How do you know where to end a chapter?
Let’s go over some tips for chapter breaks, look at some examples, then create a story together and divide it into chapters!
During the last stream, a subscriber requested that we go over how to do chapter breaks..
You can watch the full video here to or scroll down for notes/highlights.
How to do Chapter Breaks
- Chapters are great: they’re a place for the reader to take a break, and they allow for some good literary techniques as well (that we’ll go over)
- Some books have no chapter breaks or tons of chapter breaks, but the majority have somewhere around 15-30 chapters
- But how do you know where to divide up your chapters? Let’s go over some ways!
Each Chapter as a Plot-Step
- Each chapter should be one “step” on the “staircase” of the plot, always going up until the climax
- Each chapter should have an important conflict in it that happens and leads into the plot of the next chapter
- Ideally a one-sentence summary of each chapter should end with “and because of that…”
Example 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- Harry is left as a baby at the Dursleys and because of that… (17 pgs)
- He grows up there and magically sets a snake free at the zoo one day and because of that… (13 pgs)
- He gets mysterious letters in the mail that the Dursleys hide and because of that… (15 pgs)
- Hagrid barges in and tells him he’s a wizard and because of that… (15 pgs)
- They go to Diagon Alley to get school supplies and because of that… (17 pgs)
- He goes to the Hogwarts Express and arrives at school and because of that… (25 pgs)
- He’s sorted into Gryffindor and because of that… (18 pgs)
- He becomes enemies with Snape the head of Slytherin and Draco and because of that… (12 pgs)
- Harry/Ron agree to a midnight duel with Draco and accidentally find Fluffy and because of that… (20 pgs)
Reason to End a Chapter: LENGTH
- The number of scenes per chapter is not important: chapter 1 has three scenes, and chapter 2 has a whopping nine scenes!
- However, the length of the chapter is important, you want them to be within a few pages of each other to not frustrate the reader
- For example, chapter 6 simply ends with: “Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.” Chapters 6 and 7 could’ve been one chapter, but it would’ve been too long.
Reason to End a Chapter: PASSAGE OF TIME
- If several days/months/years pass between one plot-step and the next, it’s usually good to divide them into different chapters,
- For example:
- 10 years pass between chapters 1 and 2
- Months pass between chapters 2 and 3 (zoo and letters)
- A month passes between chapters 5 and 6 (Diagon Alley and Hogwarts Express)
Example 2: The Hunger Games
- Katniss goes hunting with Gale then her sister is chosen at the Reaping and because of that… (18 pgs)
- She volunteers for her sister and is taken away and because of that… (13 pgs)
- She leaves on the train and her mentor Haymich drunkenly vomits and because of that… (14 pgs)
- Katniss/Peeta force Haymich to be sober and they arrive at the Capitol and because of that… (13 pgs)
- She is prepped for the Games with Peeta and they are on fire and she kisses Peeta. (12 pgs)
Reason to End a Chapter: CLIFFHANGER
- Ending a chapter with a cliffhanger is the best way to emphasize a twist.
- Imagine how less impactful Katniss’s sister being chosen would’ve been if it happened mid-chapter, or how less relevant the kiss would’ve felt if it happened mid-chapter.
- The best stories make use of the three different types of cliffhangers: waterfalls, dams, and rivers
Waterfalls vs. Dams. Vs. Rivers
- Waterfall cliffhangers are BOTH exciting and they flow
- Katniss’s sister being chosen is a waterfall
- It’s an exciting twist and it flows into the next chapter
- Dam cliffhangers are exciting but they DON’T flow
- The end of chapter 5 with the kiss is a dam
- It’s exciting but it doesn’t have much to do with the training focus in the next chapter
- River cliffhangers flow but they’re NOT exciting
- The end of chapter 3 with Haymitch vomiting is a river
- It flows into the next chapter about sobering up but it’s not super exciting
- Just because it’s not “exciting” that doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means it’s not “shocking”
– You want to have a lot of river cliffhangers in your story, a few waterfalls, and at most one dam
– Rivers keep the story focused but need to be spiced up
– Waterfalls are exciting, but too many is boring/tiring
– Dams are exciting, but too many feels unfocused
In Summary!
- Each chapter should be a plot-step on the way to your climax
- They should all be within a few pages of each other
- The most common ways of dividing them up are due to passage of time and cliffhangers
- Making a chapter-by-chapter outline for your story before you can is a great way to make sure your story will hit all the right beats
- You don’t have to divide up your story into chapters in the first draft, but a well-written story will naturally settle into chapter divisions eventually
After that, chat voted that we make a chapter-by-chapter outline for this randomly-generated story plot:
The hero is a prince from State College who has a particular set of skills. The nemesis is a prince who is intent on wreaking havoc. The hero goes on a long quest and ends up bringing down the nemesis.
Here’s what we came up with:
- Tevin is a prince in title only, his family doesn’t have any money. His father gambled it all away, so he’s trying to earn back his family’s title by going to cheap state college, and because of that…
- He goes to state college to major in computer science and get a well-paying job, but he also does acting and improv on the side, and because of that…
- During acting he meets Archer who constantly shows up Tevin in everything and is better than him at acting, and because of that…
- Tevin tries to focus on computer science and he meets a girl he likes named Penny, but then she finds out about Archer and she dumps Tevin for him instead, and because of that…
- Tevin snaps and he decides to get revenge on Archer by triggering the fire alarm during a performance while Tevin is on stage (so he has an alibi) and Archer is backstage (so he’s a suspect) by using his drone, but the drone dies after it hits the alarm and both of them get expelled from college, and because of that…
- Penny tells Tevin/Archer that there’s the legendary USB stick that no one except the true heir to the throne can remove, and Tevin and Archer begrudgingly team up to go find it, it supposedly has millions of dollars of crypto currency on it, and because of that…
- They sneak into the museum where the USB is held, but Tevin can’t remove it… Archer can, and they steal it during the night, and because of that…
- They plug it into the computer, but the info is encrypted, and Tevin uses his computer science powers to get though it, but there is no cryptocurrency, just a map of the royal lineage… with Tevin having a brother crossed off! And because of that…
- They go to Tevin’s parents who explain that Tevin’s dad was the younger brother in the royal line, and he had a bitter relationship with his older brother about inheritances, but then his older brother was killed by the rival dynasty and his father regretted being so mean, he and his mother decided to just separate the twins rather than have them go through the same miserable experience, and because of that…
- They bring the info back to Penny and then she subdues both of them, telling them that she is the heir to the rival dynasty but she needed to track down the true prince and now she can end their dynasty here, and because of that…
- Tevin uses his electronic key to summon the wi-fi enabled drones filming Penny caught red handed and she is arrested, and because of that…
- The princes confess to each other that they didn’t even like Penny, they were just going after her to make the other one mad, and they’re both actually gay
Be sure to check out the video for more discussion and examples!
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Featured image: Pakutaso