That chapter was short....

Do you think about chapter breaks in novel writing?

I didn’t until I saw this piece on Emma Darwin’s Itchy Bitesized blog and started thinking about what I do.

I write until I think there’s an end of chapter coming up - a point where the story line is about to change. Most scenes come to an end naturally when there is no more to say without repeating what you’ve already said. On the other hand, I have occasionally written a long scene that goes across more than one chapter.  I need not say that sometimes I love doing a cliffhanger ending to a chapter!

Usually I have (without looking to check, which is unwise!) a chapter containing two scenes, occasionally more. I prefer not to do this, but occasionally it just works that way. Of course, those scenes will be short.

There might be a change of location necessary, or I want to change the POV and if all the other things concur, then a new chapter is a simple way of achieving both those things.

In a long reading life, I would say chapters in general and particularly in genre fiction are now a lot shorter than they used to be. I can remember reading in bed at night (often under the covers) anxiously waiting for a chapter to end so I could switch off and go to sleep. For me, in my books, chapters average out at between three and four thousand words. When I first began a decade or so ago, they averaged about five thousand, but reading modern books has influenced me without my noticing the change.

A first-class scene

Do you ever analyze a scene in a book?

There are several things that must contribute to this, but one of the most important is to
Define Conflict.  Who drives or motivates  the scene?  What does he want? Does he get it? if not, what stops him?  Can he change this?

Has the scene been well set? Do we (the reader) know  the value the character puts on the object he is trying to achieve? Will it change his life? Or merely make him more comfortable?  Is it worthy?

Throughout the scene keep checking what the character seems to be doing and what he is actually doing.

Note the closing of the scene. What has changed? There must be something that has changed.

The reader should be able to locate the turning point - where action becomes a reaction, and the shape or the pattern of events will change. 

It sounds easy enough. Now to go to my work in progress and check.....

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Scenes

Sometimes I like to go through the underpinnings of creative fiction in the hope that eventually the knowledge will fix itself in my brain. Tonight I have been looking at what makes a scene.
Ideally, every SCENE is a story event. To quote McKee: a SCENE is an action through conflict in more or less continuous time and space that turns the value charged condition of a character’s life on at least one value with a degree of perceptible significance.
In simpler language: a SCENE should not change its setting, and once begun, time runs in its correct sequence to the end of the scene. Within that SCENE, something has to happen that changes the character’s views, potential action or perception, and it has to be noticeable to the reader.

Then you can have a SCENE BREAK, and begin the next with a change of setting, time and the characters present if you wish. Or you can stick with character and place, but make it an hour later.

You should know what is at stake in the SCENE before you begin. Does the thing at stake change during the SCENE? Is it a positive, negative or a neutral change? If it is neither positive nor negative, how has it changed, or why is it there?

SCENES can be broken down into BEATS and we don’t mean a short pause. In this case, a BEAT is an exchange of behaviour, either proactive or reactive. BEAT by BEAT the scene is formed, and ought to lead to a TURNING POINT.

BEATS build into scenes and a run of 2-5 scenes builds into a SEQUENCE. The final scene of a SEQUENCE should deliver a scene of greater power and impact than the previous scenes. A series of SEQUENCES builds into an ACT, or a moment that turns on a major reversal for the character in some way.
Now I ought to go and look at my wip and see how I’m doing.

Gotham writers and scenes

A peaceful scene in a local churchyard - and all those lovely shades of green showing nicely.

Now for scenes -

each must have 3 things - relevance to the MDQ, a clash of objectives plus a structure of its own.

Relevance -move the plot along, either by introducing conflict or adding character depth

Conflict - tension or struggle of some kind

Structure - keep objectives out of reach, force the protagonist to shift tactics

Linked Scenes then form sequences. Simple. Ha! Now to try doing it!