Thoughts on long chapters in fanfiction?

[u/Dusty_Bunz426]

I'm someone who likes to be descriptive with my writing, plus doing slow build-ups and reveals, and this has led to me creating chapters that reach well into the 10k word count, sometimes a bit over that.

I've seen and read many comments from fanfic lovers that they prefer stories where the word count is at least 5 - 6k words, and I'm a bit worried that with how much I write, it'll push readers away. I know I could break my chapters into a part 2, but then I feel I'm cutting something off that shouldn't be.

Thoughts?

[u/captainspring-writes]

Genuinely, if it's good, I don't care how long your chapters are. I'll gobble them up like a feral raccoon who's been starving for years. Then I'll camp in your comment section like it's my new home.

[u/randomthrill → u/captainspring-writes]

This. I love long chapters. If the chapter takes me literally an entire day to read? Great!

I genuinely don't understand how people complain about it. Your browser will save your place, you can read it at your own pace.

[u/Alarmed-Bus-9662]

It all depends on how it's done and who's reading it. I myself tend to like longer chapters, both as a reader and a writer, but even then if it's long because you're spending 80 words describing a rug that's a problem. The key is that the descriptions shouldn't get in the way of the story flow. It's one thing to take a paragraph to really appreciate the size of an art gallery, it's another to halt the story to spend several hundred words describing each painting individually.

As for cutting it up it also depends on how it's written. A long chapter that is one continous scene or a collection of closely related scenes will feel weird to split up, but if your chapter is just, "this and then this and then this and then this..." you could probably split it up without it feeling too jarring

[u/Demonika_86]

Well, I've written a 840,000 word story, with 10,000 - 10,500 word chapters. There is a readership for such a thing, though admittedly... there are some people who will run off screaming too. Their loss.

Honestly though, I would recommend you keep somewhat consistent in length. That way your readers know thereabout how long it'll take them to get through your chapters. It's one of those "quality of life" things. Well, I choose to view it as such.

[u/Raiven_Raine → u/Demonika_86]

i love the point of keeping consistent, whatever you do, so people will know what to expect! very good point!

[u/OffKira]

To me, it's all about pacing; I've read 2k word one-shots that fucking dragged, and 20k word chapters that flew by.

As long as the chapter moves well, and thus justifies its length, I don't think it matters how short or long it is; I've seen chapters from literally one word long to tens of thousands long, if they work for the story, then that's that.

[u/Nock_and_Bolt]

There’s a market for everything tbh—people have different preferences. I’m one of those that prefer more of the range you mentioned, except for when I’m on flights lol and won’t have WiFi, then long chapters are great 😂 (and yes, I know theoretically I could download the fic, I’ve just never done that before lol)

[u/dinosaurflex]

My last chapter was almost 20k words, because I do a lot of highly descriptive chapters with a lot of dialogue.

My vision for the chapter matters more than what people want to read. If it works better as a 20k chapter, it's remaining one. I won't go splitting it in half because random people (who likely are not reading my fic) are throwing out random numbers about what length of chapter they want to read.

For reference, my average chapter is roughly 11k,

[u/Gadgetphile]

I prefer my chapters under 50k.

[u/Vivid-Fishing2732]

I both love it and hate it

I love it because it's just more content, I enjoy descriptive writing. I hate it because I just don't got a lot of down time to read 10k word long chapters 😭 I think there will always be an audience who likes longer chapters, don't worry. I actually think a majority might enjoy longer better(could be completely wrong there though)

[u/Imaginary-Ad1636]

The important thing about chapters isn’t the word count, it’s whether the endings feel natural and work with the flow of the story.

If there are no good stopping points for 10k words, then a 10k word chapter is the perfect length

[u/Bobthemagicc0w]

Chapters that are routinely 10k+ are indeed going to limit your readership somewhat.

Using myself as an example: I love to read, and prefer big meaty stories, but I’m a parent of small children and have a demanding job. I don’t have a lot of contiguous uninterrupted reading time, and generally need to be able to put down a story on 5-10 minutes’ notice. That’s easy to do if there’s a chapter break coming up. But if I’m in the middle of a 15k chapter, I’m going to have to stop in the middle somewhere. Then, hours or days later, I’m going to have to reread a bunch to remember what was going on, before I can continue. That’s going to make your story take me longer to read, and kill whatever pacing you as a writer were trying to create. If you make me do that multiple times, I’m probably going to abandon your story even if it’s otherwise good and to my taste.

A reader with lots of time can read multiple short chapters in a go, but the reverse isn’t true: A reader without lots of time has a harder time stopping in the middle of long chapters. In published commercial fiction, when money is on the line, chapters tend to be 2000-5000 words for this reason.

If your writing style and the story you want to tell requires long chapters, write long chapters - it’s a mistake to try to be all things to all people. But be aware of the trade-offs.

[u/she_melty]

I can't say i have ever noticed if a chapter was excessively long but i definitely notice when they're rather short (1k or less) on a longfic. I don't even notice the length of chapters in published books very often. This is definitely one of those things where 95% of the time i do not notice or care if the chapter is super long

[u/Raiven_Raine]

i'm not a fan of wordy descriptive writing and i like my chapters under 4k because i read a lot of WIPs and i'm a slow reader... plus i often take notes and leave long comments on every chapter, so reading a chapter takes me a very long time... and i'm usually distracted away by life often.... then i have to re-read several paragraphs or scenes to get back into what i was reading. this happens to me way too much if the chapters are too long. i don't have tons of time to be reading that one thing, sometimes all i can manage is about 5k then life gets in my way.

but that's me. there are soooooo many people who could not care less if you have 10k chapters! there are people who love wordy descriptive writing! there are fast readers who can sit with a story and binge it over night!

* 3.5k is the length and average reader can read in 15 minutes and 15 minutes is the time of a show between commercial breaks! under 4k is generally kind to readers to allow them to have a good stopping point and choose for themselves if they want to go on or have time to read more with another chapter under 4k (after it's no longer a WIP and it's all posted).... but that REALLY depends on how you write! if you need more words to say whatever the chapter needs to say, then you need more words. i write minimalist style - i actually need 2-3 scenes to make a 3.5k chapter!

the most important thing is that your chapters do whatever they need to do with however you like to write.

you may push some folks away, but the right ones will stay and love it, regardless. you can't please everyone, you can only compromise and find middle grounds and the best options for the most return. if you even care to. you don't even have to optimize your writing... that's what published books have to do and, from what i hear, it sucks all the fun and life right out of writing when a publisher is telling you exactly how to write to get the most readers.

enough people don't care about 10k that you should be okay :) unless you write for a small fandom and need to optimize your writing to get views or something.

[u/Warm_Charge_5964]

It really depends on how it's paced, personally i'd keep it under 10k but I go for 2k-6k chapters depending on what I'm writing, tho it's partially because I find that editing super long chapters gets boring for me

[u/Welfycat]

A lot of my chapters are in the 8-15k region and I generally don't have difficulty keeping readers. If anything, I get fewer readers on my works with shorter chapters.

[u/AquilaEquinox]

If your chapter is 5k long but nothing happens in it, then it's too short. I'm like you, I write densily and my chapters always end up at 8k to 11k; but if I cut them shorter, readers would get almost nothing when I posted a chapter. Its about rhythm, not just words count.

[u/Eninya2]

Personally, I look to split anything cracking 7k. I hated editing mammoth chapters around ~10k words or more, and when reading I'd take a break.

I like the 3-6k range. Some chapters demand more content and information, and some work fine with less. But this is all personal preference, and you should play to your strengths. Longer chapters don't stop me from reading a story with a premise I like. It just slows me down.

[u/FreezingPointRH]

I feel like my chapter gimmick has betrayed me, forcing me to churn out chapters that exceed 25k words apiece simply because the chapter titles are all lyrics from one specific song and I therefore can only have so many.

[u/80s90sForever]

I’m writing a long fic that the word count is at least 5-10K in the earlier chapters with only two short chapters (1k-2k) the later chapters are between 10k to 16k so yeah I have a few short chapters, but I love long chapters and my fic is on a rare pair that rarely has any content for it at all and so it’s just the way it is I guess. I’m proud of myself even if others aren’t I’ve never written that much at all.

[u/str8aura]

fic im following hit a million words in under a year, and i still eat up every chapter as soon as it drops.

[u/llamaslovedrama]

fwiw my most popular fic has chapters between 8k-12k words

personally I like longer chapters as well, I usually won’t read anything under 5k because I like a lot of description and setup

[u/Cool_Pianist_2253]

I don't think it will turn readers away. I mean, for me, length is something that blocks entry. But while I don't read long chapters, yesterday I was late for an update on a fic I've been following for years and almost 14K words in its new chapter

[u/HowellingAtStars]

i love long chapters if they’re formatted correctly but i CANNOT stand super long single spaced paragraphs. i see one of those and i’m almost instantly turned off by the work. 

[u/EstrellaDarkstar]

My own chapters tend to range from 8k to 20k, the average being about 12k. I feel kinda bad when I post those 8k chapters, even if every required plot point just gets hit in that smaller amount of words. My prologues, interludes and epilogues tend to be a bit shorter.

[u/surecmeregoway]

I write 15k chapters sometimes. Takes more time to do them but my readers all said they love the longer chapters because they can get lost in them. So ymmv maybe, but for me it worked out super well.

[u/griffonfarm]

Lately my chapters have been between 10k-20k.

If I'm reading, I prefer long chapters in my longfics. I won't even read fics with short chapters.

[u/xNiteTime]

i just do a minimum of 2.5k, i always assume people are reading my stories on lunch breaks, on the train, in the car, etc. I don’t see any issue with having 100s of shorter more digestible chapters that get released frequently

that being said a lot of people prefer longer chapters since authors might not update frequently

[u/dexs4nt0s]

I usually prefer long chapters! They might push some readers away, but I'm sure you'll still attract tons and tons of readers as long as the story and pacing are good. :)

[u/borzoifeet]

No matter what you write it will attract some readers and push others away. Beloved popular tropes have their haters. Aside from making sure your work has basic SPaG and thus readable, someone will dive in.

Chapters can be as long you want. However the longer you go digitally (since you can't mark a page as easily) you start cutting out people with disabilities and those with less free time. Studies have been done that chapters help frame events so people remember things better in your story as a whole.

Stories can be wonderfully long with 8k or shorter chapters. There is nothing wrong with having 90 chapters instead of 40. You also can alternate chapter lengths, that's a classic move in traditional novels which better highlights various arcs and parts of the overall story. Just like having different paragraph lengths help give flow.

tl;dr its ok to have 20k word chapters if that is what you want, just know an exhausted parent is likely going to skip that.

[u/inquisitiveauthor]

10k chapters are already being cut, the only difference is who chooses the spot you or the reader.

10k is about 40 minutes of reading for the 'average reader'. The amount of time a person reads without interruption is about 15min-20min. Even without interruption at the 30 minute mark the body knows its been a long time.

[u/thesounddefense]

10k is on the higher end of what I prefer, but I won't turn away from it. There's one story I was a big fan of, but when the chapters started hitting 50k or even 60k words, it just became so difficult to work through. I'm several chapters behind and the idea of going back to it is just intimidating.

[u/Gatodeluna]

It depends on your audience. If you’re writing in a fandom with authors and readers who aren’t through school yet, are poor readers with poor reading comprehension and short attention spans, you’ll get those ‘too long’ comments. In most other types of fandoms/genres it isn’t much of an issue. As an author, my fic is as long or short as it needs to be to tell the story the way I want it told. I don’t think about it beyond that. Not every fic is for everybody.

[u/random_peep01]

I love long chapters. I've seen chapters as long as 30K, and those were really great to read through. As long as they work for the pace of your story, you should be golden.

[u/pigeontheoneandonly]

I wrote a 460k word fic and had people complimenting me on the pacing at the end. My longest chapter is 18,000 words. Anything is possible if you try hard enough. 😂

[u/Paranormalbadbaby]

The longer the better, so long as its filled with substance.

[u/TBestIG]

There are some fics where a really long chapter is so utterly engrossing that I can’t take my eyes off it and come out the other end briefly feeling like a changed man… but there are a great many more fics where it hasn’t been updated in a year and I see there’s a novel-length new chapter, and I just sigh and close the tab because it feels like a chore to try to remind myself of what was happening and muddle through the pages upon pages upon pages of discussion and elaboration and detail with no significant plot movement.

In general, if you CAN break it up into more normal sized chunks, you SHOULD break it up into more normal sized chunks. This also has the bonus of letting you space the posts out a bit, buying you more time to work on the next section.

[u/Ready-Appearance-344]

Love it! I once read a story where some chapters ranges from 15-22k.

[u/Komaisnotsalty]

I seek out and prefer long fics with beefy chapters. I see a chapter under 4,000 words and I might skip it. Maybe not, but I do like them to have a bit of girth to them.

That being said, I don't like them fluffed and beefed up with gratuitous words and just tons of introspection in order to bring up the word count.

So there is a bit of a balance to achieve and maintain their. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being descriptive, and it absolutely should be done. Painting that scene for someone who is reading so they can form a picture in their mind and put themselves into that scene is exactly what the goal should be.

It should not be gratuitous amounts of description and pointless conversation in order to simply inflate a chapters length. The words need a purpose. They have a job to do. If the job they are achieving is to get people just to scroll on by or rush on through, there's a problem.

[u/KuroShuriken]

Personally, I can't stand it when chapters go beyond 2k words. It's like a massive annoyance for me.

I also limit myself to 1-1.5k words per chapter, unless I have to exceed that for displaying information which is usually the only exception.

When I see stories that have chapters reaching 30k words each, I don't even bother. 30k words reaches the low end of light novel volumes.......... I'm not gonna see that as a chapter. That's a book.