Monday, March 29, 2010

A New Chapter

How long is chapter?
Most of my time of late has been spent working on a novel. I have my plot, my setting, my characters etc.
I wrote out the first drafts of Chapters 1 and 2. I patted myself tentatively on the back. Now for the rest. Suddenly I was a bit nervous. Originally iI had written out chapter summaries for the whole book. About 18 chapters. That looked pretty good! However after writing the first two chapters out things had got rather rearranged. Stuff had been plucked from farther afield and other things also added. Hence I felt less sure of where I was going: I'd packed a bag confidently for a journey only to find someone had gone through it removing things and swapping my pajamas for a rubber chicken.
It really threw me. I decided to do a more extensive summary of the rest of the book and tapped away for a few days. I finished the task. I should have been pleased but instead I was devastated. My entire story was only 6 chapters long! After the shock wore off and I ate some soul strengthening chocolate , I went back to look at my work again. I realised that I was trying to fit too much into a chapter. There was enough stuff there for at least 10 chapters and an afterward. The whole exercise got me thinking about chapter length. How long is a chapter anyway? We've all read those half page ones, right up to those ones you can only get half way through at one sitting- you know you look a few pages ahead to give yourself a target before your eyes fall out and Flick, Flick, Flick you turn 20 pages to find the eventual chapter end and promptly give up for the day stuffing the book mark in in disgust.
But was there rules? Were people just making up their own? I Googled away doing research and there was lots of good advice and no real rules. In general it is suggested that a good place to end one chapter is:
A cliffhanger
Worry- the main character is worrying about something.
A change in time or place or character
A surprise
A threat
The beginning of a major moment
An emotional moment
A major statement/powerful dialogue

That was all good food for thought. At the moment my story is Swiss cheesed with some chapters and a lot of chapter breaks. I'm getting the cheese knife out right now to do some deft chopping.
And then looking at all my food comments, I'd best have some brekky!

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