_edited.jpg)
- Jul 4
- 2 min read
In the follow-up book to There’s No Such Thing as Dragons, the story continues, but it’ll continue in smaller pieces.
When I was a kid I was more interested in running around outside than reading books, so when I did have to read, and I had a choice about what to read, I always chose books with the shortest chapters. That way I could stop reading sooner and get back outside.
I still have that feeling now but it doesn’t impact my book choices anymore.
I recently picked up a book called Northern Spy by Flynn Berry, published in 2021. It’s a fine book targeted for an adult audience and contains blissfully short chapters.
I’m now reading No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, published in 2005. It contains chapter lengths that I expect, 15-20 pages or so.
Based on no research and an obviously small sample size, I wonder the following: are book chapters getting smaller to accommodate shrinking attention spans? No shade on Flynn Berry here, by the way. It's just that the difference between the books got me thinking.
Recognizing that my books are meant for middle graders, mostly, I’m going to make a change in my formatting that 12 year old me would have really appreciated.
I'll have unlimited small chapters, some might just be a page or two. Those will be numbered. Maybe more than a hundred. Then, some of those chapters will have titles. There are currently 22 titled chapters. Each titled chapter will mark the change in perspective between the two story lines. Here is where I reveal the first three chapter titles as an example:
CHAPTER | TITLED | STORYLINE |
1 | Disharmony | Alexandria |
2 | Alexandria | |
3 | Alexandria | |
4 | Alexandria | |
5 | Alexandria | |
6 | Marie | Plainsette |
7 | Plainsette | |
8 | Plainsette | |
9 | Plainsette | |
10 | Humiliation | Alexandria |
11 | Alexandria | |
12 | Alexandria | |
13 | Alexandria |
I hope this makes for an easier read.
