Chapters

[Roc]

I probably don't make it easy for myself, but when I'm writing I refrain from breaking things up into chapters and for the most part it turns into a long stream of story where I chop it up by indenting a few lines when I feel like I need to move to another scene. In simpler words, I don't break it up into chapters during the first draft. This can be complicated when I need things like cliffhangers, but I still can't bring myself to include chapters in the first draft.

I'm curious about everyone else. Are some of you super religious about your chapters, naming them and outlining with them before you write? Or do you some of you feel more comfortable adding them in later?

And what of chapter names? Do you name them before, wait, or perhaps not name them at all?


Edit: There seems to be another post about chapters that I didn't notice, so just ignore my impudence everyone... It's a tad different.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I always have a pretty firm idea of what my chapter will look like (beginning, middle, & end) before I write. It doesn't always follow that layout, but I start with a vague outline of events, with an understanding that change may occur as I'm writing. I think of it like a roadmap...point A to B with some stops and detours along the way, but I may find a more scenic route to travel once on the road.

As far as chapter names, I don't really worry about it much, other than for organization purposes. Often, I'll just use the POV's name and then a number to denote sequence (Roc-1, Roc-2, etc.) Other times, I may label the chapter with the main happening. In a recent novella sized work, the first draft was organized this way and had chapter titles like "Part 8 - Sardar's Stand".

I approach each story by what makes most sense for organization, for my own thinking & what an editor can use for structuring. I don't worry about how I want to present that to the reader, at this point. The time for these details come when working with an editor, book designer, publisher, or myself as all three if I'd make the choice to self-pub.

 

[Gryphos]

I write i chapters, but I don't really plan them beforehand. I just keep going until the word count reaches an appropriate level and stop when I get a good opportunity (usually after a scene has ended or a particularly impactful line).

As to naming a chapter, I do that after I've written it. I try to make my chapter names interesting to tempt the reader into reading on, but I'm always careful to not put any possible spoilers in the title. usually it's referencing a line that's said either in that chapter or said in another chapter but is very relevant to that chapter.

Some examples of mine (probably very strange looking without context)...

To have Faced Magicians
Only Human
A Shepherd Through Fire
Seven if You Count the Rat
So-called Titanium

 

[Helen]

I don't worry about chapter names until much later.

I work them all out during the planning stage.

The markers separating chapters may change as I write, but having the roadmap in the first place helps write.

 

[Addison]

I'm kind of dry when it comes to chapters. I know the manuscript format for chapters, 1 inch margins, double spaced, Chapter and number are centered and at the first third of the page with the first line two spaces below. But when it comes to length, naming and stuff....right now it's kind of a mess. Only one or two have a names, three or four are around sixty pages long which I find too long.

I don't really get serious about chapter length and name until the editing is done and I've let it stew for at least a week. I don't think there's any set rule about chapters, about their length or name or anything. It depends on you. If you don't want to break your story into actual chapters, just making spaces with some sort of design in the middle then that's fine. It's up to you.

 

[Bruce McKnight]

I usually start with a list of events/scenes. I flesh them out as I write the first draft and keep scene headers in caps so I can keep track of it while I'm writing. Then, after I've done the first couple rounds of revisions, I remove the scene headers and look for logical places to break it into chunks. There's a lot of times where the events/scenes get too long or short and end up slip into multiple chapters or combined into one.

When I do the final chapters breaks, I shamelessly look for the cliffhanger type points to end chapters on and try to apply the advice "enter late, leave early" for chapters to keep story pace moving.