Deciding on Chapter Lengths

Working on my new novel, and revising my other, I've encountered the sometimes difficult choices of deciding on chapter lengths. At times, chapters seem to organically organize themselves, providing you, the writer, with a natural starting and stopping point based on the arc of that portion of the story. But, problems can arise when you seem to have a hard time knowing when one chapter should end and another should begin, or how much a chapter should cover, or what to do when chapter lengths vary so greatly that each chapter is vastly different than the last.

I think I should first mention that this is something that becomes more of a primary concern when revising a work. You don't want to become so focused on this during the writing process that it bogs you down or prevents you from following the flow of the novel. It definitely comes into play when writing, but more consciously takes part during revisions — at least in my opinion. In fact, you can spend an entire revision session dedicated just to chapter lengths, endings and beginnings (this session is still upcoming for me!).

But why such a focus on lengths, you ask? A significant portion of the answer is consistency. While at times you might make a conscious, artistic choice to vary chapter lengths for a given reason, I would say on the whole, chapters tend to be around the same page length within a given book. Like every other part of the novel's structure, this adds to the form, and the form adds to the reading experience.
Finding consistency within the length of your chapters enables the reader to create a kind of expectation. They expect a chapter to cover a certain amount of ground — however unexpected the plot might be.

Like the larger work, chapters also have a beginning, middle and end. Each chapter has an individual story arc that builds upon and adds to the tension, plot, and characterization of the novel. Deciding on chapter lengths thus should center around this structure. Chapters shouldn't go on and on without getting to a point; nor should they be so short that there is not enough time for something significant to happen. All chapters are not strictly episodic in nature: some serve to develop characterization; others fill in backstory. But seeing chapters through an episodic lens can help to reveal the purpose of that chapter and draw out the points you want to make sure to make.

Even if the chapters aren't all the same length, the length of the individual chapter is still important to consider. Each chapter should be the length it is for a reason. No one might ever know the reason but you, and your reader might not even pick up on it, but it is important for you, the author, to be aware that each chapter serves a specific purpose and contains the necessary parts.

There is no rule about how long chapters should be. This decision depends partly on the age of your target audience (this is a primary concern for me), partly on the artistic vision for your work, and partly on what seems natural within the space of your project. One thing you also want to remember is that chapter breaks also provide the reader a break, or a place to pause. You don't want to have your reader constantly wondering when a chapter is going to end, even if only for the sake of wanting a comfortable stopping point when the rest of your life is calling you away from the book.

The length of your chapters might not be something that wins you critical acclaim (as many readers might not give it a second thought —unless the chapter lengths are somehow not working) but it is important to consider within the greater process of constructing your novel. Hopefully, you will just know what works naturally for your project. But if you don't, don't be discouraged! It will all be figured out with a little revision.