On the regular blog we talked about chapter length. We also covered rule breaking here on the DWP side of the blog.
Today, I want to take a look at the two, combined, and see what we can come up with. And yes, I’m going to make you write a whole chapter.
I find it interesting that so many authors and writers worry about how long their chapters need to be. Like there is some magic word count number to reach, or else you fail as a writer.
The truth is, it doesn’t matter how long your chapters are, or even if you have chapters. Novel length word count, though, does matter.
While that is beyond the scope of this writing prompt, in general, different genres will have different requirement lengths.
Don’t let the self-pubbing teenagers try to convince you otherwise. A full length novel is at least 50,000 words. Anything less and you have a novella. And yes, I know about middle grade and romance minimums being lower.
20- 40,000 words is not a novel. You can disagree or argue if you want, but that is just how it is. And if you plan to publish traditionally, you should strive to write an actual novel length novel.
Now, with that out of the way, we need to focus on what to write, and less on how much.
Don’t get me wrong, enough words is important. What isn’t important is how many words you stuff into a chapter.
I’ve read some books with 5000+ words per chapter and the entire book only had about 11 total chapters. I’ve read other books with 60+ chapters total and some chapters were only a page long.
Before we get too crazy, let’s look at today’s writing prompt.
March 08
Write an entire chapter using only 4 sentences.
You challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to use only four sentences to cover everything in an entire chapter.
Here is what you need to use:
- At least 1 character
- Dialogue
- Scene setting
- Action
- give the reader a question they must have answered
Think you are up for it?
Give it a go and post what you come up with in the comment section below. It is easier than you think. Promise.
