Is 5000 words too long for a chapter?
Based on this dataset of novels, we can establish some guidelines for chapter length: the average word count of a chapter generally ranges between 1,500 words to 5,000 words, with 3,000-4,000 words being the most common sweet spot.
There are no rules when it comes to chapter length. The important thing is to concentrate on making your chapters fit your story, not on making your story fit your chapters. Many novelists these days prefer chapters that are between 1,500 words—or six book pages— and 8,000 words, or 32 book pages.
5,000 you're probably fine, but give it a little thought. 10,000 above or below, you probably need to do some work. 15,000 above or below the norm for your genre, you're definitely too long or short. I recommend revising.
Your chapters don't have to be the same length. In fact, having chapters of similar length doesn't matter at all. If one chapter is 5,000 words, and the next 1,200, and then 3,000, and then 1,000, that's completely fine. It might even be beneficial.
In any of these books, some chapters are longer than others. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has an average of 4,560 words per chapter. Twilight uses about 4,580 words per chapter. The Hunger Games uses 3,700-word chapters, dividing each chapter into three parts.
Writing 5,000 words will take about 2.1 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 4.2 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 16.7 hours.
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien has an average chapter length of right around 7,500 words. The longest chapter in the book is 16,300 words. The Hobbit has an average chapter word count of 5,000, and the longest chapter comes in at just over 10,000 words.
Chapter length averages
On average, chapters tend to range from 1,000-5,000 words, with most falling in the 2,000-4,000 range. But chapters can be much longer or much shorter. There are plenty of bestselling books where some chapters are only a page and some where they don't even use chapters in the traditional sense.
Any chapter that doesn't further the overall story in some way should be cut. This means that every chapter has a little part of the story to tell. And as soon as the chapter has told its part of the story, it should end.
A story with a word count of 5000 has 10-12 pages. For example, a famous short story by Flannery O'Connor, an American novelist, 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', covers 13 pages with a word count of 6500. Below we'll talk about how you can write a short story.
How long should a chapter be in words?
Chapter length averages
On average, chapters tend to range from 1,000-5,000 words, with most falling in the 2,000-4,000 range. But chapters can be much longer or much shorter. There are plenty of bestselling books where some chapters are only a page and some where they don't even use chapters in the traditional sense.
A work of fiction between 20,000 and 49,999 words is considered a novella. Once a book hits the 50,000 word mark, it is generally considered a novel. (However, a standard novel is around 80,000 words, so books between 50,000 to 79,999 words may be called short novels.)
The average reader will read 5,000 words in 16.7 minutes when reading at a speed of 300 words per minute (wpm). Typical documents that are 5,000 words include college dissertations, theses, and in-depth blog posts and journal articles.