My question is about the creation of chapters. How do you organize a chapter itself and its place in the overall continuum of the story?
Just began listening to your writing excuses podcast, btw. I learned about it thanks to Reddit. Great stuff!
I organize a chapter by having a goal in mind. Usually, I have couple of goals. “In this chapter, I want to accomplish X, Y, Z.” Usually, they are small things. “Introduce this character” or “Show these two people not getting along” or “reveal this little tiny secret about what is happening.”
I get three or four of those together, think about which viewpoint is going to be most interesting (usually, but not always, the person who is doing the most and discovering the most,) and try to pick a setting that—if it’s not set already—will be different from nearby scenes. Then I go, trying to build a rise to a climax (however small) within that scene.
That’s how it is for most middle chapters. End chapters are different, where the pace grows more frantic, and I split scenes into smaller bits, jumping about to keep the pace feeling exciting.
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