Writers: Why Chapter Length Matters More than You Think
Make your books more unputdownable
The indie author Chris Fox coined the term ‘potato chip chapters’ for easily-digestible book chapters of a certain size. He then compared some classic books to his own and gave a compelling case for writing in smaller chunks.
I’m here to echo the same sentiment.
Whether you like it or not we’re in the Netflix era of binge-attention. Our work-life balance is no longer a balance. It’s just all work. 24/7/365. When we escape we like to binge, big-time. Just like the old Queen song — we want it all and we want it now.
Everything’s on all the time. We’re go, go, go. Attention spans are short and our readers have more, really good options than ever before.
It’s no longer a choice between this great book here and maybe a lesser book over here. There are tens of thousands of great books within arms-reach of your reader at all times.
As writers, it might sound odd, but we’re not in the book business, we’re in the time business. Books are relatively cheap, no matter the genre. The valuable thing we’re buying is the reader’s time. She can’t get her time back after reading a boring book.
When you’re in the time business you better…
