Benjamin Clayborne
Auror
In George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones (and its many sequels), each chapter is titled with the name of whichever character's POV that chapter is written in: EDDARD, ARYA, TYRION, and so forth.
But the chapters are not numbered. This bothers me to no end, mainly because these are books that I discuss incessantly with people, and not being able to refer to particular chapters by an unambiguous identifier drives me nuts. (This might have something to do with the fact that I'm a programmer by trade, so identifier ambiguity is anathema to me.)
I really liked the practice of titling each chapter with its POV character, though. It meant that as soon as I turned the page, I knew whose POV I was going to be reading. That was something that had always jarred me a little bit with the Wheel of Time series: You don't know for sure who the POV character is in each chapter until you've read a couple of sentences (or sometimes more, depending). It's not a huge deal, but it is a little off-putting to read a sentence or two, realize who the POV is, and then have to go back and reassess what you just read based on that new information. (Jordan did include a clue, namely the little picture/glyph atop each chapter, which tended to–but did not always–correspond to the POV character; e.g. a pair of dice means Mat, a wolf's head means Perrin; but then a white/black mask meant "darkfriends" and that could be just about anyone.)
For these reasons, when writing THE QUEEN OF MAGES, I decided to title each chapter with both a number and with the POV character's name: "CHAPTER 1 / AMIRA". To me, this is a superior way to do things, because 1) it unambiguously identifies each chapter (no more saying "In Amira's sixth chapter... or was it seventh? You know, the one where..."), and 2) since the POV is shifting every chapter, it lets you know immediatey whose chapter it is. (The one exception are the three interlude chapters, but each of those is from the POV of a separate character, non-repeating, and so are unambiguously identifiable.)
This is all prologue (sorry, Steerpike) toward asking the following question: How important do you think things like this are? Clearly the story itself is always the most important thing; but how the actual story text is presented can, I think, make a big impact on the reading experience. It smooths the way and removes a hurdle (however tiny) toward understanding and enjoying the story.
But the chapters are not numbered. This bothers me to no end, mainly because these are books that I discuss incessantly with people, and not being able to refer to particular chapters by an unambiguous identifier drives me nuts. (This might have something to do with the fact that I'm a programmer by trade, so identifier ambiguity is anathema to me.)
I really liked the practice of titling each chapter with its POV character, though. It meant that as soon as I turned the page, I knew whose POV I was going to be reading. That was something that had always jarred me a little bit with the Wheel of Time series: You don't know for sure who the POV character is in each chapter until you've read a couple of sentences (or sometimes more, depending). It's not a huge deal, but it is a little off-putting to read a sentence or two, realize who the POV is, and then have to go back and reassess what you just read based on that new information. (Jordan did include a clue, namely the little picture/glyph atop each chapter, which tended to–but did not always–correspond to the POV character; e.g. a pair of dice means Mat, a wolf's head means Perrin; but then a white/black mask meant "darkfriends" and that could be just about anyone.)
For these reasons, when writing THE QUEEN OF MAGES, I decided to title each chapter with both a number and with the POV character's name: "CHAPTER 1 / AMIRA". To me, this is a superior way to do things, because 1) it unambiguously identifies each chapter (no more saying "In Amira's sixth chapter... or was it seventh? You know, the one where..."), and 2) since the POV is shifting every chapter, it lets you know immediatey whose chapter it is. (The one exception are the three interlude chapters, but each of those is from the POV of a separate character, non-repeating, and so are unambiguously identifiable.)
This is all prologue (sorry, Steerpike) toward asking the following question: How important do you think things like this are? Clearly the story itself is always the most important thing; but how the actual story text is presented can, I think, make a big impact on the reading experience. It smooths the way and removes a hurdle (however tiny) toward understanding and enjoying the story.