writerstorm | Chapters

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Chapters

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?

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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.

I think they're a bit like commas on a larger scale; they give you a moment to breathe.

While I might not pay attention to what number chapter I'm on so much, I like them, because they're nice places to pause and put in a bookmark if necessary. And as far as formatting them, I basically think they should function to break up the story in a logical manner. Whether they're making a division between a tone change, or a skip forward (or hey, backward maybe) in time, or whatever they're doing, there should be some logic as to why the scenes in one chapter are grouped there. And maybe that ends up with chapters that are all around the same number of pages, or maybe a few are significantly shorter or longer. As long as there's a logical reason for breaking it off, then hey.

Personally, I like chapters, and I like them of sort of middling size. The ones in Naomi Novik's Temeraire books are too long for my tastes, for example, and the ones in your average Dan Brown book tend to be much too short. But it depends on what the tone and pacing of the book is, and whether or not it's fiction--I'm much more tolerant of longish chapters in non-fiction.

One author I read a lot (Elizabeth Lowell) has taken to simply making each scene a chapter. Sometimes this means a chapter is three paragraphs long. I'm really quite okay with that.

Other authors might have one chapter for each minor plot arc, leading to a total of 9 chapters in a 450-page book.

Really, it can go any which way.

Chapters are another unit by which to organize your book and, just like words, sentences, and paragraphs, they affect pacing. As a previous commenter noted, short chapters increase the pacing and longer chapters slow it down.

Also, like a sentence or a paragraph, a chapter provides a natural stopping point and can be a way to highlight something. Something has ended. Ending your chapter with that moment draws attention to that something.

Chapters are also a way to manipulate the reader. A cliffhanger or a hook can pull the reader into the next chapter. Like paragraphs, chapters are a natural place for the reader to pause in their reading or either a short or extended period of time. However you end the chapter will be how the reader remembers your book. A strong image, emotion, or question can be useful for that.

Like sentences and paragraphs, chapters are transitions. However, they can allow a greater transitions than either a sentence or a paragraph. You can skip to a new point-of-view character, time period, place, etc.

Also (and, again, like sentences and paragraphs), chapters must have internal structure. How you decide to structure it (scene? plot arc? point-of-view? etc) will depend upon how you are using the chapter for pacing, ending, highlighting, hooking, and transitioning. (As well as anything else you can think of)

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!

I can definitely see preferring short(er) chapters in fiction, especially if you use them to break. If a book picks you up and won't let go it can be a great read, but also inconvenient!

So, if chapters are places where tone or time changes, is it weird for a multiple-POV book to sometimes keep the same POV from one chapter to the next?

I don't think it is. The novel I'm working on has 3 POVs, one of which is the bulk of it so far.

You can also change POV within chapters, as long as you denote it (the # in your ms, for example). CJ Cherryh does extensive POV switching in Hellburner, between *paragraphs.* (She can do it because she's awesome, but it was still damn confusing.)

I'd never thought of chapter length in and of itself affecting pacing--interesting point.

Given what you said about the function of chapters as breaks, how odd would it be if a chapter transitioned without changing POV, time or place?

Thanks for responding!

I've definitely been changing POV within chapters, and I usually do to start a chapter as well. Lately, though, I've been editing and had to rearrange my chapters, which resulted in a few chapters where the best place to break was a scene transition within a POV section.

Needless to say, chapter mechanics have been on my mind a lot.

Authors who write multiple-POV books and don't have to break to transition POVs leave me in awe.

Making each scene a chapter seems like a radical concept (I've read my fair share of books with short-short chapters, but that's a bit much). I might have to check it out, just to see.

You know, I'm rather glad you asked this question, because I've been having some questions about this myself, both in the novel I'm editing, and my current NaNo.

I know when I read, I use chapters as potential places to pause (Seriously, I remember growing up and my parents wanted me to do something, I would tell them to just let me finish the chapter. THey'd come look at my book, and if there were only two to three pages left, they'd let me finish. And by the time they came to get me again, I'd have finished that chapter and the next, and put my bookmark there.)

Nowadays, I find myself doing so many things that it's harder to find time to read, so the bookmark goes wherever I stop, whether it's at a chapter break, or the middle of a paragraph. I prefer the chapter breaks, as it seems more natural to pause there but I don't always get that. So chapter breaks at this point seem like more of a goal to reach in my reading time than just places to break.

In my NaNo Novel, I have one scene that would make a great end to a chapter. Unfortunately, it's the first scene in the chapter, so it feels weird to break there. I think I'm more conscious as a writer than as a reader of where the chapter breaks actually are. I feel weird having a chapter with one scene, when most of my others range from three to five, or having a chapter that's a lot shorter than the others. I also feel weird continuing with the same POV after a scene break.

I think that I often let my chapters fall into a sort of a pattern, and I feel uncomfortable if I realize that and then realize the pattern's broken (In the book I'm editing, many of the beginning chapters tend to take a scene from each POV, just about, but later in the book, that gets all twisted and messed up because the logical flow demands that I continue with a certain POV for awhile). But if the story's written well, and I'm drawn into it, I'm not sure I'd notice, or care as a reader.

I know some people who freak out when their chapters' lengths vary too much, but quite honestly I don't mind (and think they're weird :p). I don't like lots of ultra-long chapters, though, because I usually read before bed, and 60-page chapters can be annoying to negotiate when I'm getting sleepy.

I'm okay with no chapters, like in most Discworld books, but if the story is very engrossing then the lack of chapters makes it difficult to go "okay just to the end of x and then I won't turn the page and I will go to sleep damnit" but that is quite obviously something an author should be proud of, so!

I like it when authors take advantage of chapter breaks to add to the story by using meaningful titles or something other than numbers to set the mood or hint at what's coming. For example in The Book Thief, Markus Zusak uses sections and pulls phrases and words out to pique the reader's interest.

What I can't stand are faux-hooks at the end of a chapter that turn out to be quickly resolved at the start of the next chapter For example, She heard a terrifying howl. (end chapter)
(next chapter) She'd stepped on her cat's tail... blah blah

If the story is interesting I'll keep reading it without the Hardy Boys style cliffhangers at the end of each chapter.

Now I'm incredibly curious where you read a "cliffhanger" like that...

I did pretty much the same thing re: chapters and chores when I was growing up!

I also feel weird continuing with the same POV after a scene break.

So did I! I got around it by transitioning within the same POV--letting the words show the break between scenes instead of a line break (in the format my novel's in, a line break is always a POV change). It can still feel a little awkward, but I wanted to make sure a line break meant the same thing every time.

I think that I often let my chapters fall into a sort of a pattern, and I feel uncomfortable if I realize that and then realize the pattern's broken (In the book I'm editing, many of the beginning chapters tend to take a scene from each POV, just about, but later in the book, that gets all twisted and messed up because the logical flow demands that I continue with a certain POV for awhile).

Breaking the pattern, especially toward the end, can be a good thing. A broken pattern means something's changed, and logically, a lot of things must have changed for your characters by that point.

You would not believe how long it took me to notice that the Discworld books rarely have chapters. I'd been reading them for years.

Chapters as sleep-breaks seem to be popular!

Ooh, I forgot to ask about chapter titles! I don't use them because I just tend not to notice them (and The Novel doesn't have a title itself yet . . .), but the same could be said of chapters, I suppose, and I use those. I find I actually don't like chapter titles for the very reason you said you like them--they give away what's going to happen in the chapter, and I'd rather be surprised. Does that sort of thing bother you at all?

Also: down with faux-cliffhangers! Legitimate cliffhangers are fine. Stepping on your cat's tail to get a "cliffhanger" is silly.

I'm sad to say the one of my favorite mystery writers does obnoxious fake cliffhangers like that to end her chapters. Sometimes they're real, but most of the time I guess they're supposed to be "funny."

She didn't do it in her earlier works, so my guess would be she decided or was told that she needed to liven up her chapter breaks. It really is annoying. I've seen them in thrillers and in other humorous mysteries, too.

(To avoid username confusion, the original poster is my IRL sister- not me).

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