: Re: Where to insert chapter breaks I've recently written something about the length of in-between a short story and a novel. I've had a bunch of friends edit it, and all of them say that I should

@Lengel543

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Given your description of the story, it sounds like your readers could use breaks in the action. Everything @Josh said in his answer applies, so I'll just talk a bit about pacing.

There is a rhythm to every story. It's created by the prose, by the dialogue, and by breaks in the action. You know the pulse of your story better than anyone, so use breaks to give the readers a chance to catch their breath. A chapter break or a typographical divider (like an asterisk) can also give them a chance to pause and think about what just happened. You can have as many "sections" within a chapter as you need.

On a side note, I'm doing much the same thing right now with this answer. When I've suspected that a paragraph has done its work, I move on to the next one. This is more a courtesy to the reader than a rule.

Two pitfalls when breaking up a story:

Too few breaks, and the reader won't know if they can pause their reading to use the bathroom or mow the lawn
Too many breaks, and the story begins to feel frenetic

For an curious look at how an author broke up a story in an interesting and highly intentional fashion, check out Zeroville by Steve Erickson. His "chapters" are numbered from 1–250, then back down from 250–0. And some of them are only one word long.

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