Chapters

[anthimeria]

For those of us writing lengthy prose, I want to pose the question--What do you think about chapters?

I tend to read books straight through, so I don't notice chapters.  This, unfortunately, means I have a hard time writing them.  I know they serve a purpose, but what?  You tell me.

Should they all be approximately the same length in a given work?  Why do they exist at all?  Should there be internal structure in a chapter?  A cliffhanger ending?  How do chapters function for readers?

Comments

[feuervogel]

I like chapter breaks so I can put a bookmark in and go to bed when I need to.

Chapters vary in length between authors and within books, often, though they're usually fairly close.

I haven't really thought about this topic before. I think of a chapter as a group of related events or scenes, usually 3. My scenes are 1500-ish words long. I don't cliffhanger them, and I don't think that's strictly necessary -- we're not writing serials for newspapers! It should leave the reader wanting to turn the page, so it shouldn't be dull, either.

[anthimeria]

A lot of people seem to use chapters as reading breaks, which I find interesting.

There is a fine line between the cliffhanger and the flat note that seems to be important to hit at the end of a chapter--it's just hard to do!