YA

Chapters: How Long? How Many?

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

How many pages should comprise a chapter? How does an author know when to finish one chapter and begin another?

Good new: There is no hard and fast rule. Some books don’t even have chapters at all!

I like writing chapters, myself, because they are good break points in the story. Some readers even gauge their reading by chapters. They may always read  a certain number of chapters at a time—more or less depending on how ‘engaged’ they become.

Some authors write a specific numbers of pages in a chapter. I seem to write at a certain rhythm and 10-12 pages is the average length of my chapters.

If chapters are too long, interest may wain and if too short, they may not contain enough “depth.” 

Varying chapter lengths throughout the book will give the book more interest and variety.

Ideally, longer chapters more often are transitional, and shorter chapters are used for fast-paced excitement.

Books written for a younger audience, YA for instance, should have shorter chapters than books gauged for adults.

One thing is essential, however, each chapter should end with a cliffhanger—or at least something that makes the reader want to continue reading. 

Make your readers CRAVE the next chapter. End where the action is the most dramatic.

So how many chapters should a book have?

Different genres lend themselves to certain numbers of chapters. Fast-paced thrillers tend to have shorter chapters.

The more characters and the more intricate the plot, the longer the chapters and the more total chapters in the book.

Complex, non-fiction books should be shorter, unless textbooks or those written for more academic “types”.

More questions or anything to share?

Making Comparisons

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

Last week, we talked about Hyperboles. This week, we’ll focus on The Simile and The Metaphor.

These are also descriptions using figurative (non-literal) language, but they are not necessarily exaggerations.

They are both used to compare two things, actions, or ideas that are not alike. They make writing more descriptive, persuasive, and poetic. Writers of fiction, poetry, and song lyrics often use either or both similes and metaphors. 

An easy way to tell them apart is that metaphors do not use the words “as” or “like,” whereas similes do.

Example of a famous metaphor: Eyes are windows to the soul.

Here, the meaning is implied through comparison—that a person’s eyes can reveal a lot of information to the observer.

Example of a well-know simile: Without glasses, my father is as blind as a bat.

Here, the meaning is that someone’s vision is poor. He is not blind; he just needs to wear glasses.

I see the use of similes and metaphors more and more today, especially in historical fiction, suspense, and YA.