The following was given to me by Darienne Oaks. It was written by
Lesley Payne and contains wonderful advice for writers:
Chapters have
beginnings, middles, and ends. The kicker is that it is good to end a chapter
at a point of tension, with a hook, that pulls the reader forward. The
beginning of the next chapter may be the resolution of something left hanging
at the end of the last, proceeds through to near resolution, or to resolution
with a new question raised, leaving again, a trigger that pushes the reader
forward.
If you tie
everything together at the end of a chapter, it leaves the reader a very handy
excuse to set the book aside for a while, or forever. Compelling writing keeps
the reader going. It makes a book the reader "can't put down." It makes
for success. Try ending a chapter mid-scene, at a moment of crisis, with a
question. However you do it, hook the reader to keep on reading.
This is, of course,
most important in genres that rely the most heavily on suspense and tension,
books that readers read to be held at the edge of their chairs–thrillers,
action adventure, suspense. But even in romances, if you end a chapter with a
strong feeling or image, a hope, a fear, a question, you can create the forward
tug. Not every chapter has to end with a life-threatening cliff hanger, but
strive for some sort of cliff hanger in the reader's mind–curiosity, hope,
anticipation, fear.
While the specific
ingredients–the pacing, the depth, the degree of emphasis on
"suspense"–vary from genre to genre, the writer always aims to keep
the reader hooked and reading. Look at books that have been successful in your
genre and see how the chapter are structured, how hooks, or imminent danger, or
just unanswered questions in the reader's mind, pull the reader onward. Ask
yourself why you keep turning the pages. Or, if the book fails for you, why is
it easy to stop turning, to set the book aside. Look to other successful writers
for you cues here.
Create a question
in the reader's mind. Don't volunteer information the reader is not curious
about. Don't leave the reader feeling everything is resolved or concluded at
chapter's end. Maintain tension and narrative drive. Allow the reader to
participate by exercising her or his curiosity, analysis, feelings of anxiety,
concern, terror, or poignancy.
Keep on writing...
Rod
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