I second what Danzier says (with MSWord, the page count all depends on your font size and margins, etc). And actually chapters can be a page long, a sentence long, etc. There’s really no rule about it. Typically you would just break it at the end of a scene or right in the middle of the action/cliffhanger (which can give it a page turner effect where people can’t wait to see what happens next).

I’ve heard that a lot of authors write the whole story before they break out the chapters. And I think they tend to mix the chapters that end on a cliff hanger with those that end at the end of a scene.

I’m focusing on word counts right now. From my research a story can be anywhere from 80 – 110,000 words so my goal is 95K (this would all depend on your genre however). I try for about 3 scenes per chapter, around 1000 words/scene. Sometimes my scenes are way over that, sometimes way under. The story has been naturally breaking itself into chapters (and right now some of my chapters have about 5 scenes in them). I’m going to figure out the best way to break it up at the end though.

Probably with rough draft the biggest concern would be whether your scene “feels” finished. If so just keep going to the next scene and onward til you reach the end.

Good luck!

I think at this point in your rough draft, just write however you feel like writing, and heck with the rules, whatever they are. MS Word and I don’t get along, and a large part of that has to do with formatting. The way I format, 500-700 words takes about a page and a half. Since I don’t know your story, it’s hard to say if what you’ve written is a scene, a part of a scene, or an entire chapter–or a couple of chapters . I’ve heard that a scene is “done” when either point of view, place, or time changes, and every scene has one critical change in it. In my stories, I put chapter breaks when I change viewpoint character or when I really don’t want to write the next thing and just want to skip it. So “imho” if you figure you’re done with the chapter, go on to what you want to write next.

Just, have fun with it.

Since my last post, not much has been done. I haven’t written much, maybe… 500-700 words in total. But it’s been a couple of times a week. Which is better than what it was, which was… to be honest, a couple of times a year. lol. Since tonight was the first night i’ve done even close to the goal, I figured I’d post: 226 words

That being said, I’m also coming close to the end of this chapter So far, it’s 7 and 1/2 pages in Microsoft word.
Does this seem a good size? or should it be more a section of a chapter, and then write another section that is somewhat related… ?

The boyfriend has a reality-bending dream, where the Villain, who used to be a friend and girlfriend of his before she went off the deep end, insists that my MC is going to kill him.

The Boyfriend and the Villain’s relationship is complicated, and whenever the to of them are together. . . . Well, it’s complicated.
She want’s to destroy him, and he wants to save her: She thinks his chivalry is amusing, and he knows he’s playing moth to her flame, but feels obligated to try since he feels responsible for her downslide.

It’s a strange little dance that won’t end until one of them is dead.

Princess scene includes a poem from T. princess and a song from A. princess. So I’m taking a break to write the languages needed for those.

The Villain communes with The Dark Forces Beyond. They aren’t exactly pleased with her for allowing her familiar to die. But they pat her on the head and say that it’s not really her fault, because she wasn’t really strong enough to stop it any way.
And then they drop a shiny new demon on her head.

This one is far stronger than the last, and though the Villain will no doubt think she is control until her death, the Fact of the Matter is that a rather powerful Demon just acquired a nice new human familiar.