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    •  
      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    In thinking about my NaNo, I’m wondering if I will do chapters, or just kinda have a flowing story with changing perspective. I will have different POVs, but I’m still not sure.

    When you do chapters, do you name them or just number them? I prefer to name them, because its simply easier to find your way around the book, but GRR Martin does his chapters by the POV character, which is something of both.

    Discuss!

  1.  

    The most interesting chapter divisions I’ve ever seen were in Arthur & George. The chapters were very simply titled ‘Arthur’ for chapters about Arthur and ‘George’ for chapters about George, and they would alternate. Eventually the chapters merged to become ‘Arthur & George’.

    •  
      CommentAuthorSpanman
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    I’ve never really done chapters because I’m sort of too busy writing to want to figure out how long I want the chapters to be, or to have a different chapter every time I switch between POVs and things. I suppose I’ll have to divide it up sometime. And I think I’ll just number them.

    •  
      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    If multiple POVs are involved, then a chapter at a switch is appropriate.

  2.  

    I usually just do numbers because I start a new chapter when it seem right to start a new chapter. I would name my chapters if each one was about something specific, which I might do in the future.

  3.  

    I don’t really use actual chapters. Instead, when I do a PoV switch, I divide the two different perspectives with a ‘ * * *’
    between them. Like this.

    •  
      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    @SWG: Yeah that is what I’m thinking I will do.

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    Chapter names are good when they’re awesome.

    But lame when they’re melodramatic coughCPcough.

    Numbering them is nice and safe. Can’t go wrong with numbers.

    •  
      CommentAuthorVirgil
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009 edited
     

    In my NaNo (a comedy) I plan to have three acts.. all named Act I, but no chapters.

    •  
      CommentAuthorArtimaeus
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    For NaNo I organize my writing by the day it was written (a new file for each day) and sort it into chapters later.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    For NaNo I organize my writing by the day it was written (a new file for each day) and sort it into chapters later.

    That what I did.^^ I just do numbers, simple and it gets the job done.

  4.  

    @ Jeni: the Percy Jackson series has funny chapter titles. Ex: Nico Buys Happy Meals for the Dead, I Learn How to Grow Zombies, I Wrestle Santa’s Evil Twin, etc.

    •  
      CommentAuthorJeni
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    Nico Buys Happy Meals for the Dead

    I like it. :D

  5.  

    Thought you would. :D

    •  
      CommentAuthorJabrosky
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     

    My chapters tend to be too short. I think the problem is that I don’t want to fatten the chapter up with purple prose.

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeAug 3rd 2009
     

    I find it too difficult to decide how to divide them.

  6.  

    As I’m writing, I just come to a part where it seems like it’d be a good time for a breaking point. Then I add a new chapter, unless it has only been about three pages, then I do this # # #.

  7.  
    I normally break (***) just after I've written a snappy ending to a scene. The new-chapter thing comes after I've done a cliffhanger.
  8.  

    I’ve got two alternating PoVs and one character per chapter has been pretty standard so far, although I’ve switched in mid-chapter before where it seemed appropriate.

    I like books with named chapters, but it seems difficult to come up with consistently clever ones(see: I Need A Sword!). I’m just using numbers for the time being.

  9.  

    I name when I can and number when I can’t.

    • CommentAuthorDeborah
    • CommentTimeNov 24th 2010
     
    @ Jeni: the Percy Jackson series has funny chapter titles. Ex: Nico Buys Happy Meals for the Dead, I Learn How to Grow Zombies, I Wrestle Santa’s Evil Twin, etc.

    Don't forget 'I Vaporize my Pre-algebra Teacher', or 'A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers'
    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeNov 25th 2010
     

    I tend to either eschew chapters or use them sparingly (largely, I think, because I have yet to write enough on a single story to constitute a chapter split).

    I do like the chapter names from older-style books, though. Chapter IV: In Which Our Hero Discovers a Friend, a Bet is Lost, & Just Desserts are Had.

    hee. silly grin

  10.  

    Chapter IV: In Which Our Hero Discovers a Friend, a Bet is Lost, & Just Desserts are Had.

    I feel like that’s from a Lloyd Alexander book.

    • CommentAuthorDeborah
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2010
     
    Me too, I just can't remember which one.
    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeNov 26th 2010
     

    I made it up just then, as an example of the kinds of chapter titles to which I am partial.

  11.  

    My chapters almost all have names in the year or so since I made the last post I made in this thread. I think I posted them somewhere else, but I might as well repost ‘em in the ol’ hidden tags.

    Some are better than others :/ I like The Seeing Red Blues the best.

    •  
      CommentAuthorThea
    • CommentTimeNov 27th 2010
     

    I’m another one who just writes as far as I can one day and open another file the next day. Or sometimes when just one section is too long.

    I hope I’ll be able to give something really cool chapter titles,because they can really define the book, but I don’t think this NaNo text would really need chapter titles, they might be distracting. But definitely numbers, and a table of contents if I can get away with it. For some reason, when I was younger I hated books with distinct chapters (especially named ones) that did not have a table of contents.

    @sansa I like The Seeing Red Blues a lot myself. :)

  12.  

    @sansa I like The Seeing Red Blues a lot myself. :)

    Thanks. I think it’s actually cleverer in context, since there’s lots of color contrast throughout(red and blue specifically).

    I hope I’ll be able to give something really cool chapter titles,because they can really define the book

    Yeah, it’s not the homers you gotta worry about. Everybody has some of those in them. It’s finding a way to turn the singles into doubles or triples that’s the trick.

  13.  

    I slightly fear my story not being long enough, so now that I’m actually somewhat writing it I find myself just adding more to it. Things end up being longer than I thought they’d be and sometimes become their own chapters. But I think most of what I write is necessary and not filler. One part that’s a bit iffy is me adding a kitchen scene because I wanted to show what the kitchen looked like and how it works, but also add a bit of happy celebrating before a big event.

    So now I wanna add a library scene to show the library and I don’t think it really fits in any chapter and it will likely be very short and I don’t like super short chapters. Right now instead of the scene I just have the narration say oh my main character HAD been to the library the other night where he discovered important stuff and now he’s reflecting back on what he discovered but the audience never saw. The information probably isn’t that important and only needs to be summarized but it may be interesting to create more specifics.

    So should I keep it the way it is or make this library chapter? I dunno if the library will ever make another appearance. Also if I do this chapter, would it be stupid to call it Chapter 6.5 in what’s meant to be a serious fantasy?

    •  
      CommentAuthorBloo
    • CommentTimeDec 22nd 2011
     

    I just write the whole thing with maybe a few scene breaks; then I go back and divide into chapters after the first big edit.

    Usually I just number. I barely trust myself with a title for the whole book.

    •  
      CommentAuthorhappycrab91
    • CommentTimeDec 22nd 2011 edited
     

    Good idea. It would make me not pad out a chapter because I don’t think it’s long enough. So far I don’t think any padding I might have done is bad though. I just call it padding because I like to attack my own work. But nah I need my chapters. I need order. I like chapters to be about specific things that relate to the title.

    My titles often still suck. I want to avoid constantly using “The Something” type chapters. Also I want to avoid spoiler titles. Like I want to call a chapter A New King or Coronation or something but if someone is flicking through the chapters titles before reading them it will spoil things.

    •  
      CommentAuthorBloo
    • CommentTimeDec 22nd 2011
     

    True, but a one or two word title can’t spoil a lot. In that instance “Coronation” would work better, I think, because it could refer to a literal or metaphorical coronation (although damn if I can actually think of a metaphorical coronation right now.)

    I’m not good at writing specifics. xD I just write big chunks and skip around, and when I’m done with the fun stuff I write what I actually need. But hey, whatever works for you.

    As a reader, I like themed chapter titles better—either following a certain format or referencing the same thing or in the same style, i.e. Percy Jackson.

    •  
      CommentAuthorhappycrab91
    • CommentTimeDec 22nd 2011 edited
     

    Eh it could spoil more than you think. Or maybe I just think things are obvious because I know my own story. Like previously I had a chapter named after a monster thing, and the reveal of the monster thing is meant to be a surprise. But if people think hmm that chapter title sounds like a monster I bet there’s a monster in this chapter than it could ruin it. I dunno.

    How does Percy Jackson name its chapters?

    •  
      CommentAuthorBloo
    • CommentTimeDec 22nd 2011 edited
     

    You’re right about the monster thing…then again, how spoilery it is could change depending on how well known the monster is. There’s a difference in putting “Chimaera” and “Telosian.” And sometimes monster names sound like names for people. But it’s your story/decision, of course. ^^;;

    From Jeni and Deborah, earlier in this topic:

    the Percy Jackson series has funny chapter titles. Ex: Nico Buys Happy Meals for the Dead, I Learn How to Grow Zombies, I Wrestle Santa’s Evil Twin, etc.

    Don’t forget ‘I Vaporize my Pre-algebra Teacher’, or ‘A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers’

    •  
      CommentAuthorFalling
    • CommentTimeDec 22nd 2011 edited
     

    Chapters are weird. You have everything from Tolkien’s 50 page chapters to half page chapters. (I don’t particularly like half page chapters.) I personally like titled chapters as numbers by themselves are so boring . Naming chapters is intriguing to me in that it’s tricky summing up chapters without giving away exactly what’s going to happen.
    Chapter IV: In Which Our Hero Discovers a Friend, a Bet is Lost, & Just Desserts are Had.
    being a prime example of what I don’t want to do.
    My goal with chapter titles is that you can never simply guess the plot from reading the table of contents.
    So for instance it should never be:
    4) Ambush
    5) Captured
    6) Princess Prisoner
    7) Escape

    and so on and so forth.

    As for length and when to stop, I have no idea. I think my minimum was 6 pages and has moved to 8 with the maximum 15 (this being single spaced, size 12- so about 500 words/ page.) I don’t necessarily switch change chapters with PoV because sometimes I switch back and forth fairly quickly. Usually it’s based around a plot point or general idea of when enough stuff has happened to warrant a chapter break. I sort of aim for the ‘stuff has happened and we can take a pause until the next big thing happens.’ Of course sometimes the getting to said plot point winds up creating an unintended chapter, but as I have no hard and fast rule, I can easily change it. Once I bumped a chapter title three times before I finally got to the part where the chapter title was actually relevant.

  14.  

    I made up a new monster so yeah.

    Ha Percy Jackson sounds funny.

    I don’t like chapters 50 pages long because I usually use chapters as breaks from reading so I feel like I have to read the entire chapter I’m on before going to bed. And yeah chapters like “ambush” are not good so that’s why I don’t like Coronation.

    My chapters tend to be around 10 pages maybe, probably an average of 600 words a page. I need to work on my paragraphs better so if I divide them more it might add a page or two overall. And yes as I was saying sometimes I am trying to get to the plot of what a chapter is meant to be about and make an unintended chapter. So should I make this little library chapter, and should I make it 6.5 or just 7? I could probably move the start of the next chapter to it to make this one a bit longer since the other is probably long enough without it.

    •  
      CommentAuthorKyllorac
    • CommentTimeDec 22nd 2011 edited
     

    Chapter breaks and titles just come to me. Completely unhelpful, I know, but I guess it’s the result of having a strong feel for whatever story it is I’m writing, despite having no plan at all to speak of. I find that in later drafts, I often expand a little more or change the course of events a bit so that the chapters still have the same main events occurring, but the pacing is just a little bit smoother and a touch more leisurely (where appropriate), and the characters are more in-character/happy.

    I guess the best way to summarize my “method” is to pay attention to the flow of events. The story will tell you where chapter breaks and such are appropriate, if you listen. As for titles, finding something brief but memorable that summarizes a theme or event within the chapter is made a whole lot easier if you have fun with it. I for one oftentimes have too much fun coming up with chapter titles, and so my current pet project has wound up with a “serious” title and an alternate “silly” title for each chapter.

  15.  

    Ditto just knowing where to break chapters off. For me at least, its only ever been really obvious. I think the shorest one in my novel is only maybe 9 or so, but its a unique chapter, and the longest one is around 18. Most fall in the 12 to 16 page range. Some have several scenes in them while some are just one long one(said longest chapter is just one really long conversation between two people). It just seems like, hey, this is how many it should have because that is what I feel like.