[stylist] why do chapters?

Wed Apr 8 05:38:15 UTC 2009

thank you for your thoughtfulness Tami,
and welcome to our list or lists.  where are you located?

your message summarizes the range of chaptering, from a hard-and-fast 
quantity to flow, events and change of perspective.

yes I know this is ultimately my preferance, though I suspect some 
publishers also have some ideas, and even requirements sometimes.

that's why I posed the question.

yes, you are absolutely correctly, when I am reading in audio format, 
chapter break might cue me to a change of perspective, time, or 
events.  but indeed for sighted people depending on the type of book, 
the new chapter might also come with a page break, too, thus ending 
the reading of the previous chapter with a partial page of print and 
going on to the top of the next page.  I remember that.  I had low 
vision until I was 13.

by way of introduction, I live in lawrence, kansas, grew up in rural 
central california.  I've written nonfiction but my heart is really 
in writing fiction.  and I haven't found a good label for the kind of 
fiction that seems to be attracting my storyminding.

welcome Tami.

jc

Jim Canaday M.A.
Lawrence, KS

At 03:25 PM 4/7/2009, you wrote:
>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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