#WeWriteBooks, Post 16: Dividing Your Book Into Chapters and Scenes---And How to End Them

Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books in lots of weird genres like fantasy (Blood of Kings and Kinsman Chronicles), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). She's currently writing a post-apocalyptic book with all of you called THIRST in conjunction with the #WeWriteBooks series. 

Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website, where you can read THIRST. You can also try two of her fantasy novels for free here and here.

It's week sixteen of #WeWriteBooks Wednesdays, where we are writing books together. As I mentioned last week, I ran out of pre-written material on THIRST, so I had to take some time to brainstorm out what would happen next and how to set up this new part of the storyworld (that would, in seventy-some years, become the dystopian world for The Safe Lands trilogy). So my chapter fourteen is a bit rougher than my previous chapters have been, but I feel good about where I'm headed with the story. And I always remind myself that this is a rough draft, so I will have time to rewrite it all later on. I posted Chapter 14 of THIRST Monday over on my author website. Click here to read it.

  

Recap

Week one was genre (THIRST is post-apocalyptic YA). Week two was premise. Here's my premise:

A waterborne disease has sprung up in every corner of the globe, decimating the human race. Young survivors Eli McShane and his friends journey toward Colorado and the rumored location of a safe water source.

Week three was Storyworld.

Week four: maps and floorplans.

Week five: protagonists and main characters.

Week six: side characters.

Week seven: prewriting.

Week eight: plot structures. 

Week nine: Theme.

Week ten: creating a plot outline or list of key scenes.

Week eleven: point of view.

Week twelve: narrative modes.

Week thirteen: how to write a scene.

Week fourteen: Where to start.

Week fifteen: Prologues.

 

Today's Topic: Dividing Your Book Into Chapters and Scenes---And How to End Them

Every literary work has some kind of organization. In fiction, this usually comes in the form of chapters, but not always. Today we’re going to talk about the different ways you can divide up your novel, including how to choose the best ways to end each scene or chapter so that the reader wants to keep reading.

 

How to Divide Things Up

First, there is also no right process in deciding how to divide things up. Some seat-of-the-pants writers divide things as they go. Others write their entire book in one big chunk and save the dividing for the rewrite. Then there are the outliners, who plot out their book by chapter or scene before they even begin writing. All these ways work fine. You need to find the method that is most effective for your writing style.

Second, every book is different. There is no right or wrong way to divide up a book. Some ways might be stronger than others, and that’s what you want to figure out. The goal is to divide your story in places that will give readers the best possible experience. You don’t want them to put your book down. You want the pacing to be perfect, not so fast that they are exhausted but not so slow that they get bored or frustrated. Subdividing your novel is one of the ways you maintain the flow and pacing of your narrative, escalate tension, and keep your reader turning the pages.

Some books have a shorter amount of long chapters. Some books have dozens of very short chapters. Some books have a mix of both. Then there are books that are also divided into parts. Or books with no chapters at all, like Frank Herbert’s Dune, which is divided into three "books" or parts, and the narrative sections are separated by a quote from several books from the Dune storyworld.

Wherever you decide to break or end a chapter, try to choose these places strategically. Whether you do that during the outline phase or later during editing is up to you.

There are many ways to organize your story. Parts, chapters, scenes, sections, prologues, epilogues. You could use chapter titles, numbers, roman numerals, or character names. Take a look at the ways the books below were divided up. The only thing I didn't include here were whether or not the books had more than one point of view. But you can still get a good idea of how many different ways you could go about dividing your story.

Things differ within the YA genre

YA contemporary fantasy: The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, book 1) by James Patterson: 6 parts • 134 chapters plus a prologue and an epilogue • 442 pages • 55,386 words.

Historical YA Romance: The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson: 28 chapters • 261 pages • 90,354 words.

YA dystopian: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: 3 parts • 27 chapters • 374 pages • 99,750 words.

YA contemporary romance: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: 25 chapters • 352 pages • 65,752 words.


Things Differ within the fantasy genre for the adult general market

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks: 66 chapters plus an epilogue • 645 pages • 167,276 words.

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb: 36 chapters plus a prologue • 809 pages • approx. 300,000 words

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn: 32 chapters • 404 pages • 117,735 words.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson: 5 parts • 75 chapters plus a prelude, a prologue, an epilogue • nine interludes (short stories interspersed in three sections of three interludes) • 1252 pages • 383,389 words.


And things might even differ amongst your own books

By Darkness Hid: 5 parts • 25 chapters • 490 pages • 125,925 words.

Replication: 26 chapters • 294 pages • 84,062 words.

Tinker: 10 chapters • 94 pages • 12,236 words.

King's Folly: 3 parts • 83 chapters plus a prologue • 544 pages • 189,119 words.


Mini plots
Many books use the process of crafting each chapter with its own mini plot, complete with a three-act structure of its own. This can be a great method of hooking a reader into the bigger novel one short story at a time.

Scene by scene
Many books have chapters with multiple scenes per chapter. I remember being confused about when to put in asterisks between scenes and when to leave a big space. Turned out, that was the difference between a scene break and a section break. How do you know which to use?

A scene break is when you hit enter (or return) three times in a double-spaced document, leaving two blank lines between one section of text and the next section of text. A scene break is used to separate related scenes. It's used to indicate time passing or a change of location that continues in the same scene. In the following example from my book The New Recruit, you can see how the scene break shows that time has passed.

                   “You believe in angels and demons?”
                   “I guess.”
                   “Ees real, Es-pensor.” And she turned back and opened her
           book again.
                    I wanted to say, “Don’t go!” but all I could do was settle
           back in my seat and try to think of another question to ask.

           Claustrophobia. I’d never understood the full meaning of that
           word until now. Coach seats were not meant for guys over six
           feet tall. At least I had the aisle to stretch my right leg...
 

In the scene above, Spencer was on an airplane, talking to a girl that he thought was cute. The conversation ended, some time passed--indicated by the scene break--and when we returned, Spencer was still on the airplane.

A section break is made by hitting enter to leave one blank line, centering four asterisks on the next line, hitting enter to leave another blank line, then hitting enter to type the next paragraph. A section break is used to indicate a complete scene break or a character point of view change. In the next example, also from The New Recruit, you can see how the section break separates two different scenes.

 

                   “Try to hold tightly to your temper when you are playing
           the sport of basketball à la gym . . . These things come to me.
           In my dreams.”
                   I didn't like the idea that Prière and I had things in common.
           Not at all.

                                                                 ****

                    At lunch the next day, everyone had already heard what had
           happened with Nick. The Mission League kids had infiltrated
           the basketball table . . . again. I really wasn't in the mood to
           deal with them, Isabel excepted.

 

In the above example, Spencer was talking with Prière, an intercessor, who was trying to give Spencer a warning. The scene ended completely, the asterisks showed the end of the scene, and a new scene began at lunch the next day.

It doesn't matter whether you use three asterisks or four or whether you tab in between them or keep them all together. The point is to be consistent throughout your manuscript. Also, if you’re seeking traditional publication, don't add your own cool graphics. I know it's tempting, but adding pretties to your manuscript is a red flag for an editor or agent that screams, "We've got an amateur writer here!"

 

Different Ways to end a chapter or scene

You might say, “Jill. If we want our readers to keep reading, why would we put in scene or section breaks? Why would we ever end our chapters?” Yes, it might seem counterintuitive to stop the narrative flow and keep people reading, but it isn't. When you are clever about it, breaks can be genius. Here are some reason why:

-If you switch points of view, putting in a scene or chapter break helps to signal the reader that a major change has occurred. This is much better than switching points of view in the next paragraph and confusing your reader.

-If you want to jump forward in time, a new scene or chapter is the perfect place to do that without having to write about all the boring stuff that happened in between. Here is an example of time passing from my book King's Folly:

               Jealousy twisted Kal’s stomach into a stone. He berated
          himself for such childish emotions and found comfort in the
          fact that come morning, they’d find Jhorn’s body and have
          reason to leave the prophetess behind forever.

                                                        ****

               When Kal woke the next day, he caught a young stranger
          going through Onika’s pack. “Hey! Get away from there,” he yelled.

 

-Using a scene or chapter break to escalate tension is a great way to pull readers deeper into the story and keep them turning the pages. There are many ways to do that. Let’s look at some.

 

Ways to escalate Tension

End With a Hook

Think of this the way it often happens on TV shows. The hero is in the middle of a high-stress situation, then the show cuts to commercial. You are on pins and needles waiting for the show to come back so you can find out what will happen next. Writers can do the same thing at the end of a scene or chapter. Here is a list of ending hooks. And keep in mind, these things don’t have to be huge reveals. It could be something as simple as a phone ringing when your hero is not expecting a call.

-The hero makes a revelation, remembers something key, or learns something important
-The hero decides to take (a major) action
-The hero reacts to something in a shocking way
-Something happens as a result of something the hero did earlier in the story
-The hero gets caught, stuck, or hurt in some way
-Someone important goes missing or leaves the group
-Someone important shows up
-The hero finds out he has failed in some way or something he was hoping for didn’t happen
-The stakes change
-The hero is perplexed and can’t quite make the connection he needs to make
-The hero is struck with an intense emotion (love, guilt, despair, fear, etc)
-The hero picks a fight (or is attacked) and fights back
-The hero makes a demand or gives an ultimatum or experiences the opposite in that someone makes a demand of the hero or gives him an ultimatum

 

End in the Middle of the Action

If you’re in the middle of a long fight, battle, car chase, or something similar, you might decide to break up the action with a scene or chapter ending. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself where you could break that would be the place of highest tension? Perhaps it’s when your character gets knocked down or crashes. The readers will be so curious what happened to the hero, they will turn the page to find out that the character gets up again or climbs out of the car just before it explodes.

 

End with a powerful statement

Ending a chapter with your hero making a powerful statement of dialogue or even a thought to himself can create a strong hook. I did this in my book King's Folly at the end of part one with this line: “Whether or not [Wilek] ever became Heir or king, he would not let evil win.”

 

End with a recap

If your hero is reeling from a series of events, then is shocked even more by something, he might get to a place of rest and take stock of what has happened so far. How could he have been so blind as to have missed the obvious? Did he make a wrong choice? What should he do next? Perhaps he comes up with a plan, or maybe he decides that he was right and encourages himself to carry on with his original plan. This can be a great way to give readers a rest after several intense situations. It can also serve to remind your readers of everything that has happened thus far.

 

End with a glimpse of what’s coming

You can also use a scene or chapter ending to give hints at what is to come. It could be that your hero and his sidekicks take stock of their situation, come to realize what they must face to reach their goals, and make a plan of attack.

 

Chapter Titles? Yes or No?

Chapter titles can be a great way to foreshadow exciting things to come in your story. I love how Rick Riordan uses chapter titles in his Percy Jackson series. In fact, I loved it so much, I did something similar in my Mission League books. Rather than simply use snarky chapter titles as Rick Riordan did, I formatted my chapter titles like a Mission League report that the spies-in-training must turn in, but the titles foreshadowed what was to come in the same way. How does that help me end a chapter, you ask? Because a good chapter title can pull the reader right in to reading next chapter. Look at this chapter ending and the following chapter title from my book Ambushed. To give you the need-to-know facts, Spencer is at a Hollywood movie premiere, just met his favorite actress (Brittany Holmes), and was unable to form words. Feeling stupid, he and his friend Kip head into the theater to watch the film.

I sat on MacCormack’s left, Kip sat on my left, then some random guys filled out our row. Brittany and Valeria were a few rows behind us. Dennis was sitting in the row ahead.

On the bright side, with Brittany back there, I’d be able to watch the movie instead of staring at her all night. 

Though I might do that anyway. 

The lights went down and everyone applauded and cheered. 

Roll film.

Report Number: 9
Report Title: I Insult Brittany Holmes: Light Goddess
Submitted By: Agent-in-Training Spencer Garmond
Location: Dolby Theater, Hollywood and Highlands Center, Hollywood, California, USA
Date and Time: Thursday, February 14, 6:07 p.m.

I'm banking on the fact that most readers will be dying to find out how Spencer, who already embarrassed himself in front of the famous actress, will manage to insult her. Hopefully, they will read that chapter title and keep right on reading.

 

The Archives

Here are some archived chapters from the Go Teen Writers blog that might also help you on the subject of chapter length and how to end a chapter.

Chapters: Beginnings and Endings that Work 
Chapter Lengths, Bigger Plots, and Other Good Stuff
How To Switch Points of View
How Should Chapter One END?
Scene Breaks vs. Section Breaks 

 

Assignment Time

No matter how you choose to end your scenes or chapters, be aware of what is coming next in your story so that the following chapters can build on what you’ve worked hard to set up. Not every chapter will end with the same level of intensity as others. Variety is good because it will keep your readers guessing. The goal is to immerse your readers in the story and keep them turning the pages.

Take a look at some of your favorite books. How did the authors divide their stories? Look at how they ended scenes and chapters. Share an example of an author that did this well. Also, just for fun, share one of your own scene or chapter hooks from your book.