Organising your Written Material
If you are writing a novel for the first time, you’ll need to organise the content into divisions of one kind or another. The key is that the structure should fit the story, not the other way around. Ideally, the divisions emerge organically and intrinsically from the story.
The type of division we are most familiar with is chapters ‒ they are a convenient method of dividing material by topic, chronology, location or by any other means you may use to construct your book and help readers to mentally move through it. A novel is usually divided into chapters by plot development, with each chapter contributing to the overall story. You can write chapter by chapter chronologically, or work on several chapters at once and arrange them later.
Chapter Length
There’s no set rule for chapter length. If you find that some are long, while others are short, don’t be overly concerned as it’s not a flaw. Your chapters do not need to all be the same length. You should, however, have an average or standard chapter length in mind to help you manage the pacing of your novel (more about that next). Also try to avoid a dramatic and sudden variation in chapter length as readers can find this distracting, even jarring.
Chapter length and pacing interact. Varying the length of chapters can become an intentional part of your storytelling, quickening the pace or slowing it down, creating suspense or anticipation. You can also weave shorter and longer chapters together to create a steady and predictable pace.
Chapter Breaks
Novels have many styles of chapter breaks. Some have dozens of short chapters, some have a few huge chapters, and some have no chapters at all. In books the chapters are occasionally grouped into larger ‘parts’ or even ‘books’ (often called ‘modules’ or ‘units’ in technical books and textbooks).
Chapter breaks provide some closure as the story unfolds but also allow for a pause: they ‘reset’ the story, giving the reader a rest so that they can read the next chapter with a fresh view. Chapters also keep a novel interesting and engaging; they provide a structured way for you to switch between characters, time periods, locations, etc.
The division of a written work into chapters, however, is probably one of the things in writing that has least rules of all. A chapter break tells the reader to mentally prepare for some sort of shift; as such they should occur when a major change of one kind or another happens. Some points at which breaks are traditionally made or ways to define breaks include:
- Change of site/location ‒ the place or setting in which the action is taking place changes.
- Change in POV character ‒ someone different starts relating the narrative.
- Change in time/chronology ‒ the time in which the action takes places changes significantly.
- Change in auxiliary characters ‒ the people the narrator or protagonist is interacting with changes.
- A natural pause ‒ e.g. a point at which you’ve come to the end of a major event in your storyline or at which you want to introduce one or more of the ‘changes’ mentioned above.
Sections (aka Scenes)
The next logical way to divide your content is to subdivide the chapters, and this is done with sections (aka scenes) which may or may not have their own subtitles. Your scenes control your chapters. If your chapters are variable in length, it’s because your scenes are variable in length. Create sections within the chapter when the subject changes somewhat but you are still discussing a particular aspect of a larger subject that the chapter covers. Use the same sort of criteria for your section breaks as you would for the chapter breaks discussed above.
If you want to create a break in the flow of the chapter’s text but don’t need to announce a new subject or prefer not to use a subtitle, you can create a text break with a type ornament (e.g. == oOo == or ~ ~ ~ ~) and some additional space between paragraphs. Using a few asterisks is also common, and in some books, just an extra-wide line space is used.
When and Where to place the Chapter Breaks?
The actual length of any given chapter or section of the story isn’t that important ‒ as long as the point where the break occurs make sense; some chapters or sections may be longer or shorter and they may extend or shorten as the narrative progresses.
The chapter break should be placed strategically. If, while designing your outline, the thought of separating your plot into chapters is daunting, then don’t make chapter break decisions yet. Write a first draft of the whole novel, then return to the beginning and place your chapter breaks with intention during your rewrite. This allows you to assign each chapter a purpose.
During the first draft, most writers are more concerned about getting their thoughts onto paper than about chapter structure. If you lock your narrative into chapters too early in the writing process, you might stifle your creativity. Besides, chances are high that whatever you write in your first draft will get moved around, pulled apart, divided, and added to other chapters or sections, if not discarded en masse.
Final Thoughts
The ‘anatomy’ of your novel, which includes its technical and structural elements, is important and should not be neglected. The reader’s level of engagement is affected by the way you divide your novel into chapters. The most important thing is that at the end of each chapter the reader should be keen to pick up the book and start the next chapter. Make the reader want to turn the next page.
A dramatic cliffhanger is not suitable for every chapter (although effective) as it can feel contrived, but tension of some kind is essential. Even small things can serve as a ‘hook’ to draw readers into the next chapter. Once you are well into your writing, you will develop a sense of where it feels natural to end a chapter and start a new one. If you find this is still a struggle for you, the problem might be with the narrative itself rather than your division of it. Then you might need some advice from an editor!
Please contact Renell at Proof Perfect NZ. Email renellj@proofperfect.co.nz or call 029 1230 158
