In my latest story, Elemental, I just followed a 5,000 word chapter with one that's not even 1,500 words. It's barely a scene, let alone a chapter, but it feels right to end it there
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When I was writing my SW novella, I put chapters in as I went, but then I ended up going back through and changing where the breaks were, and how many of them there were.
If it were me, I would just write, and when I get to a break or a scene change, just note it with ***. Especially if trying to figure out chapter details is interrupting the flow of your writing. It makes sense to me that that stuff would fit better in the editing phase.
Usually it pans out for me; but I've had to go back a few times and edit which scene ends/begins the chapter before. It's just a matter of what feels right at the time, if you revise it a year later you may change opinions.
My second and fourth chapters are almost always the most boring chapters in my stories; invariably I arrange my plot points to fall in chapters 1, 3, and 5. It's almost funny how formulaic I am. Even though chapter 2 generally runs shorter than 1 and 3, I try my hardest to keep it no shorter than two pages off the page count of what 1 was. Especially if you're posting a story one chapter at a time. It's an issue of appearances; if readers finish chapter 2 thinking that every chapter is going to be this short, they won't come back. (Well, that's my fear, anyway.)
Yeah, that's along the lines of what I'm thinking. It doesn't make sense to me to make shorter chapters until the climax, when you're shortening things for pacing reasons anyway.
On the other hand, it really does work the way it is in Elemental, so already I'm going to have to establish a pattern of variable chapter lengths. Thankfully I'm not gearing it for internet publication, even if that's the first medium I'm using while I'm getting the story down. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it works, when I've got it all written.
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If it were me, I would just write, and when I get to a break or a scene change, just note it with ***. Especially if trying to figure out chapter details is interrupting the flow of your writing. It makes sense to me that that stuff would fit better in the editing phase.
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On the other hand, it really does work the way it is in Elemental, so already I'm going to have to establish a pattern of variable chapter lengths. Thankfully I'm not gearing it for internet publication, even if that's the first medium I'm using while I'm getting the story down. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it works, when I've got it all written.
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