Advice on Chapters

It seems like a lot of writers are worried about the lengths of their chapters. What's considered too long, too short? What's just-right?

The good thing here is that the answer is short and sweet: there is no ideal chapter length. As long as all of your chapters are reasonably consistent (i.e. don't have one chapter take fifty pages and another take five), you'll be just fine.

Some books, like Maximum Ride, for example, have very short chapters. Many of these chapters have two to four pages. I've heard that Stephen King wrote a chapter that had only four words. Having short chapters like this makes the story seem like it moves along more quickly, highlighting the feelings of action and suspense. Some books, on the other hand, could have chapters up to fifty pages in length. This is fine, too. It highlights the complexity of the story, and breaks it up into broad pieces that each have something a little different.

The one thing to remember with chapters is that you never want to end in safe place. When you're reading a book, you want a convenient place to put it down, right? You're not going to stop reading in the middle of an action sequence or when something important is about to be revealed. You want to put it down in a place that's comfortable and has little or no tension.

Because of this, you don't want to end your chapter in a "safe" spot. Don't end with the protagonist contemplating recent events before she turns out the light to go to sleep. Instead, end with your main character dangling off the edge of a cliff. If you end every chapter with a moment of suspense, readers won't want to put your book down.

"Safe" doesn't necessarily mean that the MC is safe from space aliens or whatever. The character could be physically safe, but maybe the chapter ends with the revelation that the captain of the space aliens is actually her ex-boyfriend, or something. And action doesn't have to be life-threatening, either. It could also mean a heated argument, a love scene, etc.

Just remember: when you write a book, your goal is to write something that your readers can't put down. If you end each chapter with something exciting, they'll want to stay up half the night saying "one more chapter...one more chapter..."

Originally spotted at The Epic, the Awesome, and the Random.

Get In Late, Get Out Early

For awhile now, I've found myself giving the same piece of writing advice over and over. Finally, I've decided to just write up a whole post about it.

When do you start your first scene? How do you start it? How do you know when to end a scene?

For questions like these, go by this rule: Get in as late as you possibly can, and get out as early as you possibly can.

What this means is that you shouldn't start your book (or your first scene, or any scene) any earlier than you need to. When does the action start? When does the essential plot problem come into play? When is your inciting incident? Start here, and not a minute sooner.

For example, say I'm writing a book about Fred, a high school student who wants to be a detective. His goal in the story is to solve the mystery of who stole his friend's iPad (all my plot-building power goes into my actual books, so I have no decent plots to use as examples). One morning, he gets up and takes a shower. He gets dressed and grabs a poptart on his way out the door. He picks up his friend Jason, and they have a lengthy discussion on the merits of Firefox vs. Google Chrome. When he gets to school, he meets up with his other friend, Bob. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a dark shadow appear, snatch the iPad out of Bob's backpack, and disappear again.

This is where you should start your story, right at that moment where he sees that sketchy shadow. That's when the real plot begins. The scene where he drives Jason to school isn't needed. It's part of Fred's life, yes, but it's not part of the plot. It's not needed.

This same principle applies to every scene you write. Start it as late as you possibly can, while still having it make sense. This, then, ties into the next part of this in-late-out-early rule. When you're finishing a scene, get out as early as possible. What is the earliest point you can end this scene without omitting any crucial elements? This is where it should end.

This goes for the end of the entire book, too. You have a little more room to work here, but you should generally follow the same rule. Don't let your ending drag. This is probably another post for another time, so I won't get in too deep on this. But if the main plot of your story has ended, and all loose ends have been wrapped up, don't keep going. Stop before your readers start losing interest.

Get in late, get out early. I don't even remember where I first heard this, but it's proved to be one of the best pieces of advice I've received. Don't start any earlier than you need to, and don't keep going after everything has been wrapped up. 
Originally posted at The Epic, the Awesome, and the Random.