I am writing out my chapters and some are 800+ words but some are closer to 400 words. Is that too small or is that fine for daily chapter releases?
Is 400-600 words to small for a chapter?
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The average chapter length for most authors is usually between 1,000-1,500 words. Some people even go further than that and publish 2,000-2,500+ word chapters depending on what their goals are.
My advice would be to write 1,000 words a day and raise the word count slowly over time as you get used to writing larger chapters.
I'm not sure what your goal is, so I can't give you specific advice, but 1K words should be good enough for the average reader. Are you updating daily to garner more views and collections? Are you updating daily because it's just a fun hobby? Are you trying to get contracted? What's your angle?
Exactly as @Azraeeeel said, and to add, it’s okay as long as it progresses the plot and isn’t merely for the sake of having more chapters to output. A longer chapter typically lends to better story progression, flow, and cohesion both within the chapter and from one to the next. And usually, readers prefer have something more substantial to chew on than frequent bites. At least, that’s the general consensus that I’ve observed and personally received. In other words, instead of updating 400-600 words daily, I’d highly recommend doubling that count and updating every other day.
I've seen some people describe chapters as stopping points for a reader to think back and absorb what they've read.
400-600 words sounds a bit short for an audience to really need that time to think back to what they just read. However, I also quickly read the story you're writing, and to be honest, the stopping points don't feel forced. At the same time, I don't know why you plan on posting multiple chapters a day instead of creating a larger more cohesive one. It seems like it's for a competition, but I don't know what that's about.
Optimum 1200-1600 words per chapter, you can write three chapters 1200-1600 words and two chapters in 920-990 words.
Update after 1 day or at least 4 times a week.
Going by experience, 400-600 wordish would incite a storm of anger from readers even if they actually like the story, that would be the first thing they would bring up whether as comments or reviews. It depends on whether you care or don't care about incessant complaints about the length of a chapter not being longer. At the end the day you determine what matters to you
If you're aiming for a contract, best to make a habit of 1500 words per chapter, daily. As this is the required limit for mgs.
If not writing for contract. Anything between 500 to 2000 words is usually a decent size chapter.
I guess what's especially important is quality, pacing and update consistency. If you regularly post bite-sized chapters with good pacing and the content is meaningful to the plot, readers can still appreciate the story.
I just wrote my first chapter ending at 3200 something words.
Depends on how slow you wanna move along. and how much information you need to give out don't it.
If you have a good idea of the story then fewer words on each chapter might work, idk.
Thanks everyone I also had a friend look over my story and helped me figure out how to add to it so now all my chapters are close to 1000 words some are more!
I appriciate the quick support and guidance that everyone here has!