Zette's Take: Chapters

From For Blog

Remember the reader
There is one big reason to keep chapters in mind: the reader. Most people don't have the time or inclination to sit down and read an entire book in one sitting. They look for the best place to take a break. This is a problem for writers because while you want to give them such a spot, you don't want to make it too easy by giving them a dull section in the story.

So it's a thin line between 'here is a place to stop' and yet keeping the 'OMG what happens now! feeling.' You don't want readers to stop just anywhere because they will choose what they feel is a low ebb in the story. If you give them convenient breaks, but at the height of story action, they are more likely to pick the book back up. And that means they'll pick up your next book as well.

I've had more than one person point out that Terry Pratchett doesn't use chapters, but this isn't true. Pratchett, being a true wizard at his art, has only hidden them from immediate view. If you have any of his books, go pick one up. Flip through a few pages. You will notice that every now and then there are extra lines between paragraphs marking the changes.

But those are scene changes, you say. Well, so are most chapter breaks. So whether you do the breaks in a traditional, new page/chapter number style or not, you should still be aware of them. In my opinion, anything longer than about 100 pages needs these break points for readers.

But how to do them wisely? Some people think that a good way is to break out each day into a chapter, but this is usually the most dull, worst way you can do it. It would mean starting with someone waking up and ending with them going to sleep. How dull is that? It doesn't matter how exciting the rest was if you always leave them sleeping. This doesn't mean you can't ever stop with your character falling face-first onto a bed, asleep before he hits the pillow or staring at the ceiling trying desperately to sleep.

Use such things wisely.

Scenes

Scenes are a convenient first step in finding break points, but in order to do so, you have to understand the function of a scene. They are combinations of time, place, characters and events. The last is really the most important aspect.

Something happens in a scene. It can follow a character through several places (say someone running away from danger) as long as the focus is on the event. It can be a single location where a character meets with several others in succession. In rare occasions, a single location may see several characters pass through without someone to link them all, but this is dependent on the narration of the novel. If you have a first or third person narration, for instance, someone has to be there to witness the events, which means, of course, that you have that single focus after all.

Pacing and Building Tension

Chapters are the best way to work with pacing. You have to spread out the events that happen within your story in a logical progression from bad to worse. One level leads to another, building the tension. The trick is to make these things build slowly throughout the novel.

Pacing is the easier part. You know you want to go from point a to point z in the story. Even if you don't outline, you can still see that there will be a set number of problems along the way and that some will be worse than others, but the absolute worst problem has to be faced at the end of the story.

I outline. This might not appeal to you, but remember that outlines take a lot of different forms. Sometimes I write complex, scene-by-scene outlines complete with snippets of conversation. Other times I write a line or two per chapter just so I know where I want to go with a scene. Some people can keep track of things without a problem and keep the entire novel in their head, leaping from spot to spot, going back, filling in . . . I am not one of them.

Think of your chapters as little stories. Not complete tales, like a novel, but rather little pieces of a life. These should be exciting moments in which something important happens and we can follow it through to some logical stopping place, even if the event carries on to other chapters. What happens will go on an affect other parts of the story, but right now, you want to focus on that event and make it work the way you want it to. Focus on this little piece. You can hide clues to surprises here. You can play down or play up a situation to hide the importance of something else going on.

Once again, the word here is focus. By creating thinking in terms of chapters, you are training yourself to focus on each obvious step rather than on the whole. Knowing the general plan of the story from start to finish is important, but also remember how each step has to carry its own weight. You cannot gloss over any section of the story. If you find yourself doing so, then ask if you really need it at all. Ask it of all scenes and every chapter.

Also ask if the transition from one chapter to the next is logical. Sometimes those transitions are not adjacent in the case where you are following more than one storyline. Other times, when moving and deleting material, the logical links get lost. Look at the previous chapter to this storyline and make certain your story hasn't taken the kind of leap which needs at least a line of explanation. Even something as simple as 'Four days later, Tom sat in a café musing over his good fortune' is enough to get the reader settled into the time and place.

If you have trouble reaching the end of the story, or if the story wanders all over the place with no coherent plan, you need to take control. You don't have to write a full-fledged outline. And get over the 'it ruins the story for me' fantasy that says you don't have to work any harder than you already do. That's an attitude, guys. It's in your mind and you have control over it. I'm not saying it will be easy, but if you want to write stories that work, and you are having trouble getting there now, then you must start trying new things. Or stay stuck where you are. Or give up. Those are the choices.

There are two ways to work with pacing and create tension in a book. One way is the start at a low ebb and head straight up to the highest point of conflict. This is an easy way to plot. It means no side trips and one thing leads directly to another, getting more and more troublesome throughout the story.

The second way is the rollercoaster ride. This has little hills and valleys -- the hills are high points of conflict while the valleys are little dips and 'relative' calm spots in the story. Nothing, of course, is every truly calm and peaceful, though. The 'calm' points are excellent places to build inner conflict and build up the tension of 'what next' by hinting at outside problems, or bring news of them in ways that do not immediately affect the characters. After all, your antagonist is likely doing other things, right?

Interweave story lines

Which brings up another reason why chapters can be important: If you have two or more storylines going, interweaving them through chapters is important to help the reader track what's going on. Several storylines means focus on multiple POVs. Some people change POVs in the middle of a scene or in the middle of a chapter. I find this annoying as a reader (though many do not), so I structure my work to have POVs in different chapters.

This helps in a couple ways. First, I can easily see if my main POV is holding up his end of the story. If someone else is hogging page time, I have to decide why this happened. Is the other person more interesting? Or is my main POV just not taking on enough of the load? Do they need to be equal? If so, are both storylines equally important to the resolution of the final conflict?

Chapters for individual POV/storylines also allows me to make certain the two (or more) stories are not diverging too far from each other and they're all headed towards the same spot -- though that might not be a physical spot, but rather the same moment of closure with the same level of impact.

Focus on specifics

Chapters also allow you to focus on specifics. Sometimes it's good to narrow down the view of your story to a place and/or event which needs special care for the sake of the story. Well, of course it's for the sake of the story, right?

Sometimes the writer becomes so enamored of part of the creation that he loses track of the bigger picture. In an odd way, chapters can help pinpoint those problem spots because they bring them into focus easier. It isn't just a scene lost in the plethora of other scenes: this is an individual piece that is there, standing on its own. Look at it. Turn it over. Examine it from a different angle. And always ask yourself what this does for the story. Why should the reader care?

The reader has an entirely different perspective from the writer. We are in love with our worlds, characters and plots and if you aren't, find out why and fix it. You must be drawn to write what you do, and you may not love a dark tale of horror, you must still love the ability to tell it well.

As writers, we see special things in odd places and want to throw light on that little corner of our wonderful creations. Sometimes it works. Other times, it distracts from the story. You have to learn which is which. One way to tell is nothing that we are giving a lot of attention to something that has little or no impact on the story.

Whatever you do, remember to keep up the story tension. No matter how you write your scenes, you must give the reader a good reason to wonder what happens next. No, more than that, you have to keep them wondering what exciting or interesting thing is going to happen next. Where is this all going to lead?

If they have to set your book down, make certain they want to pick it back up again.

Zette's Take: Why this series

From For Blog

Little things can help

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be putting up posts tagged as 'Zette's Take' which are going to be writing-related. I have 18 of them planned out so far, and I will likely add more as I go along. I hope you enjoy them.

Originally, I was going to do these in a new blog, but I feared there might be long stretches between posts of this nature. Besides, this blog also covers my actual writing (and sometimes real life). Discussing how I work and what I am working on plainly goes hand-in-hand.

Writers on the Internet are constantly inundated with material about how to write. Blogs, twitter feeds, Face Book and websites are shoved at us at every turn. Do this, do that, stay away from here . . .

It's all personal opinion. That's the first thing you have to realize when you read any sort of blog, etc. That includes this one. This is my opinion on how to work and what might -- and I stress might -- help you with your work. You are not me. And even though I can see how other authors work (or don't work) sometimes, that doesn't mean I can also see all the answers. Writing is a personal journey. You should do all in your power to make it easy and fun.

Yes, fun. Writing is hard work, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it, too. Of course, if you are of the opinion that nothing is worthwhile unless you suffer for it, then plainly the way I write and what I offer is not going to work for you. I, however, think that angst is better in the story (in moderation) than in real life. If you are going to hate your work, you might as well be working at something that deserves the hate, and actually making better money than you are likely to get in this profession.

There is enough in life to be annoyed and worked up over without making writing miserable as well. And yes, that really is my opinion.

People ask how I work

People see that I write over a million words a year (yes, really, for several years now) and ask me how I do it. Most assume it comes from having more free time than they do. That's partially true, but sometimes only in the sense that I make more free time. My other interests are limited. I don't watch any regular TV and only occasionally watch stuff on DVD. I do read quite a bit, of course.
I have a couple steady freelance jobs, plus running FM and publishing Vision every few months. This puts more of a limit on my writing than some people realize. Just the same, I do have time and I don't waste it.

How to 'not waste it' is part of what this series is about. The bits and pieces I will drop in here help me focus and move ahead with projects. Sometimes I'll talk about research, sometimes about attitude and now and then even about writing itself.

When I sit down to write, that's what I do. I don't pretend to write, I don't play games with online stuff, and I don't let myself get sidetracked by bright shiny new stuff. I write. I finish what I start. Just writing a million words doesn't mean anything, you know. It's the fact that I finish projects that really counts.

More than a decade working with writers

I've spent more than a decade at Forward Motion and Vision, and during that time I've talked to and worked with hundreds (probably well more than a thousand) writers on a personal level, besides seeing what questions people post on the site or discuss in chat.

This gives me a little more of an understanding of some of the things that seem to trouble writers. Openings, for instance, which are obvious. Middles. Character creation. Goals.

The biggest problem I see? Actually sitting down and writing.

But again, you have to remember these will be my 'takes' on how to do things and what I do will not work for you. Not only that, even the pieces you find which do help you will not work with every book.

Everything you see helps build your own path

Everything you learn, whether you see a use for it or not, helps you become a better writer. Does that sound odd? If you find something which doesn't work for you, you are still defining what does work. Never dismiss anything out of hand, though. File the idea away in your writer-brain and let it simmer there and see if something doesn't pop up from it, or if it doesn't come in handy at some odd point in the future.

This is going to be an eclectic set of posts. They will not be posted at any regular date and time because I am going to fit them in around a lot of other work. I have several subjects in mind already, from chapters to sticking to goals. I'll sometimes wander off course. Occasionally, I might even make some sort of sense to you.

The trick to learning anything is to be willing to learn. You must be willing to look beyond what you do now, whether what you do seems to work for you or not. Why would you do such a thing? Because if you don't open yourself up to change, chances are you are going to start writing exactly the same type of story over and over again.

Be adaptable. Be open to change and learning things. You'll write better for it. I hope you find things in the posts to help you along the way.

And feel free to comment!

Sample Sunday: New story

This story hit me a couple days ago. I am in the midst of final rewrite/edit of something else, but I decided to get the opening out of my head anyway. This is VERY rough and will likely be cut back later, when I have time to work more seriously on it:


My mother, unfortunately, has a healthy dose of whimsy; far more, in fact, than a grown woman should possess. She spends most of her days making cutesy little fantasy figures out of clay and carefully painting them with minute details. (I was in my teens when I finally figured out the sale of those little things were what mostly supported the family. I took more interest in them.) My father was only interested in his four sons and spent far less time at home than he should have. He and the older three boys were off on some camping trip the day I was born.

But someone should have stopped my mother and her sense of whimsy before she named me. I would have been far happier.

I was born on Easter. My mother, not being particularly religious, still decided she must somehow acknowledge such an event. So yes, she named me Bunny. And you know, if her last name had not been Hopper, I probably could have lived with the choice.

So, go for my middle name, right? Well, she had named my older sister after one of my grandmothers: Mary May Hopper, which is bad enough. But mom had already intended to name me after her other grandmother.

Haqikah.

No, I didn't just cough. My grandmother was Egyptain. The name means honest.

Bunny Hack-cough Hopper.

From the age of eight until I was fifteen, I almost daily begged them to allow me to change my name. My mother would smile and shake her head and go back to painting unicorns. My father would wave me away and tell me to speak to my mother . . . as he headed out the door with the Tom, David, Mike and later Brad, who was born the year after me.

My life in school was hell, of course. You can't be a teen with a name like Bunny Hopper and not expect to pay for it. Then, just after my fifteenth birthday, I joined a Tai Chi Chuan class and took up meditation. I finally learned to embrace my Inner Bunny.

Turns out he's really vicious.


Beware the Wrath of Bunny Hopper

About the flooding

From For Blog

The Missouri River, August 2008

When Russ typed on Skype that he was going to call me last night, I knew something was wrong. He had already said he was heading for bed. That meant he had just gotten news about something. I started going through lists of things to be worried about, including the bills we had just been discussing.

The news was not what I expected. It turns out the town I am living in is about to get hit by a major flood because the dams up north have to release water. This is a predicted flood, and while the city is scrambling to do what they can to minimize the problem, I am still in the 'up to 2 feet' range last time I looked. Some areas of town are in the 'up to 8 feet' range, so I'm really lucky. It turns out that I'm actually on the highest point of the city, which really isn't saying much since this is river plain between two bluffs. Great farming land, of course, but you have to watch that river. I've been here well over 30 years and this is the first time we've had to worry about river flooding, though. There's been street flooding from heavy rains, and flooding by the river, but not this far in. I'm about ten blocks from the river

What I am not so lucky about is that Russ is in New York, I am in Nebraska, and I not only don't drive, I don't have a car anyway. (Yes there is one in the driveway. It hasn't moved for three years now. The only way it will move for this flood is if the waters get too high.)

This kind of limits what I can do at the moment. If things start looking bad, the best is to move important things from house 1 where I live to house 2 next door, which used to be Russ's office. House 2 has some advantages for a flood. Though it is smaller, it's higher off the ground. It has a basement, which would take some of the water while house 1 is most likely to be pushed off the foundation. House 2 has an attic room where I can put the most important things and hope for the best. It has some bad things, like the water pipes froze and broke the first winter Russ was gone and we haven't had the money to repair them, so the water is turned off. Well, if the flood is so bad I must go there, the water system will be compromised anyway, so that's nothing to worry about.

To be honest, it is doubtful I'll get anything more than maybe curb high here, but we needed to do a discussion of 'just in case' because if more storms make this worse, I need to be ready. It has been distracting, but I can't let the problem drive me crazy for too long. This is going to be an ongoing situation. The waters will rise for the next two weeks at least. They say the flooding will remain until September.

The people at the city have said that city services (water plant, power plant) should be fine. I will be gathering water anyway. I have some old soda bottles that I'm washing out and can fill. I'll store them over at house 2.

Oh, the comic books. I need to put them on the list. Certain books, a few odds and ends, but I am counting on this being a no-event on my end. It's already an event elsewhere -- the Missouri river is already flooding areas before they do the more massive water release. I just learned that one of my two favorite wild life refuges -- De Soto -- is closed. I'm betting the other one will be too. This is especially true because Russ plans to come home in about two weeks, and that would be where we would normally take our day trip. Since his trip coincides with the height of the water release, I'm betting we'll be around home for the three or so days he'll be here.

Right now all I have to deal with is excessive heat (91f/33c) and no air conditioning. So far the humidity isn't excessive so it's not as bad as it can be. I have a nice fan in my office. The trick is keeping the cats off the desk so I can work.

Which is what I need to get back to doing now.

Good, old-fashioned adventure?

Before you think this is a rant about the current state of books, let me assure you it is not. There are thousands of great books out there drawing all kinds of readers and pleasing them. They are doing exactly what they should be doing. I have nothing against sex in books, either, so don't think that's the problem. And, as someone pointed out not long ago, romance is not just about sex, though even I had started to think of it in those terms, based on a lot of books. That was blind on my part.

This is about is writing for other readers

Kat Among the Pigeons is a good, old-fashioned adventure. It's an Urban Fantasy. It does have a romance but there is no sex. It has talking cats and talking birds and a female lead who doesn't think she can handle trouble until she has to stand up on her own and do it.

Kat Among the Pigeons is not the best book ever written. It is, however, a nice adventure filled with amusing encounters and lots of excitement.

I've been telling people to write for themselves first for years. If you cannot please yourself with the book you're writing, you can't ever hope to please others. I have always written the types of stories that I want to read, and yes -- that did take me outside the mainstream of book publishing long before Indie Publication started to take their own paths.

The problem, I think, is trying to define the market I'm aiming at. I don't want to say things like, 'if you are looking for a sexy, edgy novel, this is not it' of course. Old-fashioned is right out. Yeah, my original source of inspiration for writing anything at all was Andre Norton, but that doesn't mean this is what I'm writing now.

The Silky books fit well into the young adult fantasy realm. Kat fits it in 'feel' but not in age, though I don't think it's so far off to miss the YA crowd entirely.

The next book I have coming out is a science fiction adventure, and the story is closer to C.J. Cherryh's type of tale than I ever thought I would be able to write. That does not mean it equals her fantastic ability to create such stories, but only that I can firmly see the lines of inspiration, though I didn't realize it until I had finished the first draft.

So I can clearly see where my writing comes from -- Norton, Cherryh and even writers like Rex Stout. You'll note the lack of Anis Nin and Laurell K. Hamilton, though I have read both. I was not inspired to write the sort of tales they did. The same with many other writers whom I read.

This really comes down to learning more about how to market what I write. I know this and I'm willing to learn. I know this is a slow, difficult process, and I'm willing to take the time to figure things out.

In the meantime, I have six out of seven excellent reviews of Kat Among the Pigeons, which brings us back to the 'you cannot please everyone' problem. Some people are not your market, even when you think they might be.

So reaching those people who are looking for the same sort of books you want to read -- and are therefore writing -- is the hardest part of this whole business. I'll be at it for a long time.

And before I forget again -- here is a link to a previous post.  In it you will find codes for all my novels at Smashwords to buy them at $0.99 until June 5th!

http://zette.blogspot.com/2011/05/memorial-day-sale.html