You don’t do you? You just write and that is that, correct?
Anyway, I asked this because I am working on my current story and I am wondering if 54 chapters is too much or just fine.
I tend to look at things in a big sort of way, where I try to look at the big picture. How many chapters would this story need? How many books would this series need to have if I am doing a series? What is the ending going to look like for the series or book itself?
I like to glance at the bigger picture because it’s a personal thing that I do.
I am currently on chapter 7 pondering this because I do think 54 chapters is too much, then again I am not entirely sure.
Still, I am aware that the pacing is what will determine if I need fifty-four chapters or less than that. So, I’m not heavy plotting or planning, just writing chapter summaries.
Yet I am unsure what to do a little bit.
Thoughts and feelings?
This is where outlining kind of gives you an idea. You at least know how many chapters, minimum, are needed, when you know what the chapter must cover.
My book on Wattpad has 62 chapters, so I may be the wrong person to ask. (>‿◠)
War and Peace has over 300 chapters as I recall, although they’re fairly short. That’s how I prefer my books: many chapters, but very short.
The real question is: what’s the normal word count for a book in your genre? As long as the total word count is within the usual range, I shouldn’t think it matters how many chapters the book has.
If you’re really worried, you could look up similar books that are bestsellers right now and find out how many chapters they have. It’s always good to look up comp titles anyway. I really need to start doing that myself…
Not too worried. I’m just curious because if I am planning on a series like I wanted then I wondering how many chapters book one should be. Though if the story is going to be a stand alone then I still don’t have to worry too much.
id love to weigh in but i literally dont plan any of my writing except general big events i literally just pants the whole thing so it can be hard to know when a story will have a certain number of chapters. I let my characters run where they will and where it feels like its at the end i make the end spectatular.
There isn’t a set amount of chapters you need to have. Just an average word count range for your genre you should aim to land within. Just make sure each chapter serves a purpose and write as little or many as you need for the story.
Probably once you get to a point where you feel that your about a third of the story written. You will then guestimate just how many more it will roughly take to finish.
wriiting chapter summaries is still a form of plotting/ planning
i think as you are writing the summaries when the end comes you will know and if it ends up being less then what u estimated that is okay if more okay too
same thing would happen if just pantsing
however if u r asking without any of that just by pure number of chapters could you tell- yes but it is a specific skill; which you may or may not possess
if you give us a 1-3 sentence summary of your story then we could try to see.
