Monday, October 19, 2009

How Long Should a Chapter Be?

QUESTION: How long should a chapter be?

There is no "official" length for chapters.  Most run around 15-20 manuscript pages in genre.  Category romances run a bit shorter.

The best rule of thumb is to end the chapter at your strongest hook/cliffhanger so the reader can't resist reading a few more pages to see what happens next.

The worst place to end a chapter is after solutions have been found, and the next disaster hasn’t started happening.

Click here to find out HOW TO FORMAT YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO GET ACCURATE PUBLISHER PAGE LENGTHS


RESEARCH SOURCE: In my blog on creating psychic characters, I discussed using television resources. A new documentary show called PSYCHIC PI is starting tonight on A&E at 11 PM ET which should prove a wealth of ideas on how a psychic can work with the police to solve crimes.

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