Ending a chapter

[Wolfie]

After reading Jim's (exellent) essey's on the basics of writing, I wanted to know more. (So write more Jim.  )

It hit me in bed last night.

How DO you end a chapter? Where's the break in the storyline? What do you look for?

[terioncalling]

*thinking back*

Well...in my current story I've either ended chapters with sentences that pose foreshadowing to bad events, the main character getting knocked unconscious, the end of a battle, and some others I can't recall right now and can't look up as I have class.

Basically with me it depends on where the chapter is going, how much inspiration I have at the time, and if the story suddenly decides it wants to stop at that point in time..

[Wolfie]

Thank you Terrioncalling. That's about the same way I usually do things. A bit instinctively.

I'm hoping for more advise on the mechanics. Ending a chapter with a cliffhanger is a good idea. What other ways would there be. (I imagine a book of cliffhangers gets a bit strange.)

More Ideas, more. Thank you again TC.  Let's get this rolling.

[WonderandAwe]

I usually end the chapter when the a group of connected scenes are over.  For example, Chapter 1 in my novel involves a zombie hunting, killing, and eating his prey.  It ends when he decided to return home.  The next chapter involving that character (A few chapters later.  I am writing my novel in third person limited.  Each chapter is written from one character's point of view), he is back to caves he hides out in and what he finds what he gets there.  This chapter ends when he returns what he find to the place where it belongs. 

I also break chapters when if there is a change of tone.  Chapter 2 is written from the point of view of an apprintence necromancer.  He doesn't really care for what he is doing or how other people react to him due to his profession.  Chapter 3 is still written from the same character's point of veiw, but it shows him raising the dead.  He has to put all of his doubts out of his mind if he is to do this properly.  It also has him bring up some questions about the nature of necromancy. 

You just have to look for a good breaking place.  I hate leaving readers hanging on story too often.  When that happens in a book I read, I usually just skip ahead to see what happens.  Though I too have been known to end a chapter with a character being knock unconcious, but usually the next chapter is the same scene from different point of view. 

[Josh]

A chapter break is an important psychological spot in the book, because you, as the writer, don't want the reader to use it as an excuse to put the book down and go do something else. You want them hooked so they just keep reading right through to the next chapter, and then the next, and so on. One advice I heard somewhere was to never end a chapter with someone walking out of a room and closing the door behind them. Apparently this is some sort of mental signal to close a book.

Anyways, for me, chapter endings--I usually try to make them cliffhangers of some sort, either throwing in a piece of unexpected action, dialogue, or a sense that something is going to be revealed or has just been revealed. I guess you could literally string readers along if you wanted by cutting off a sentence midword and picking it up in the next chapter so they have to keep reading to complete the thought..but of course, that might get annoying fast.

I also end chapters on natural breaks like perspective shifts, scene changes, and so on. One other piece of advice I try to follow in this is summed up as "Never take the reader where they expect to go, or show them what they expect to see." Keep them surprised by where the story is going, or what is happening to the characters. If they expect the next chapter to be the hero going to the rescue, pull a switch and perspective shift, perhaps a developing subplot that is going to make the rescue that much harder to pull off (this can be difficult, of course, if you are writing first person stories). Then the reader not only is pulled along by the continuing chaos, but since they already want to know how the rescue gets pulled off (or not, as is often the case) they will continue for at least a few chapters until the story gets back to that thread.


That's my two shiny round metal money units.

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[Wolfie]

Thanx you guys. I'll have to read this in a bit more detail on the couch. (works for me)

I'm getting to see how a chapter should make a break in the storyline.

Thanx again!

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Every chapter ending being a cliffhanger gets annoying really quickly, with the possible exception of one Roger Zelazny novel the title of which escapes me, and fast-moving wise-cracking exciting was something Zelazny on form was about as good at as it's possible to be. From somebody who isn't that good, it can make a book read like a Road Runner cartoon, which doesn't really help with taking things seriously; if nothing else, putting people in jeopardy too often, and having them escape time and time again, kind of undercuts how credible the jeopardy actually is.

I'm usually with the theory of ending a chapter on a scene break, not for any carefully thought-out reason, but because that's what comes naturally to me.

[Wolfie]

Really? Wow, I never looked at a story this way. I'm starting to warm up to it.  before you know it, I might start writing myself. (instead of the very short stories that never seem to grow into books)

[Abstruse]

Jim has a thing about leaving chapters in cliffhangers which is great for making you want to keep reading, but is horrible for people like me who read while waiting on the bus or on lunch at work or whatever.  It's REALLY hard to put it down because there's very few good stopping places.  Take Summer Knight for example.  You think you've got a stopping point after the attack at the park, but then it goes right into the meeting with Mab.  That's too interesting to put down, so you keep reading.  Maybe after he leaves the office...but wait, next up is the Council meeting, really want to know what that's about.  And after that, a great stopping place, right?  Nope, then Elaine pops up!  Well shit, have to see where this is going.  Maybe after this...no, no, Morgan shows up...

So I miss two buses until I get to a real stopping point and remember to look up and see my bus driving up.  The moral of the story?  It's good to make your reading want to keep turning the pages, but you also need to make sure they can stop for a while if they need to.

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.