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

[magycmyste]

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.

[anthimeria]

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.