How I Develop Chapters

Chapter development is an excruciating process when it comes to writing. Not really but it sounded like a good thing to say. This is kind of my process on chapter development.

The Beginning, it’s where I have to start.

The beginning is where I set which characters are going to be in the particular chapter, obviously. Like I’m telling you something that’s life changing as an author. I also create a scenario for them to start in, wow, another mind blowing revelation.

At this point in time it’s all about setting the rest of the opening scene. Am I starting off of a cliff hanger and need to finish that off first? Do I need to create a point with this chapter? There are a lot of questions that I need to answer before I can really write.

Once these are answered I can move on to the middle, but I don’t go to the middle right away.

The ending in the middle, kind of.

I don’t really start writing until I figure out the beginning and the end. The ending is important because you either create a cliff hanger or come to a conclusion. Creating the ending is a lot of fun for me, especially with a cliff hanger.

Before writing this post, I just finished writing this cliff hanger in my second novel that will probably upset some readers but it was so worth it. The entire time I was almost giggling with excitement. I really want to be there when someone reads it so I can see their reaction. It will be marvelous.

That’s why it’s so important for the ending. You want the readers invested so they continue on with the book. Cliff hangers and plot twists really keeps that going. Dropping a plot twist in the middle and finishing it at the end, where’s the fun in that?

The middle, where the guts are.

I never really plan out the middle. It usually just happens. Once I have the beginning and the ending I just let it flow, but how? Getting out of the beginning can be tricky at times. I found the best way to get out of the beginning is using dialogue.

Dialogue helps drive the chapter with conversation, whaaaa? Right, *explosion* mind blown. I wrote a chapter in Books of Azric: The Beginning with minimal dialogue and it was tough as hell. It was so hard to keep it going. In the end it was a great chapter. I got so many compliments with that chapter. I don’t think I’ll write another like that any time soon, mainly because it’s a singular character not interacting with anyone.

Anyway, dialogue helps generate movement and sometimes it changes the ending when my characters take over. I try and mold it one way but that doesn’t happen all the time. Letting it flow more naturally creates a realistic feeling to the chapter.

The finished chapter doesn’t turn out the way I think it will.

When the chapter is over I always look at it like, wait, that’s not what I intended but that’s how it turned out. It gets me excited when I write something that surprises me. Adding new characters to the story is pretty awesome as well. I never know when someone new will show up and when they do it adds to the story, giving it depth.

My chapters always start the way I want them to, but they don’t always end the way they’re supposed to. That’s what writing is all about, letting it flow. The good endings stay the way they are, usually or get twisted to another form of ending but still delivering what I desired, more or less. The way I look at it, if you control every aspect, it never turns out right, but that’s just my opinion.