The End of a Chapter by Shana Galen

The End of a Chapter

Have you ever read a book by Julie Garwood? She’s one of my favorite authors, and I’ve often re-read her books to study what she does well and why I enjoy her writing so much. One thing Julie Garwood excels at is chapter breaks. Read one of her books and notice every chapter ends on a cliffhanger that makes the reader want to turn the page and start the next chapter.

For budding writers, getting advice like, end chapters on a cliffhanger is great—until you actually try to do it.

It’s hard. Really hard.

Ending a chapter on a cliffhanger means that something exciting has to be happening at the end and beginning of every chapter. A lot of authors write with a sort of scene-sequel format, meaning there’s a scene where something happens, like a kiss, then a sequel where the character (maybe the non-POV character) reflects on the kiss. Ending every chapter with a cliffhanger doesn’t mean the scene-sequel format won’t work, it just means I has to be carefully managed.

I’m not going to claim I end every chapter on a cliffhanger. I certainly always try to do so and always have it in mind. The book where I feel like I most succeeded in that area is Blackthorne’s Bride, but in others I’ve been less consistent. However, after 30 books and almost two decades of writing, here are a few guidelines I use for chapter breaks.

1. If at all possible, end on a cliffhanger. The number one job of the chapter break is to get the reader to turn the page and keep reading.

2. Keep chapters under 15 manuscript pages and over 9 manuscript pages. Readers don’t have the attention span they did twenty years ago, when I often wrote 20-page chapters. I don’t have research on this, but I feel like books with shorter chapters are read faster because the reader thinks, just one more chapter. It’s short. Often I find the perfect chapter ending, but it’s only 8 pages into a chapter. I might have to write another ten until I get to another good break. I’d rather end the chapter at 8 pages than drag it out another ten and risk the reader closing the book.

3. Vary chapter lengths. It’s great if the first chapter is 10 pages, then you have a 12-page chapter, then 9, then 14, and so on. Variety keeps readers interested.

4. If you’re writing a story in third person with multiple points of view, try to start a new chapter with a new POV character. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but I think it’s good to follow as much as possible. It goes back to variety.

5. Finally, trust your feeling. Like a lot of things about writing, sometimes it just feels right to break. Go with it.

Do you ever notice chapter breaks? If you’re a writer, do you struggle with them?

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