How can I plan the chapters in my book?

One can plan plot in details, or one can design characters' traits and see what story can't help but develop from that. You might find either approach or something in between serves you, but it sounds as if you've settled on something nearer the first end of the spectrum. One approach is to first write a synopsis of the whole story, in roughly the level of detail a future Wikipedia article about your book would; but even if you do, you might not find your initial "this is how much each chapter will cover" plans don't work out, either because they'd be the wrong length or because they wouldn't end on high notes.

It might be easier to let a synopsis guide you roughly as to the "parts" of a novel (which is what I did for one manuscript), and then see as you write which parts are several chapters and which stop in the middle of a chapter. You needn't display the "part" labels in the text itself; it'd only give away the twists. But you need to serve the needs of your story; for example, another manuscript based each chapter on one term at school, and therefore the storyline determined fairly neat chapter division.

posted over 6 years ago

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J.G.‭

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I'd consider a chapter either a "movement" in a story, or a setting in a story (and sometimes it is both).

A "movement" is when a character (or more than one) goes from one governing mental state to another governing mental state. For example, Cindy's initial mental state is "normal life", she wakes up, eats, runs, dresses, goes to work. On her way to work, she witnesses a murder. Now, if she is a normal person, she is in a new mental state, we might call it "Holy Shit Panic". Or if you prefer, "extreme alarm". That is a good chapter break.

A locale change, for a chapter break, is when you want to skip the mundane BS of travel or getting somewhere or time going by. You can often do that with exposition; e.g.

Cindy finished her three miles, and walking back into the front door realized she was running mindlessly, she couldn't remember a thing about what she had seen. She arrived at work fifteen minutes early. Just as well, the Brafield account was still a puzzle and she was behind on it.

But you can also do it with a chapter break: Reader's presume any "lost time" between chapters was uneventful. So Cindy leaves for her run, and that is the end of the Chapter. The next chapter can begin hours, days or weeks later.

You can make this less jarring by ending one chapter with a task to be done, and beginning the next chapter with the task complete, with as much time passed as you want. The task may or may not be important to the plot, it can be just a patch of "something that happened" in the intervening time.

So maybe Cindy leaves on her run, determined to figure out some way to solve the puzzle of the Brayfield account. The next chapter picks up with her being congratulated for her brilliant work on the Brayfield account. We might want that to serve a greater purpose, so that congratulations could actually lead to a plot point: Cindy you did such a good job, I want you to take a look at this other account: For a guy that happens to be a mobster and is lethal to even know. Or For the prince that will become the love of her life. Whatever your plot is.

In general, you want to end chapters in a way that leaves readers wanting to find out what happens in the next chapter. That does NOT have to be a cliffhanger, it can be mild, but be sure to break in a place where there should be some question in the reader's mind about "what happens next".

In the case of Cindy witnessing a murder, the reader wants to know what she does next. Chapter endings are generally dramatic turning points so there is a fresh situation or determination or plan or knowledge or realization, and the reader wants to see what happens with that new situation.

Other than that, it is up to you how many you create; I've seen anywhere from 10 to 40 in a novel, and chapters less than two pages long. I'd look for the breakpoints as I described, and use them as you see fit. If two are very close together, or you think some are weak breakpoints, you don't have to use every one you find.

posted over 6 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

Amadeus‭

3156 reputation 2 1399 613 37

What I would do, would be to write down every basic event, and then on top write which event in which chapter. So it would be like this:

Chapter 1: -Event 1 -Event 2 -Event 3

Chapter 2: -Event 1 -Event 2

posted over 6 years ago

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Sweet_Cherry‭

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