Introduce a shift in point of view (POV) - Mix it up with different perspectives.End with a cliffhanger - Leave your reader wondering what will happen next.
Hint at a meaningful connection or question - For example, tie the current scene to a past event or memory.Give a foreshadowing of things to come - Just a hint can make your reader curious.Then give them a reason to come back for more. Give them a chance to process what you’ve told them in each chapter. If your reader gets to the end of a chapter, and you’ve given them no reason to keep reading, they’re likely to close your book and never return to it. Ultimately, how you end each chapter is more important than how long it is. The average word count per chapter for novels is between 3,000 and 5,000 words.
If you’re aiming for the average of these options with a 90,000 word novel, try dividing it into 21 chapters, with an average word count of 4,250 per chapter. Twilight has 24 chapters, with about 4580 words each. Word count per chapter can vary widely.īut for the sake of helping you look good (and giving you an edge when you’re writing a novel of your own), here are some examples to consider: If anyone asked you, “How many words in a novel chapter?” you wouldn’t be a freak for not knowing what to say. Once you know the average word count per page, you can guesstimate how many pages your book will have by dividing your total word count by about 390 for a 5.5″ by 8.5″ book or 475 for a 6″ by 9″ book.įor example, if you’re writing a nonfiction book, and your first draft has 50,000 words, your 6″ by 9″ book’s page count will be around 50,000 divided by 475, or 105 pages.