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Four_Letters
07-02-2010, 03:21 PM
Hi,
I'm currently working on a story based off of the hentai game Discipline, and I was wondering if my chapters and descriptions were long enough. I just got done with a sex scene in chapter 3, and I felt as if it were too short, though the sex in question is meant to be a quick screw.

http://www.bdsmlibrary.com/stories/chapter.php?storyid=8273&chapterid=26291 Here is the story in question. If anyone can offer me advice, either refer back to this thread, or just drop a comment in the comment section.

fetishdj
07-05-2010, 03:17 PM
It really does not matter what the length of your chapters are, what is important is do the words grab attention and are paced right? I have seen chapters that are a single paragraph (look in some Douglas Adams books...) and entire short stories that are a single sentence. Also read books that have no chapters at all and even one book that deliberately put some chapters in the wrong order.

A general good rule to follow is 'somewhere in the 1500 - 2000 words' ballpark but that is not a hard and fast rule. Basically, if the chapter feels 'finished' then it is - generally you use a chapter to describe a sequence of linked shorter scenes which form a part of your story. Use your instinct to decide if you have achieved this and develop said instinct by reading lots.

Length of individual scenes - consider pacing techniques. For example, sentence length can vastly influence the speed someone reads and therefore show action. Often a short sentence (very few words) to describe an action followed by a longer one to describe more about the action.