[stylist] why do chapters?

Tue Apr 7 20:25:03 UTC 2009

Jim,

Hm...  I did a lot of thought about this about a zillion years ago and
started analyzing my favorite authors in the genre (fantasy).  And now I'm
wracking my brain to remember what all I observed.  /smile/  I've set my own
fantasy work aside for a number of years, for various reasons, but always
with the "I'll get back to it and get it published even if I'm 90!" caveat
firmly in mind. /smile/

As I recall, I started out by making my chapters an even 30 manuscript pages
and shooting for a specific number of words for the whole.  I was really
digging in to the project to practice novel writing, then ended up really
getting enthused about the story and characters I came up with.  So I had a
big, rambling mess to somehow wrestle into some sort of structure with the
notion that I wanted someone else to be able to enjoy reading it as much as
I was enjoying writing it.

The 30 chapters of 30 pages notion worked surprisingly well, and I learned a
lot in the process of fitting my story and its pacing into that format.  I
did use section breaks at places within some of the chapters to help with
flow.  When I get back to "really" working on it again, though, I will
probably take a less structured approach, using chapter breaks as part of
the flow and pacing as well as to switch from main plot and characters to
this or that subplot and the characters involved in that story line.  Make
sense?

Ultimately, how you use chapters is up to you, depending on your personal
style of organization and how you structure your story overall, how you want
to tell it.

Thinking about it more, it suddenly occurs to me that chapter breaks and
headings are a visual tool, much like heading levels in a structured
technical document or the like.  The let the reader see at a glance that
something has changed, that we're starting another section of importance
here, etc.  In most novels there will be some sort of fancy initial
character, or even a picture of what the chapter is about.  Paragraph breaks
and indentation serve the same purpose.

So for us nonvisual readers, a lot of the usefulness is lost.  We just have
to have our reading interrupted by hearing JAWS say "Chapter 29" or to key
through a line of all caps on our Braille displays (or whatever; I'm new to
nonvisual reading and am startled by many things about it, while being
delighted to learn I enjoy it quite a lot).  So those breaks and fancy caps
or even the line of asterisks between sections don't have the same meaning
they do for the visual reader.  They just get in the way.

So for a blind writer, you might make chaptering (is that word?) decisions
based on your target audience?  If you're writing for the general print
audience, you would want to give them the familiar trappings of the book
reading experience, unless you're wanting your book to make some sort of
stylistic statement...  If you're writing for a primarily audo book or
Braille audience, then you might just decide to do what you suggested and
skip breaking things into chapters....

They do help those of us who forget to bookmark our stopping points on our
electronic Braille displays search through the book for where we left off,
though.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of James Canaday M.A. N6YR
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 2:22 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] why do chapters?

why do the chaptering?

I'm assuming that most authors set out the chapter organization 
before they write?

I realized on reflection that I was asking this question about 
fiction book writing.  nonfiction  topics often just fit right into a 
chapter organization.

what's the shortest work appropriate for chapters?  a 
5,000-word  "short" story?  and in that case you don't necessarily 
have a table of contents and title each but you write the text with 
an extra blank line  between the end paragraph of one chapter and the 
beginning of the next chapter.
is that correct?

so far on this there've been four responses: Lori just doesn't and I 
would love to know more about that; Aziza  says it is to 
organize  what's important in the story; Justin points out you can 
use chapters to change perspective or time; and Helene says chapters 
make the reading easier to digest (I hope that's a good choice of words).

I hope we can continue this, as I want to learn   more on making chapters.
jc

Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS

At 04:18 PM 4/4/2009, you wrote:
>Chapters make it easier for the reader. Personally I find books that
>don't have chapters or have very long chapters, hard to get into.
>
>Helene.
>
>On 04/04/2009, Justin Williams <justin.williams2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It is a good way to segway into something else.  Chapter two can be
> > completely different than chapter one.  It allows you to switch
characters.
> > Also, it helps with the setting up of different plot lines in a book.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> > Behalf Of James Canaday M.A. N6YR
> > Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 1:06 AM
> > To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
> > Subject: [stylist] why do chapters?
> >
> > Alan and others,
> > I think we should discuss this.  do we set chapters because everybody
> > seems to do it?  because it gives the reader to catch his or her
> > breath?  because it makes changes of perspective easier?  to help
> > readers recollection of what they read?
> >
> > why do we designate chapters?
> >
> > jc
> >
> > Jim Canaday M.A.
> > Lawrence, KS
> >
> >
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