Structuring A Novel: Chapters by guest author Lynette Davis

Val Penny ♦ May 24, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

This article by Lynette Davis was first published on Writer to Writer on 22 May, 2017 at https://writertowritersite.wordpress.com/2017/05/22/structuring-a-novel-chapters/.

When you get an idea for a novel it seems easy to develop it but once you start working on it, it turns into a jungle, a mess. You might find yourself trying to figure out how simple things work or trying to find explanations for some complex scenes you want to write but aren’t sure how they really fit in.

When plotting your novel you decide on where the hits are (emotional hits, twists, etc), but to make some order in all of it, you should spend some more time developing the structure, the plot and the story-lines.

I have a word-count method I use when writing stories and novels (helps more with novels) that is only ever meant to serve me as a guideline to where I am going.

To make something out of the mess in the author’s head, there are a few tips that will surely help looking at upcoming novels in a way that is less confusing.

First thing you must do is have a length in mind (note, length is measured in words, not pages – pages vary too much). To help you get an idea of how long your novel should be, use the link above.

Now that you’ve decided on the length of your novel and have your rough outline, it’s time to divide your novel into chapters. Chapters are parts of a novel that function like gears – every chapters brings a little bit so that the whole thing can work. Chapters are never just thrown in – more often they get thrown out if the whole thing can work without them.

Have an approximate length decided for every chapter. I divide the number of words with the number of words I intend to have in each chapter (stay with me, it changes greatly afterwards) and that gives me the number of chapters. Say I want to write a fantasy novel of 100,000 words with every chapter at c. 2000 words – I get the space of 50 chapters. That’s an approximate number I work with.

Bear in mind, not every chapter is the same length – it’s not the 19th century. This calculation will dramatically change when you start describing your chapters.

Every chapter is a special story in one way or another – a chapter is either a series of scenes that go one after another in a logical way or is a perspective of a character in a scene – when the perspective changes so does the chapter.

Quick tip: keep your chapters short in a sense that you ELLE (I just used it as a verb) (enter late, leave early) – so, start your chapter with action, leave explanations for later or make them a logical conclusion from previous events, and exit on a cliffhanger.

Now that you’ve done all of that, look over your plot and describe chapters one by one. While doing this you’ll see that those 50 chapters are too much/not enough to tell the story. You’ll know how many words you’ll need to set up the events when you start describing chapters and the whole math of writing your novel is done – it will be smooth sailing from there.

Don’t hold back while describing chapters. If you get inspired, write a scene from the chapter you’re describing and if it still works when you start writing the novel, leave it in.

It all gets polished nicely after you finish your first draft. You’ll do some cutting and adding again and again until you realize your novel is done.

So don’t give up, keep working and keep writing!

Lynette Davis