Too much information?

[Innocynce]

How many words per chapter is too many for you?

I know people like my sis actually don't care if they like the book.

While apparently Around 500 words was enough (for Wattpad.) Which wasn't really helpful at all by the way, I destroyed a lot if chapters for nothing....

But NOW; I noticed one of my novels got very few (if any) views while another was getting constant for a while along with likes, and it was at most 200 or more words.

Do you personally prefer long chapters or short ones?

[HGohwell]

I think there is an element of as long as it needs to be. As long as it's engaging enough to keep me turning the page or clicking next, I don't care. I've read even traditionally published books that have chapters as short as a page or two. Personally, I prefer longer chapters and will happily consume 8k or more per chapter on sites where there's no limit, but here on Tapas somewhere around 1k per episode seems to be the sweet spot, given people are looking for quick biteszied reads. Although, when posting smaller bites, there is some discussion over whether those are full chapters or just parts of a larger chapter.

[vapidink]

For novels, the ideal length for most is about 1.5-2.5k words per chapter. That's enough to actually progress enough to keep readers invested while not making it so long that mobile readers might drop it. The most important part though, is that however long the chapter is works with the story you're telling.

Personally, I'd find very short chapters of less than 1k a bit frustrating. To me, it feels like I'm just getting snippets of the story. Even if the story is updated frequently, then I just have a bunch of little chapters to read through. I'd rather wait for a weekly of bi-weekly update with full chapters. From personal experience with readers though, they don't really care about length as long as the story is good and they're getting something of substance from each chapter.

[pixxiepinks]

I roughly try to make mine 2,000 words for stories I post here on Tapas. But I have a novel on a different website that has a more traditional audience where longer chapters are pretty much required, and I average around 6,000 words per chapter. It depends on your audience and what they are comfortable reading and what story you are trying to tell.

[cherrystark]

Amazon allows us 600-5000 words on Kindle Vella and I've noticed that my limit is 2500 words. If the writer pushes past that, I stop reading and start swiping. It just gets to be too long.

[maddu]

I prefer long chapters, enough to finish the scene/topic. For longer works like novels, it should (imo) just be as long as it takes. Whether it's cut into 10 or 30 chapters probably doesn't matter very much. For short works, I'd rather read it all in one go. In my own story, I don't have any specific limits/goals for length, but so far every chapter is between 8k and 11k words. It's about the same for another story I've been following updates on for a few months. I'd much rather wait a month or two or three and get a long chapter where the story really progresses than a 1k - 2k tease every week. Tapas' limits are way too short imo, and the chapters I post end up chopped into 3 - 5 parts.

[Dei]

When I read physical books, I don't care much how many words it contains because I could just easily use a bookmark to indicate the last line I read.

For media such as web novels and ebooks, I prefer it around 1k - 2.5k words, depending on how engaging a chapter is.

[the_puRple_hoRizon]

Depends you can shrink chapters into a few interesting words or create a lengthy page to build up the story with surrounding picture... Also the genre matters... I'd like mystery ones to be in detail rather than short... While romance and comedy can be shorter and fun.
In my case sometimes the 15000 words are too short and other times it's too much to fill in.
(⁠~⁠‾⁠▿⁠‾⁠)⁠~.....🦋

[Azifri]

I don't care about the lenght of the chapters in a book, in fact I don't pay attention to that... BUT if I'm reading in a digital format and the app (or browser) doesn't have a way to somehow mark or remember where I left off, then I definitely prefer short chapters. On Tapas it's especially annoying if I have to minimize the app for some reason and then lose track of where I was. I often find myself leaving novels with long chapters for a later time, when I have time to binge, instead of reading them as soon as I see they updated. It's just a practical reason, not that I don't like the novel enough, just there is plenty of short episodes of other comics or novels to read during my breaks or commute. Shorter episodes also make it easier to go back and look for information (since we can't flip back pages in digital).

[TheLemmaLlama]

I'd prefer a novel that first prioritized telling the story in the best way, then go back and chop it up at natural 'stopping off points', over a novel that first decides how long its chapter should be and then writes its chapters to conform to that length

Like, (assuming they end at natural stopping off points) short and long scenes both have pros and cons; long scene can be fatiguing, but they can also be more meaty and in-depth But also like, I wouldn't lump two consecutive short scenes together just because doing so would make a more 'normal-length' chapter; I would just have them be two chapters :]

[ueonts]

What takes up most of the words for you? I find I either over-describe or under-describe.