When to break up your chapters?

[Queshire]

How do you decide when to break up your chapters? Like, how can you tell that Here is where Chapter 1 ends and Here is where Chapter 2 starts?

 

[skip.knox]

There are guidelines and advice on the Net and in books. Have a look around. The short version is: it depends. It varies. It's personal. und so weiter.

For myself, I think of a chapter as being an episode, without being too precise about what I mean by the word. But like an episode in a series, it needs to be somewhat self-contained while causing the reader to want the next episode. This general guideline gets mitigated by word count--I don't want my chapters to be too terribly imbalanced in terms of length, unless I'm doing so on purpose. This usually translates to a chapter that is intentionally short, rather than one that's intentionally long.

Beyond that ... well, see Paragraph One.

 

[Asura Levi]

Same here. I usually end a chapter when the main theme that defines that chapter is done* and another theme introduced/recalled/expanded.

Also, I usually kept within a world count range, average in 3000 words, but I had longer chapter (7k) and shorter.


*: not exactly completed but more like it is not the main focus of the MC at that moment onward.

 

[JRBoschen]

You could use the passage of time as a guide if you're having trouble.

If the overall timing of your book takes place continuously, with hourly descriptions of the characters progress, make a chapter what takes place over a day. If something really important happens, you can break it down even further by having a chapter just for a really important battle or event.

Another catalyst is character perspective. An example: something happens from Sally's point of view, but then we find out what Jimmy is doing or thinking. Especially if two main characters are doing something in different places, moving to the next chapter will help the transition be less confusing for the reader.

 

[Addison]

I end a chapter on two notes (except the last one).
1. Something has ended. A conflict has been resolved, whether the conflict is internal, external or interpersonal.
2. Something has been foreshadowed. A slight cliff hanger so to speak. Such as my first chapter ends with my MC finding that his most treasured item has been stolen, a sleazy IOU left behind, and the MC's magic inadvertently damages the room as the IOU burns in his hand. In this chapter two issues have been resolved but they've laid out the road work for this one to be foreshadowed and ready.

To me the choice of when to break a chapter is just as varied and personal as the length.

 

[Penpilot]

I follow the Scene-Sequel format so i usually end my chapters at the end of one of those. This means I end a Scene some point just after the protagonist has failed at a task or has succeeded but the other shoe just drops. I end a sequel once a decision has been made.

 

[Ermol]

I read somewhere that George Martin ends each char's chapter on a sort of a cliffhanger, TV style (i.e. keep ppl tuning in next week). That's one way?

 

[stephenspower]

Think of a chapter as a sine wave: It starts at the top of the action from the previous chapter, resolves that action in the middle and leaves you at the top of the action resulting from that resolution.

In South Park terms, end on a but, start on a therefore:

The Importance of ‘Therefore’ and ‘But’: Writing Advice from South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone | Aerogramme Writers' StudioWriting Advice from South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone

BTW the Pixar and Whedon tips linked to