Mmmm . . . yes and no. It’s actually a myth that attention spans are growing shorter. (I talked a bit about this in “Attention Shock.”) While it’s true that it’s good to give readers convenient breaking points, that can be done in various ways. I tend to write chapters of modest length composed of several scenes. If a chapter runs long, the scene breaks still provide stopping points.

I generally aim to have chapters hit about ten manuscript pages (which would be somewhere around 2,000 to 2,500 words), but on occasion I allow them to be shorter and I don’t mind going longer. I’ve had people tell me that my work keeps them reading — a couple of readers have said they literally could not put it down — but I attribute that less to scene or chapter length than overall pacing and escalating tension.

I’m sure you’d agree that a boring book would be no less boring if it were broken into short chapters. It’s less about giving readers stopping points than it is about making them not want to stop. If thinking in terms of chapter structure helps you achieve that, then go for it. But chapter structure isn’t a panacea. You still must tell a story that engages readers, no matter how you break it down.