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Extending Chapters



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Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:58 pm
Leonheart says...



I would love to be able to write a good novel. of course, i try to do things, but nothing ever succeeds. i often feel that a reason for this, other than lack of enthusiasm for my chosen theme, is due to feeling my writing is below par. and i think this is because my chapters aren't lengthy enough to include detail into them, and don't come up to the standards i know I'm capable of.

i normally hit the 2500 word marker with a chapter, then think "i can't do any more to this chapter" without checking if I can. there has to be a way to beef up my word count.

so does anyone have any suggestions for getting a chapter to a higher word count, without it becoming bland and boring?
  





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Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:36 am
Zeige says...



i don't really worry about the lenght of them when i'm writing my story i just write, but if something dosn't feel wright i go back, read through change sentances or dialogue here and there if i need to and carry on.

what i do if i think a part of my story is short, i read through it and here and there add bits to it, maybe adding more discription to the charaters their movements, expression, surroundings basiclaly adding more detail and depth
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Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:05 pm
HeadInTheClouds says...



That happens to me a lot too. I usually finish the chapter i'm working on, then go over it again to see where I feel things are not said correctly or not described with enough detail, and so on.
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Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:37 pm
Shafter says...



I think you're looking at it all wrong.
A good writer thinks not how to make their writing longer, but stronger. Most of the time, the fewer words the better!

But I know what you mean. My advice would be this: Don't settle for less. If your characters do something crazy and there's little explanation, take time to explain it. If a life-changing decision is made in the course of three lines of dialogue, stretch it out a bit more. String your readers along, making them want more.

And don't worry about your story being "long enough"! If it has heart and intrigue and good writing, it will be just the right length.
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Sat Jan 13, 2007 11:44 pm
Sureal says...



There is no set length for chapters. A chapter ends when you feel it should end, regardless of word count.

Afterwards, if you really feel the chapter needs to be longer, there's no reason why you can't merge the next chapter into it (eg. so Chapter 1 and 2 are merged, to become the new Chapter 1).
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Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:16 am
Kitkat_1122_ says...



What I do is I brainstorm what is going to happen to the book, the theme, and then I write a more descriptive list of what is going to happen in my chapter that I'm just about to write. Doing this will alow you to see what you need to add and what you could do away with.
This may help you add more stuff to your chapters that is critical, but I don't believe short chapters are bad. It just matters if the stuff in them relate to your overall plot.
  





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Sun Jan 14, 2007 4:18 am
Crysi says...



Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? If not, I highly suggest it. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. It can seem very daunting, but it's a lot of fun, and I think everyone can benefit from it. You sound like the type of person who would REALLY benefit from the wordcount portion of it.

What I learned while participating this year is that you don't always have to worry about chapters. In fact, I don't have ANY chapters in my NaNovel yet. I have breaks, and I suppose some of those could be considered chapter breaks, but really, I'm just going to go back, find a good place to break it (maybe breaking a few at a suspenseful point, or some after an intense scene) and add the chapters that way.

Outlines work really well, too. I highly recommend the Snowflake way of outlining. Google it, and it'll be at the top. It makes you look at your story from a broad perspective, and then you gradually zoom in, finally figuring out all the scenes and details and such.

Overall, I say don't worry about chapter length. To be honest, I always had trouble with chapter lengths, too, but you have to realize that every book is different. Some have really short chapters, which is good for those who don't have a lot of time to read. They can read a few chapters, then take a break. There are some books that have really long chapters, which are good for those who like to just curl up all day and read, but sometimes it can be inconvenient if the reader has to take a break and still has ten more pages until the next chapter. Some have a mix, which satisfies a little of both worlds. Just have fun and worry about the writing portion - the rest will come along soon enough. :)
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Sun Jan 14, 2007 5:59 am
Elelel says...



Yeah, I scraped chapters for NaNo in 05. And last year I had a diary sort of format so I didn't really need them either. THat was good. I don't use them any more. Or I guess if I did then I'd break it up afterwards and then shape chapter endings a bit more cliffhangery.

You sound a lot like me. When I started writing I got a old school book that I'd never used, and decided it would have four chapters in it, and then I'd get a new book for four more chapters and so on. Well, I divided the book EXACTLY into four. That was 24 handwritten pages per chapter. 24. Ouch. I planned it down to a T. I mean, I knew exactly how many pages each event was going to be.

It wasn't good.

I actually did it for a while. I filled over half the book, and I made each chapter EXACTLY 24 pages. Don't know how I did it, but there you go.

But it wasn't good. Really wasn't good. Everything was so drawn out and a chapter that was supposed to contain one main event suddenly contained a huge ammount of plot I just invented for the purpose of making the chapter long.

So my advice is to just write the story. Use chapters if you want, but don't worry about the length. When you do rewrites after it's finished then you might want to consider how the chapters are going to work.

Anyway, I think length has become the new popular feature of books and it's just getting a bit silly. Ages ago books weren't commonly as long as the average book is now.
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Sun Jan 14, 2007 10:32 am
Swires says...



I told Tim about this at the time but he wasnt writing then, maybe this year tim?
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Sun Jan 14, 2007 5:49 pm
Leonheart says...



i think i'll go for NaNo this year yes. i was a little caught up in life last time, and i wasn't writing much, so probably this year is the one.

as for the help, thanks a lot everyone. ill check out the outline thing that Crysi suggested in a while. i currently have a basic idea for a novel, so that will come in handy, thanks. hopefully, attempting a real novel will let me extend things more, and i'll stop working on word count
  








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