Another "Am I the only one?" question

[JRTomlin]

Am I the only one who does not write in chapters?

I write my novels in one large 'thing' (probably a manuscript  ) with only scene breaks and only when I am through - or when I am sending it to a beta reader and feel obligated by custom - do I put in chapter divisions. 🤔

After quite a number of years of writing, I still cannot quite wrap my head around the idea of knowing how many chapters and what would be in them before I have written them. 

[Jeff Tanyard]

No, you're not the only one.  I do the same thing.

[JRTomlin]

Kind of good to hear. I never seem to run anyone who says they work like that. Until you that is. 

[Bill Hiatt]

I make chapter divisions as I write (occasionally changed in revision), but I never know in advance exactly how many there will be. I have the basic storyline, but it often mutates as I write, and in any case, I don't plan the exact chapter divisions in advance.

[idontknowyet]

I sorta put chapters in as I write, but they seem to be wonky. Some are 6k long and others only 2k. I might try to even them out a bit.

[notthatamanda]

I do an outline, which is a list of chapters and what the focus is on each one.  Then I write like crazy.  If I'm stuck, I go back to the outline, realize I didn't follow it at all and redo it.  It does help me remember things I thought were important but didn't remember while I was writing.  At points along the way I redo the outline, flipping through the manuscript, writing down what the chapters are, trying to filling in what's missing.  Today I was doing that and I wrote a bunch filling in the beginning of the book, so I didn't get a whole lot of outlining done, but I'm okay with that.  All work counts and progress is progress.   But whatever works for ya.

[JRTomlin]

My chapters would be totally wonky so I generally don't even try until I can go back and look at it as a whole.

[elleoco]

I write in Scrivener and used to set up chapters, but I found myself moving scenes in and out of chapters worrying about where chapter breaks should go, should a certain scene be in one chapter as opposed to the next or even one of its own, adding a scene and debating which chapter it should go it, etc., and decided it was a waste of time until pretty close to final. Now I just have a long list of scenes and wait till everything is done enough I'm ready to take it out of Scriv and organize chapters at that point. I try to keep chapters to 3,000 words or less.

[Lynn]

Nah, you're not alone. I used to write like that. Then one day I decided to just start putting in chapter breaks as I went at about 2000 words, so now I just write until I feel like I'm probably around that point, double check, then add a cliffhanger, and start a new chapter. :-) I don't even worry about if it's in the middle of a scene as long as I can come up with a decent cliffhangerish chapter ending.

[LilyBLily]

I write the whole thing as one scene after another and then I go back and play with chapter breaks. When someone has already got the Kindle open, I don't think it really matters if the chapter ends on a hook to the next chapter, but I often do break when something dramatic occurs, anyway.

A couple of my beta readers seem to think all the chapters should be the same length. I don't know where they get that idea. Lisa Scotoline has done very effective one-page chapters, and a short, punchy chapter IMO heightens drama.

There is no right way or wrong way, just my way and your way, whoever you are.

[Kyra Halland]

I write in scenes, then put in the chapters during the final rounds of editing.

[Lynn]

I write the whole thing as one scene after another and then I go back and play with chapter breaks. When someone has already got the Kindle open, I don't think it really matters if the chapter ends on a hook to the next chapter, but I often do break when something dramatic occurs, anyway.

On a related note, I never seem to put down a book at the end of the chapter anyway. It's always somewhere in the middle of it. I've learned that if I keep going and hit a cliffhanger, I'll read much longer than I planned to.

I admit, I abandon books a lot, and probably because I always pick the dullest spot I can find to stop, but if I don't, I'd finish a lot of books that I don't find all that interesting, so it's a win-win situation for me. ;-)

[Maggie Ann]

I write in scenes, then put in the chapters during the final rounds of editing.

+1

I'd say when I do that, my chapters end up about ten pages long, give or take.

[TimothyEllis]

with only scene breaks

For me, a scene break is a chapter break. I do them as I go.

[Kristen.s.walker]

I used to do chapters as I went and also found that I switched them around too much. So now I write scenes and figure out what the chapters are when I'm finished.

[VanessaC]

I write in Scrivener, and do put in chapter folders as I go, but I also move scenes in and out as needed. I get impatient with adding chapters in later, so it's best for me to add them as I go! My chapters tend to end up being quite uneven in length, depending on what's happening in the book, and can either be one scene or several - so if I have a chapter full of action, this will quite often be followed by a much shorter chapter.

But we all get to do our own thing - there are no rules, right?!

[Denise]

Good discussion.

I write in scenes, and when I plan I plan in scenes.

I write scene after scene. When I see that I wrote about 10 pages, I put a chapter break between scenes. I try to pick a strong moment, but the end of scenes usually work. Bt it's not that I'm organizing my ms in chapters, rather that I'm putting them like one puts commercial breaks.

I give a temporary title to the chapter that relates to what happens. I do this because I write on Google Docs using the outline function, and that way it's easier for me to navigate to different parts of the MS. At the end I choose better titles for the chapters.

So in a way I think I do the same, write, write, write without considering chapters with the difference that I insert breaks. I know some people choose one pov per chapter, and I wouldn't be able to do that, especially because my scenes are usually too short for a chapter.

Nah, you're not alone. I used to write like that. Then one day I decided to just start putting in chapter breaks as I went at about 2000 words, so now I just write until I feel like I'm probably around that point, double check, then add a cliffhanger, and start a new chapter. :-) I don't even worry about if it's in the middle of a scene as long as I can come up with a decent cliffhangerish chapter ending.

Yeah, that's pretty much my method. I usually do it between scenes, but I can chop a scene if it's long or if it can end the chapter with a bang. I also used to write without breaks until once I went nuts revising a MS and decided to add chapters for ease of navigation.

[JRTomlin]

There are some fascinating variations on how people work.

[cecilia_writer]

My chapters usually only have one POV so I write for as long as I can stand being in one person's head and then start a new chapter and switch to someone else.

[A. N. Onymous]

I do not plan anything in advance, though I do try to break my elephant into bite-size chunks. I try to keep my chapters to around ten pages. That way, writing 100k does not seem so daunting. For my latest book, my first attempt at a series, I did something very unusual for me. I began writing the first book of the planned nine-book series when I reached about 100 pages in and stopped. I didn't like how I had started it, telling the story from the beginning, essentially. So, I began again from a future timeline. I then worked back and forth between the two manuscripts, editing in whole chapters from the first attempt. I am not a big fan of stories that chop and change between timelines, so I am not sure how it will be received. It read better than the first one, so I am happy with the progress. Thinking of writing eight more? UGH!

[Bill Hiatt]

I write in Scrivener, and do put in chapter folders as I go, but I also move scenes in and out as needed. I get impatient with adding chapters in later, so it's best for me to add them as I go! My chapters tend to end up being quite uneven in length, depending on what's happening in the book, and can either be one scene or several - so if I have a chapter full of action, this will quite often be followed by a much shorter chapter.

But we all get to do our own thing - there are no rules, right?!

It's hard to have rules that work all the time for a creative process.

In novels where chapter breaks are dictated to some extent by POV changes, I can have really short chapters occasionally. As someone else suggested, I always try to end at a suspenseful point. Readers recognize that pattern from TV (right before the commercial break). It's not that I think literature should be modeled on TV, but when it does no harm, I sometimes use the TV conventions as a guide. Isn't that why we generally have a hook right at the beginning, analogous to the hook in a TV episode before the first commercial. (Gone are the days when a novelist could spend a chapter or two with a leisurely introduction of characters and only then get into the major action.)

A chapter is as long as it needs to be. That said, I used to write longer chapters when I first started out. I wouldn't treat 10 pages as a hard and fast limit, but like Denise, I tend to try not to exceed ten pages unless absolutely necessary to avoid a break that makes no sense.

I'm not by nature much of an outliner. When I used to write that way, what I ended up producing resembled the outline so little that I ended up dropping the practice. Sometimes, I need to revise to address continuity problems (and the chapter breaks may shift when I do), but I like to let a story develop organically. What I end up with is often not what I think I'm going to have in the beginning.

[Kyra Halland]

I can chop a scene if it's long or if it can end the chapter with a bang. I also used to write without breaks until once I went nuts revising a MS and decided to add chapters for ease of navigation.

I will also end a chapter in the middle of a scene if the scene is too long for one chapter or if it's a good place to end the chapter.