: Why Use Excessively Short Chapters? Some of my favorite Frank Herbert books go 70 pages between chapters. All the James Patterson books go 2-3 pages between each chapter. I know non-fiction uses

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Short chapters in the literary world are like bite-sized snacks in the world of food. They are less intimidating and easier to digest, and they can be surprisingly addicting, because you finish one and want to immediately go on to the next one.

They also provide an author the opportunity for rapid changes of mood, setting and viewpoint. They've become increasingly popular in modern fiction, perhaps because of readers' decreasing attention spans and demands for continual novelty.

Of course, like any other technique, they can be misused, overused, or abused. If they serve your work, use them, if not, don't.

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Short Chapters are used to keep the suspense in not that far of a reach for some books or maybe so that all books that are short chaptered have a really good story line.

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Short chapters are a gift to readers who may not have the time or stamina to handle 70 pages at a sitting.

For a young reader, reaching goals is important. As their eyelids get heavy and their mind starts to wander into the dreamlands, they struggle to read just a little bit further. If only they can make it to the end of the current chapter, then they will have accomplished something.

By keeping the end of each chapter within reach of even the most tired juvenille reader, an author facilitates little victories in the lives of those same young readers. Those victories, as much as marvelous characters and unexpected plot twists, can fertilize a budding love of reading...

And that love of reading, in time, can lead to increased revenues for the author, when subsequent sequels and new series are released.

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I think Patterson is just padding his books, making them thicker, a more respectable size by using short chapters, large type, big margins, etc. The whole point seems to be, not to make great books, just to make lots of them and therefore lots of money.

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Using lots of very short chapters creates an impression in the reader of very rapid pace and lots of action. For some genres (such as Patterson's thrillers), this accelerated pace is exactly the effect that you want.

Having long chapters creates the opposite effect: it slows the pace down and gives the author time to expand more fully a given section or theme. This doesn't preclude fast-paced action, but it does allow for more breathing space and a sense of epic scope.

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