chapter length

i'm currently working on chapter 2 of a story and it is growing beyond all expectation. i had thought to post it as chapter 2: part 1 and chapter 2: part 2 because there is no logical break in the narrative. what do you think? if i post the entire thing eventually, even i'd get worn out reading it before the end.

You're writing; it's growing? No, no. It's your story. Write it shorter! Keep the bits you can't bear to part with for another chapter; or, even better, for another story. Good luck.

rae121452 said:

i'm currently working on chapter 2 of a story and it is growing beyond all expectation. i had thought to post it as chapter 2: part 1 and chapter 2: part 2 because there is no logical break in the narrative. what do you think? if i post the entire thing eventually, even i'd get worn out reading it before the end.

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If there's no logical break, then how do you divide chapter 2: part 1 from chapter 2: part 2? You are making a break.

Faced with a possibly similar problem, I defined the chunk of text I would submit as a part, rather than a chapter and then broke the part down internally into chapters. I also edited previous chunks of the story to be consistent:

The first chapter remained one chapter but Laurel renamed it as "Part 1"

The second chapter became "Part 2" and I broke it down into "Chapter 2" and "Chapter 3."

The changes were all prompted by the third part, which grew to 8 Lit pages. It became "Part 3" and internally it was divided into chapters 4 through 8.

You're a better man than I am, Gunga-din

I can't write a short story or chapter to save my life. I think most chapters in my stories end up around 15k words on average. One or two chapters have exceeded 20k.

I'll never win a short story contest, that's for damn sure. I agree with the person above, with minor modifications, you can break a rambling chapter up into smaller ones that suit your style better.

You have to let us know how long is long. The series I just concluded had chapters that varied from about 7500 words to close to 20,000 words. It did fine.

My advice is to keep it as one chapter unless you have a really good reason not to.

I generally divide my chapters into subchapters. A location change; the crossover from morning to afternoon; they all make logical breaks for a subchapter. Look for them and usually you see a moment where you can make that into a subchapter.
You don't actually have to make it a subchapter - although I usually do in my stories - but it's still the natural break that divides them and that might be what you're looking for to cut it in half.