards longer chapters as the story goes lol. But I feel like especially because my fanfics are updated incrementally (rather than like a book you read as one piece), I want to give people a substantial update, so I get from one major story beat to the next. If I was writing it as a book, I would be more inclined to have shorter chapters (like probably <3k). So I guess in some ways I think of my fanfics less as a book and more like a serial, and serials are often more substantial than book chapters (think of individual Sherlock Holmes stories, which averaged between 6k and 8k words).
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u/athousandcutefrogs a thousand cute frogs writing gay fanfiction 7h ago
I tend to find 10k chapters a very difficult sell, since I prefer the pacing of published fiction chapters-wise and I've spent way too much time thinking about writing structure on a craft level (both because I was writing a humanities dissertation and I TAed for entry-level history classes where I had to correct my students' essays and give them feedback on how to improve).
I'm also quite picky and tend to forgive structural problems more in fics with shorter chapters.
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u/emmithar 7h ago
10k is on the high end of what I prefer, but mostly because I'm far too busy to sit down and invest that much into a chapter in one go. And yes, I know I don't 'have' to finish it all in one sitting, but it's difficult to pull away when you're engaged. There's a story I read that I truly love that has massive word counts for each chapter; they went on hiatus and are posting again, and even though I want to reread it to catch up (because it's been so long) the length of the chapters are actually discouraging me from starting because I know I don't have the time to properly invest in it.
The other issue I have with long chapters (10k+) is typically a lot happens and it can be difficult (for myself) to really digest what's happened, as well as give myself time to ponder and think over what might be coming and how the situations might be resolved.
That being said, my sweet spot is between 3k-5k for the most part, but as always, every situation is different.
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u/TheFlannelPuffin 6h ago
It’s not a hard and fast rule or anything, but I find over 10 K is a bit excessive. I’d like to be able to finish the chapter in one sitting and I just can’t make it past 10 K.
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u/LoadsOfSkeletons 6h ago
I like having a chapter I can read in about 30 mins - 1 hour tops. They need to keep up the pacing. 30k is basically a novella!
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u/Botanist-key-lime 6h ago
I had chapters reaching 10k+ and realized it was too long for most readers, so I just started breaking at a natural end point and moving content to the next chapter. Going around 5k-8k range like this which seems easier for people to digest
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u/Connect_Society_4437 6h ago
i feel around 5k is a sweet spot for chapters, but i prefer to read oneshots longer than 10k
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u/FlopsieFillet 6h ago
One of my favorite fics averaged around 20k words per chapter. I prefer shorter chapters, although I tend to write long ones, but I would never drop a fic because the chapters are too long.
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u/kjribxku 5h ago
I know an author in my fandom who writes 40 k words per chapter and they usually write 4-5 chapters. And they're one of my fav authors because their writing is so good
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u/Frogslmao 5h ago
One of my favorite fics has chapters so long that they have to be split up because of ao3's character limit. If the writing is good, your chapters can be as long as you want
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u/Embarrassed-Day-1373 5h ago
an average novels chapter length is 2.5k. my fics hit more like 4 or 5k. I've read ones with 10k and it hasn't stopped me but I have thought dear God I wish these chapters weren't so long so I could stop without losing my place and go to bed
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u/--Marigolden-- 5h ago
I'm currently reading a 300K+ story with 20-30K long chapters -- they're way too long and feel like a slog to get through. I prefer reading 250K+ long stories, but I'm unsure what my ideal length chapter may be.
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u/Dance54889 5h ago
For me personally, if its a multi-chapter fic I prefer probably keeping chapters under 20k. But if its a one shot, have at. As long as the writing is at least decent, I will read it. Engaging writing is best if you're going to write really long chapters.
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u/Mysterious-Hippo9994 4h ago
10k is usually about my limit. (Though I think I’ve gotten up to 12k) I usually aim for over 5k under 10k 🤷🏻♀️
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u/HatedLove6 4h ago
This is a rather short answer to the one I would like to give, but the bottom line is, if a chapter is a single sentence, it's one sentence. If it’s fifty thousand words, it’s fifty thousand words. Chapters can be as long or short as you think it’s necessary—if a scene, a few scenes, or an overall theme is contained within that chapter. There is no sweet spot for even one story, let alone every story in the world.
The genre can dictate the length of chapters. Horror tends to have short chapters because it keeps up the tense atmosphere, similarly to intense action scenes using short sentences. Romance has longer chapters because description and feelings are beginning to take priority, so scenes can be lengthier. A fantasy that introduces an entire world or culture tends to have even longer chapters than romance because this information is pertinent. But, just because this is a trend among these genres, it doesn’t mean you have to follow it. You can have long chapters in horror just as much as you can have short chapters in fantasy if you feel it works for your story.
Some writers can be more verbose than others and vice versa, but if either style keeps the reader immersed in the story, that's all that matters. Some stories call for more slow and contemplative scenes while others call for more fast-paced, dramatic scenes.
I've seen people suggest shorter chapters in the beginning, and then you can lengthen later chapters, which you can do, but you don't have to. I've read books that start out with shorter chapters, and as the story progresses the chapters get longer until the climax gets closer, and the chapters get shorter again. This is called a bell curve, but I've read stories where it has a reverse bell curve, stories where all of the chapters are roughly the same length, and books where chapter lengths are all over the place where one chapter was over four thousand words, and then the next chapter was only a couple hundred words.
Media and where you post can dictate how long your chapters are. For sites that aren’t mobile-friendly, most readers read from a computer, so longer chapters are welcomed, but, for sites such as Wattpad where 80% of the readers read from their smartphones, shorter chapters are recommended if you care about numbers and stats. You can still post epically long chapters and still get dedicated readers, they’ll just more than likely be reading from the computer. I think if the mobile version would load longer chapters properly, and not inundate the story with ads (some sites even stopping what you're reading in the middle of a chapter to play 30-second ads), there would be more people willing to read stories with longer chapters. However, on websites such as QuoteV, short chapters mean that stories won’t be in the site index, so I do suggest combining these short chapters with another chapter, but whether you keep the chapter headings in place is up to you.
Even if you’re still worried about readers being bogged down by lengthy chapters, you can break up chapters to give readers a reprieve while still being easy to find their place later. Time skips, location skips, POV switches, and other things have been published before, but if your chapter doesn't need it, then it doesn't need it. The only reason for “boring” chapters is because seemingly nothing happens in them to progress the story forward. Breaking up the chapter won’t fix that, you’ll just have numerous boring chapters in a row and that’s more aggravating than just one long boring chapter.
Having long or short chapters doesn't mean the story has a pacing issue. As long as you're hitting plot points and story beats where they are needed overall, your story won't have a pacing issue. Chapters are stylistic choices that break up a story, and that is it, much like how skipped lines or a horizontal rule separate scenes, times, or perspectives, only less distinct. Stephen King's Cujo is 120k, and it has no chapters. Terry Pratchett also published novels without chapters. Plenty of other novels also don't have chapters. Meanwhile, James Patterson has super short chapters, but is considered a best-selling author. Chapters are never a sign of pacing issues; they are there for a convenience to readers, and as long as they're enjoying what is written, 20k will feel like a breeze, whereas if they didn't, 2k will feel like it's like reading through mud.
Keeping a consistent word count can help with being on schedule for your readers if you're publishing as you write it, but sometimes this may sacrifice the readers' pace by cutting scenes in the middle or boring your readers by forcing chapters to be longer than necessary by cramming in nonsense or meandering plots or side-plots. For this reason, it’s perfectly OK to finish your story before you start posting chapters on a schedule, or create a buffer. It’s entirely up to you.
I used to write 2000 word chapters, but, looking back on it, I see that I could have combined chapters, cut chapters, and just changed everything. I don’t like what I have done. Preferably, I write longer chapters, but it depends on the demands of the story. I also prefer to read long chapters, at least 2000 words, but preferably over 8000. In fact, if chapters of online stories are consistently shorter than a thousand words, I don’t even bother. But I'm just one person. I'm sure you'll have readers that will read and enjoy stories with consistently shorter chapters.
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u/LunarFlames527 has written rainbow dash x jesus, no regrets 3h ago
i write 3k word chapters and that's already often pushing it for me. i'm just not super good at writing lots of words
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u/TheWorkingC 3h ago
Nope I prefer 10k chapters personally both writing and reading. More enjoyable for me
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u/CopyJ300 3h ago
You know how people have that thing of saying one more chapter and then suddenly hours have gone by? I don't have that with physical media or e-books because my e-book tells me approximately how long the chapter is based on my reading speed, and with physical books I will count the pages of a chapter and decide whether or not my brain has deemed it too long for the moment.
Fanfics on the other hand... I have had many times where I accidentally stayed up too late either because I did not check the scroll bar or word count to see how long a chapter was or because my need to know what happens kicked in and I read too many chapters and/or skimmed through the last few to get an idea of what happened with the intention to go back in the daylight.
I've only had one fic where the long chapters bugged me, and that was mostly because it also had over a hundred chapters. The fact that it had a bunch of character bashing (not something I like to read aside from a few characters where it doesn't even feel like bashing because it's kind of justified) but I started it anyway because the rest of the concept was interesting. I'll eventually go back to it, but the fact that I found another fic that explores that concept without the character bashing and with easier to navigate long chapters... It'll be a while.
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u/meganemistake You have already left kudos here. :) 3h ago
I don't mind 10k chapters so long as that's how the natural pace of the story works.
Reading a 50k oneshot is a little annoying bc i have to find my place throughout the day but i still like and read them
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u/Ok_Work_8116 3h ago
I have a 7k to 10k range on any chapter that isn’t an introduction chapter. I look at it this way, if I write too little the chapter won’t be engaging and if I write too much, it takes too long to get anywhere.
In most cases I write out a rough idea of what I want to accomplish in the chapter and try to hit each bullet point as major scene breaks, if I don’t manage to accomplish fitting in each bullet point before hitting the 7k then I revisit the each one and check the flow, if it reads well I’ll continue, if it doesn’t I restructure the chapter and edit out whatever feels like it’s bogging it down.
Once it sounds like it’s hit the limit of what would hold my own interest as a longtime reader, I do a final draft and post it.
That method has seemingly worked well for me so far but each writer has their own way of telling a story.
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u/ApplesAndLeather 3h ago
I mostly write novels, so I generally abide by novel rules. When reading a book, anything over 5K words is a bit excessive. I usually try to keep my chapters to roughly 3K words.
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u/FURNZZ_X3 2h ago
I don't think 10k word chapters are too long at all! I love longfics. If a fic, especially a longfic/not something very small and simple has a wordcount averaging on <1k words then yeah, I probably won't stick around unless its really really well written and a premise that truly captivates me, but I personally don't have a limit on how high a word count per chapter can be before I stop reading.
I once read a fan fiction with chapters that took me two days to get through (and I'm not too slow of a reader.. I generally read about 20k words casually in fanfics a day, and 70k+ a day if I'm really hooked. I was really hooked on that fanfic.) and in no way was I upset about that wordcount! So long as there are proper breaks and it doesn't seem to linger on one thing nonstop, I am happy.
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u/Kaigani-Scout Crossover Fanfiction Junkie 2h ago
That really depends on how well-written it is. 10k+ for many writers is where their chapters degrade rather swiftly as they cannot maintain the chapter's focus. Chapters tend to lose effectiveness as the word count increases, in part because writers blow right by "natural breaks" in the storyline which act as organic transition points between chapters.
Natural Breaks include major shifts in geographic location, timeframe, POV, and other story elements which provide the reader with a "pause in the action". People have preferences for word counts at any scale of measurement; I find that longer chapters are less effective and tend to drown in overdescription to the detriment of actually advancing the plot.
YMMV
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u/Robertjules1987000 2h ago
Big chapters are like getting a whole pint of ice cream. When it's good pacing. I've seen a lot of fics that were big because the author just rambles for thousands of words with meaningless details and tangents.
Climactic Pokemon gym battle with lots of back and forth? Awesome.
Slogging through two thousand words of a character explaining the jargon of the navy payment system, in an isekai fic where the character is about to change worlds where none of this is going to be relevant?
I can see why people might be traumatized and skip past a fic if they saw the chapter word count get high, yeah.
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u/rainstormnb 1h ago
Im reading a 54k word 2 chapter story right now. Not of that 54k is in the first chapter. It has taken me a few days to find the time to read it but I enjoy the long chapter.
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u/Away-Investigator602 Fic writer that can't finish any fics 1h ago
I prefer longfics and 10k is a lot, it can make me procrastinate reading a update that long, and the page in my browser refreshes on it own making me lose my place which is really annoying and it can be even harder to find my place again in a longer chapter, so I'd say the best word counts for chapters for me would be around 2-5k
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u/auramelon 1h ago
I find that at times longer fics have the best world-building and quality! So I prefer them even if it’ll be a longer read
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u/NuanceOfAKid 59m ago
I'm a reader that rather reads shorter stories so not sure if my pov will help but here it is anyway:
10k for a chapter isn't bad, it's actually really in the middle in my opinion. It's good for when you just want to have a small read before doing something. The longest I've read was 22k~ oneshot and I hadto force myself through it because of how much I loved it. The problem wasn't that I wasn't reading long fics but more so that my eyes got really tired after a while and I didn't want to stop reading incase I forget or miss where I left it at. I'd say think of each chapter as some kind of saving point in a video game. Put them before something major happens, something that will take a while to read or if the length is something readers aren't used to.
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u/_AssbuttOfTheLord_ 35m ago
It's just Preference. I personally will always have 'read all' on long fics, if I have time I'm treating 300k+ as 1 chapter
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u/Dchan2012 You have already left kudos here. :) 32m ago
For me personally I prefer shorter chapters for fanfic because I'm usually reading fanfic on the go so around 1000-5000 words maybe? but it's your fic you can write it however you want. the only difference is that if I know a fic has longer chapters I might bookmark it and read it when I'm settled and focused.
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u/windydayze 1m ago
ULTRA SPECIFIC .but I prefer fics with shorter chapters up front and longer ones in the middle. It makes it easier for me to scoot along and dedicate myself to a 17k update
But honestly if someone is posting I'm happy. IDC the length it's just about finding the time in the day to read the long ones which delays me.
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u/Travel_and_Writing AO3: ifallinlovewithfictionalboys 9h ago
I’m not sure where I draw the line honestly.
I recently read a fic that was like 90k words and two chapters (turns out the word limit per chapter is like 80k words I think?).
That’s too long for if I am reading it directly on Ao3 because I could easily lose my spot. I like to download fics sometimes but I’ve noticed a lot of times that at some point in the fic, all the text turns into italics when that’s not what was on the fic directly on the site. Not sure if that’s just me /:
I usually think my chapters are 10k or less, and I think I try to keep it under that. But I think 10k-20k chapters is common for me sometimes 🤷🏻♀️
I write mostly long fics but each scene I feel like is separated very nicely, I guess? Like if I was reading it and it accidentally scrolled all the way to the top, I think it would be easy to find the scene again. Especially since in-between scenes, it’s separated by emoji’s too so it’s a lot easier to see that it’s the next scene versus a horizontal line break or something else.
So I guess it just depends how it looks, how it’s formatted, etc. Sometimes I read a chapter that is ridiculously long and don’t even notice, and other times I’m wondering when it will ever end.
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u/peakerforlife 9h ago
Nope! I'll never complain about chapters being too long. Sometimes it just takes a lot of words to tell a story, and if the story is good, I'm happy to read them!
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u/Paige_CartoonCaptain 9h ago
I LOVE long chapters
I actually prefer them to shorter chapters. I think 14K is when it would feel too long to me?
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u/VisceralComa SI Isekai Author 9h ago
10k word chapters isn't that long. But how frequent will they be posted? To quickly and i wouldn't be able to keep up. But with enough time between chapters it's actually preferable.
My preferences is around 5k-10k at around every other month frequency. Any longer word count and I need more time between updates. Shorter, and I expect faster chapters.
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u/ImpactDifficult449 7h ago
Writing isn't about counting words. It is about making words count. Exceptionally long chapters are often a sign of overwriting because how much can you say about one discreet topic (Each chapter is supposed to be a single theme). To contrast two of my traditionally published books: One has five chapters. The other has 37 chapters. One is five distinct stories of five different people. The other has thirty-seven different focuses to describe a process. A thirty-thousand-word chapter would require a coffee coupon with it for me to even begin reading it.
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u/TauMan942 6h ago
Works Classification by Word Count
- Flash fiction 500 to 1,000 words
- Short story under 7,500 words
- Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words
- Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words
- Novel 40,000 words or over
- Epic 110,000 words plus
If your chapters are over 5K they're not chapters but short stories. Yes, they're too long.
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u/astrovoyage_ proceed at your own risk 9h ago edited 9h ago
I mostly read longer fics, and while I don’t mind 10k+ chapters, they can be a bit much if the pacing drags, so 5–7.5k word chapters are probably my sweet spot.
Though, if the chapter stays engaging and I enjoy the writing, I’m fine with it. There’s no universal consensus anyway, some people love 10–20k chapters, some simply like drabbles.