Chapters

[JaxRhapsody]

Something I've been wondering about; how do you guys do your chapters? Page, number, wordcount? I make mine exactly or roughly four msword pages long, which is like one lit page.

 

[KeithD]

The length of my chapters is determined by the content. Chapters shouldn't be just cut every so many words. They have a content arch and should usually end in a way that the action propels the reader into the next chapter. That said, before the era of e-publishing, standard print book chapters lengths for fiction were considered to be 5,000 words unless something in the content determined a different length. Now, even in print, they are "whatever." There are a lot of 700-word chapters in thrillers today.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

The length of my chapters is determined by the content. Chapters shouldn't be just cut every so many words. They have a content arch and should usually end in a way that the action propels the reader into the next chapter. That said, before the era of e-publishing, standard print book chapters lengths for fiction were considered to be 5,000 words unless something in the content determined a different length. Now, even in print, they are "whatever." There are a lot of 700-word chapters in thrillers today.

Okay, I gotcha. I haven't read real books in a while, but it seemed that most of my books had chapters 8-10ish pages long. Basically a chapter is as long as it needs to be, some of my books probably have chapters longer and shorter than others and I never noticed.

 

[RejectReality]

I tend to set a general wordcount. 5k, 10k... It's usually determined by where it felt right to cut off the first chapter.

After that, I aim for the vicinity, without it being set in stone. If a chapter runs a 1000 words short or 3000 over to hit the correct beat, that's where the chapter ends.

Or rather, I should say submission. If I was writing for print, some of the beats that are just asterisks within a submission would likely be chapter transitions.

 

[Nightwaves]

I use a chapter to indicate a gap in time, or to regroup and examine a scene or time period that has played out. A new chapter starts the next day, or the evening after a morning of action, or between a scene at work and a scene at home. I'd never start a new chapter that broke up a scene underway.

 

[TadOverdon]

Something I've been wondering about; how do you guys do your chapters? Page, number, wordcount? I make mine exactly or roughly four msword pages long, which is like one lit page.

Ideally between 3000-3500 words long. My older stories usually had shorter chapters, less than 3000 words, and post as single pages on lit.

Some chapters comprise two or more scenes occurring roughly simultaneously, either serially or interposed.

 

[SimonDoom]

I try to make chapters over 7500 words long so they will spill over to three Literotica pages. Longer chapters are better received at Literotica than 1 page chapters, so I figure if it's a long story I may as well publish in longer chapters to get a better reception.

I always publish all chapters in a story to the same category, so I also try to make sure that every chapter offers what that category requires. If it's an Anal story, for example, then every chapter will have anal activity.

I also try to make sure every chapter is long enough to tell a story arc that is complete in itself, even if it's part of a whole. So each chapter has a character with something to do, a buildup, and sexual activity that represents both the sexual and dramatic high point of that chapter.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I try to make chapters over 7500 words long so they will spill over to three Literotica pages. Longer chapters are better received at Literotica than 1 page chapters, so I figure if it's a long story I may as well publish in longer chapters to get a better reception.

I always publish all chapters in a story to the same category, so I also try to make sure that every chapter offers what that category requires. If it's an Anal story, for example, then every chapter will have anal activity.

I also try to make sure every chapter is long enough to tell a story arc that is complete in itself, even if it's part of a whole. So each chapter has a character with something to do, a buildup, and sexual activity that represents both the sexual and dramatic high point of that chapter.

I don't think the OP is talking about Lit chapters. I have several 'Books' that have been split up and submitted as parts with Chapter headings within the Part submitted. I think that is what the OP is talking about.

Personally, I try to keep them with in the scope of the what part of the story I'm trying to tell, yet sometimes you just have to give the reader a break at some point. Now I do have chapters that are then broken up into scenes as the POV might change within the Chapter.

 

[KeithD]

I'd never start a new chapter that broke up a scene underway.

Oh, the mainstream does this all of the time and there's no reason you wouldn't, as it falls in with the standard "end the chapter on a note that propels the reader into the next chapter." Thus, it's common, especially in thrillers, to end a chapter at the height of a dangerous situation and pick the action up immediately in the next chapter. Otherwise, it's standard, as already noted to do the break by changes in the scene or time/date.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I’ll mention this just to add to the overall database. My track record is such that nobody should emulate me, and I’m certainly not qualified to give advice.

I’m working on a group sex story that has gone well into novel length. It follows a hetero vanilla American couple over the past ten years, from dating through marriage to starting a family. The divisions are long enough that I’m going to present them as parts, rather than chapters. The word lengths on the drafts of the first seven parts are all 10,000 plus or minus 500. I’m not actually trying to do that. Every part has a clear thematic start and finish within the overall story, which is about the boundaries the couple sets on sex with other people.

I wonder if I’ve mind-gamed myself into letting the content be dictated by a word-length similarity that probably won’t matter to readers. If so, I hope to fix that before submittal. I haven’t posted any of the story yet, and I won’t until all of the content is done. I expect there to be anywhere from nine to twelve parts in all. I haven’t decided whether to post this on Lit or self-pub it as a book.

https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5116173&page=submissions

 

[PennameWombat]

As usual, "chapter" here is confusing

I have 'chaptered' stories - where I release separate submissions that are numbered ("Ch 01", 02, ...). For me, these are however long they need to be to tell "their" part of the much larger story. They need to be sort of standalone, in that a reader won't be utterly lost and there is a beginning, middle and end. But, well, it's "Ch 03" so you won't be totally satisfied unless you've read 01 and 02. For me, my current chaptered work each individual chapter is 15,000-20,000 words (I ignore MS Word or Google Doc 'pages' because I double-space and use a larger font to make editing easier so page count is useless as a metric. Only Lit pages and that's easy to derive from word count.)

I do generally use what I call 'sections' within stories, if the OP means this by 'chapter,' yeah, I get it. For these, they are as long as they need to be. I do most work in 3rd-person limited and will use chapter/section breaks to switch PoV, in many cases in the middle of a scene. There is no word count target for me. It's driven by the story and which and how many PoVs I want on what's happening.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I don't think the OP is talking about Lit chapters. I have several 'Books' that have been split up and submitted as parts with Chapter headings within the Part submitted. I think that is what the OP is talking about.

Personally, I try to keep them with in the scope of the what part of the story I'm trying to tell, yet sometimes you just have to give the reader a break at some point. Now I do have chapters that are then broken up into scenes as the POV might change within the Chapter.

Well, in general for things I may want to actually publish in to real books, ebooks etc. and Lit as well.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Oh, the mainstream does this all of the time and there's no reason you wouldn't, as it falls in with the standard "end the chapter on a note that propels the reader into the next chapter." Thus, it's common, especially in thrillers, to end a chapter at the height of a dangerous situation and pick the action up immediately in the next chapter. Otherwise, it's standard, as already noted to do the break by changes in the scene or time/date.

Yep, and I do this. like mini cliff hangers to keep you turning/scrolling the pages.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

As usual, "chapter" here is confusing

I have 'chaptered' stories - where I release separate submissions that are numbered ("Ch 01", 02, ...). For me, these are however long they need to be to tell "their" part of the much larger story. They need to be sort of standalone, in that a reader won't be utterly lost and there is a beginning, middle and end. But, well, it's "Ch 03" so you won't be totally satisfied unless you've read 01 and 02. For me, my current chaptered work each individual chapter is 15,000-20,000 words (I ignore MS Word or Google Doc 'pages' because I double-space and use a larger font to make editing easier so page count is useless as a metric. Only Lit pages and that's easy to derive from word count.)

I do generally use what I call 'sections' within stories, if the OP means this by 'chapter,' yeah, I get it. For these, they are as long as they need to be. I do most work in 3rd-person limited and will use chapter/section breaks to switch PoV, in many cases in the middle of a scene. There is no word count target for me. It's driven by the story and which and how many PoVs I want on what's happening.

That's what I was initially doing here, and it's pretty common, each chapter it's own submission. As of late I've been submitting stuff as one entry, but that stuff is under 10 chapters.