Has anybody got any guidelines for how many words per chapter for YA fiction?
I once heard that 1500 is ideal for middle grade as it takes a 9 or 10yo about 30 mins to read and that is what they tend to have at bedtime.
I have to confess my ignorance here as I don't actually know what middle grade is, but I think it's worth clarifying what YA is.
I suspect (please feel free to correct me) that middle grade is aimed at 9 to 13-year-olds, as in American Middle/Junior High School.
YA, as far as I can tell, is regarded by most publishers as suitable for readers aged 14+ and where the characters are in their mid to late teens. YA fiction often addresses issues which interest teenagers and may even affect some of them in real life, e.g.
Self-harm, including eating disorders; violence, including bullying; drug and alcohol abuse; sex, including teenage pregnancy.
Personally, I would not regard these topics as suitable for pre-pubescent children. Indeed, many school librarians have separate selections of books for UK Years 7 to 9 and Years 10 upward, and will not allow younger pupils to borrow books from the older selection.
As for chapter length, I can't help but feel that 1500 words is a bit short for YA. I've read a lot of YA in the last few years and chapters generally feel longer than that. In my own most recent book, the shortest chapter - not counting the Prologue and Epilogue - is just over 2000 words and the longest about 5500. The whole book totals about 95000 words. Notice also that I'm counting words rather than pages.
A chapter should end, not necessarily on a cliffhanger but at an I-must-read-on point.
This I totally agree with. If you will permit an example from my own recent book, Chapter 13 ends like this:
Suddenly I am sobbing uncontrollably; eyes red and puffy, snot running out of my nose and smearing what is left of my make-up all over my face. I am a complete mess—totally out of it. I feel Mum putting her arms around me, then catch a glimpse of a syringe as a nurse sticks it in my IV line. Almost immediately I start to doze off again. As I drift in and out of my drug-induced sleep I vaguely hear the words Suicide Watch and every time I open my eyes there is a nurse watching me. They think I’m going to try and kill myself.
Yeah, well, given half a chance, I am.
I hope that meets the criteria - you may judge for yourself. But before moving on, notice that this is written in the first person - very common for a YA book. Indeed, it seems to be becoming the norm. Slightly less common is that it is in the present tense.
But what happens next? Perhaps surprisingly, Chapter 14 does not follow on directly, but is told from the point of view of a different character - and in first person, past tense. (I used that as a device to make the characters more easily identifiable.)
Matron insisted I stay in bed all Monday morning. She let me get up after lunch but said I shouldn’t go to school. That makes two Mondays I’ve missed this term. I am going to have some serious catching up to do. But I was grateful to Matron really—no way did I feel up to doing anything except try to come to terms with what had happened.
Out of context, that doesn't make a lot of sense. What is actually happening is that there are two alternating scenarios - a very common technique in film scripts - and Chapter 14 follows on directly from Chapter 12. And in Chapter 12, the girl who is narrating witnessed a violent crime and subsequently had to make a statement to the police, so small wonder she is not feeling quite herself.
Yet the chapters are linked. For one thing the two characters know each other - they are friends, in fact. They are sixth-form students (note my earlier comment about the characters ages) and there is another character who appears in both Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 and who links the two almost-simultaneous scenarios together.
Whew! I seem to have written quite a lot. I hope this helps. Feel free to come back and ask for more specific details.