Home » Write a book » Organize your book into chapters
Writing a book is a fun challenge. Start simple … Start at the beginning.
Ask yourself two questions:
- What do I want to tell?
- When are plots addressed in the book?
For this, you can use chapters. Each chapter contributes to the overall story. You can write chapter by chapter chronologically or work on several chapters at once and mix them afterwards.
What is a chapter?
Chapters also give the reader some rest. In a next chapter, they can read with a fresh view. Chapters can also be used to switch between characters, eras, … Thus, the book remains interesting.
Here is a list of questions you can ask yourself for your book:
1. Should I give my chapters a title, a date, a number or a combination?
A title may mislead or arouse the reader’s curiosity. A date gives them clarity. In contrast, a number will reveal nothing. Choose what fits your book best.
2. How long do I make my chapters?
There are no fixed rules. Your chapters can be equally long. Or you can write until you have told everything. As a result, you get a mix of long and short pieces. No one will stop you to write a chapter or just a single page. Sometimes it just fits better … Everything is possible and anything goes.
3. When is a chapter finished?
Here again you have several options:
- Each chapter is narrated by a character and ends when another character is speaking.
- It ends with an exciting event (cliffhanger).
- It ends when a solution is found.
- The chapter ends with a reference to another time period.
The possibilities are endless. What fits your story best?
4. What now?
Do you feel overwhelmed by all this (often vague) information? As you can see, there are no real rules. How do you gain experience? And how do you become a better writer? By reading books! This will help you understand why an author made a particular choice. How he deals with structuring and ending a chapter. Also read books from other genres than yours. You will learn a lot from this, and you will benefit from it in the future.
And now we move on to the next step: Work out a schedule for your book