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gmw · 12-11-2012, 05:55 AM

When I paid for an appraisal on my first manuscript one of the comments was that I had too many chapters that ended flat. The impression that I got was that I was supposed to write my book like a TV movie, with some sort of cliff-hanger at every commercial break to make sure the audience comes back from their toilet break. One of what I thought were the more cynical comments, was that I shouldn't give the reader a reason to put the book down (this about a space-break between the main story and a flash-back sort of thing).

At the time I looked at those comments and thought: I'd not long finished reading such a book (and action novel in which you expect that sort of thing anyway), and found it annoying more than anything else ... but now I wonder if it was just that it was clumsily done. I've recently been reading some crime/mystery novels and getting through them somewhat faster that the books really justify (they've been good, but not really that good). And what I noticed was that many of the chapters stop mid-scene - so you read on because you know the scene's not over yet ... and, since you've started the next chapter you keep reading even when it turns dull for a while (there's a lot of location description in those novels).

Up to now, in my own work, I've tended to split chapters at the end of scenes. Yes, some of my scenes deliberately end on a high-note, particularly as I approach the climax(es) of the story, so some chapters also end on a high, but deliberately breaking scenes just to lead the reader on into the next chapter was not something I'd ever really considered.

One way out of this is Terry Pratchett's philosophy that life doesn't happen in chapters and so he simply doesn't have them in many of his books. But I've chosen not to take that path, so wondering with my next works whether I should reconsider my approach.

As the title of this thread suggests, I consider this play games with chapters (well, with the reader really). It's not placing chapter breaks in any truly logical location, it's picking the breaks for their effect on the reader. BUT, if it works, if it really does help the reader to report "I couldn't put it down", then perhaps it's a game worth playing.

What do you think?

12-11-2012, 05:55 AM	#1
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Playing games with chapters When I paid for an appraisal on my first manuscript one of the comments was that I had too many chapters that ended flat. The impression that I got was that I was supposed to write my book like a TV movie, with some sort of cliff-hanger at every commercial break to make sure the audience comes back from their toilet break. One of what I thought were the more cynical comments, was that I shouldn't give the reader a reason to put the book down (this about a space-break between the main story and a flash-back sort of thing). At the time I looked at those comments and thought: I'd not long finished reading such a book (and action novel in which you expect that sort of thing anyway), and found it annoying more than anything else ... but now I wonder if it was just that it was clumsily done. I've recently been reading some crime/mystery novels and getting through them somewhat faster that the books really justify (they've been good, but not really that good). And what I noticed was that many of the chapters stop mid-scene - so you read on because you know the scene's not over yet ... and, since you've started the next chapter you keep reading even when it turns dull for a while (there's a lot of location description in those novels). Up to now, in my own work, I've tended to split chapters at the end of scenes. Yes, some of my scenes deliberately end on a high-note, particularly as I approach the climax(es) of the story, so some chapters also end on a high, but deliberately breaking scenes just to lead the reader on into the next chapter was not something I'd ever really considered. One way out of this is Terry Pratchett's philosophy that life doesn't happen in chapters and so he simply doesn't have them in many of his books. But I've chosen not to take that path, so wondering with my next works whether I should reconsider my approach. As the title of this thread suggests, I consider this play games with chapters (well, with the reader really). It's not placing chapter breaks in any truly logical location, it's picking the breaks for their effect on the reader. BUT, if it works, if it really does help the reader to report "I couldn't put it down", then perhaps it's a game worth playing. What do you think? Last edited by gmw; 12-11-2012 at 05:59 AM. Reason: typos