How Many Pages Should A Chapter Be In A Fantasy Novel

Chapters in fantasy novels are pretty much what the writer wants them to be. I’ve read many novels in the genre – ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ by Scott Lynch, ‘The Golem and the Jinni’ by Helene Wecker, ‘The Buried Giant’ by Kazuo Ishiguro, ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’ by Sally Ride — and most of them use different structures. Some novels treat chapters like TV episodes, each about 8-12 pages long, and ending with a mini-cliffhanger. Others treat chapters like short stories, and some of those can be very long indeed — 25-30 pages or so — and contain a complete narrative arc.

As a general rule, engaging the reader to keep reading is what matters. In my analysis of several successful fantasy novels, most of them fall into the range of 12-18 pages per chapter. That’s the Goldilocks zone – long enough to develop complex concepts and still short enough to read in one sitting. For debut authors of fantasy, it’s more common to see the chapters to be on the shorter side (10-15 pages), but established authors have more flexibility with the length of their chapters.

I also noted how the genre conventions of high fantasy with multiple POVs tend to have longer chapters than urban fantasy for example. My take on chapters though is to try and make them end at a natural point to tell the story rather than adhere to some arbitrary page count. Whether that’s 5 pages or 25 I try and make sure the chapters function as a self contained unit and the reader forgets they’ve turned the page.

As someone who has studied narrative structure in hundreds of fantasy novels, I have developed several key observations with regard to chapter length. These observations, which largely run counter to the typical publishing standards of 2,500-5,000 words per chapter (roughly 8-16 pages), will be divided between two major subcategories of the genre: the epic fantasies of vast scope and complex world-building, and the more contemporary “urban fantasy”.

But chapter length can have another huge effect: immersion. Long chapters of 20+ pages create deep immersion, but can also wear out readers. Very short chapters of less than 10 pages create the impression of a fast-moving plot, but can feel disconnected or even choppy. Tolkien’s treatment of the Fellowship of the Ring in Book I, for example, varies wildly between very short dream-chapters of 6 pages and huge trek-chapters of 40 pages and more.

The trend in contemporary fantasy is toward the medium-length chapters of 15-20 pages or so, and this is a great length. It allows for good development of plot and character while also remaining light enough to read in one sitting. A good example of a fantasy that uses chapters of this length effectively is The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Essentially, the length of your chapters should correlate with the natural beats in your story (as with action-oriented scenes, you might want shorter chapters, and more political/intrigue-driven scenes might benefit from longer chapters).

Words about fantasy chapters – you never know how long they’ll be, how they’ll feel, but here are some rough guidelines for your storyline, oh word-weaver.

Classic Epic Fantasy? Then your chapter should be somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 words (yes, that is essentially a GRRM doorstopper mode).

Fast-Paced YA? 1,500–2,500 words (think "dagger-sharp and snackable").

Pro Tip: End your chapters before your reader’s actually done reading them – much like a dragon’s surprise arrival rather than a letter from the Tax Man.

Magic? Real magic = Consistency. That 20 page info-dump is going to make a bigger challenge out of a goblin that loves riddles than you can ever imagine. 🔮✍️