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Q&A Benefits of Chapter titles in fictional writing?

A table of contents is helpful guide to any reader that wants to backtrack to a certain point in the story, perhaps to remind themselves how a certain event occurred, or see again how a particular ...

posted 7y ago by Numi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:26:06Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25019
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Numi‭ · 2019-12-08T05:26:06Z (over 4 years ago)
A table of contents is helpful guide to any reader that wants to backtrack to a certain point in the story, perhaps to remind themselves how a certain event occurred, or see again how a particular character got to be wherever they are, how they look, etc. Not to mention it's also great for when you want to find and reread your favorite part of a book.

In my experience, tables of contents have never been a nuisance and chapter titles have always excited me, ignited my curiosity, charmed me, and even made me laugh. Chapter titles are unique to each author, and I think they add character to the book.

However, neither feature in question is a necessity.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-10-24T11:57:52Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 2