Craft your chapters so that readers can’t put your book down!
As writers, we think of books as made up of scenes—but for the readers, they’re made up of chapters. The end of a chapter is the point most readers choose to end their reading for the day or night—to put that book down. Your goal is to keep that reader turning the page from one chapter to the next. To keep them engaged, wondering, enthralled, always asking, ‘What happens next?’
How a chapter is structured and how it starts and ends is the key to a story being unputdownable!
| Key information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key information: | |||||
Duration 1
This is an online self-paced seminar
Duration:
1.5 hours. Your 12 months’ access begins straight away
Seminar presenter: Pamela Freeman $65 | |||||
So is there a formula for chapters?
Not exactly, because genres and stories vary widely. But there are basic principles you can follow to make your story grip the reader and to pull them through the story.
How do you start a chapter so that the reader is pulled straight into the story?
How do you end a chapter so that the reader has to start reading the next one?
And what are the rules?
- Is it one scene = one chapter?
- How many points of view can you have in a chapter?
- If you have more than one point of view, do you have to alternate chapters?
- How long should each chapter be?
- Does a chapter need a story arc?
This online seminar is perfect for those who are writing (or thinking about writing) a novel and are unsure of how to structure their chapters—or for those who are editing a draft and trying to make each chapter sing!
Because while great scenes make a great story, well-structured chapters are a key element in readers staying engaged with your novel right to the fabulous climax and resolution!
This Focus On seminar will help you write, evaluate and edit your chapters so that:
- Readers are engaged from the first word of each chapter
- Chapter lengths and content match the overall story arc
- Readers move from one chapter to the next seamlessly
- Each chapter raises the narrative tension, and
- The end of each chapter prods the reader into reading the next one.
And more to make your story twine its way into your reader’s mind and heart, so they just have to keep reading!
Jane Edgar Peterlin
FOCUS ON improving your craft
Each of our popular FOCUS ON seminars explores an important aspect of the art of writing – in an accessible and efficient way. The session consists of a 1 hour expert presentation plus an additional 30 minute Q&A – designed to entertain, educate and inspire you to improve your craft.
Meet your presenter
Pamela Freeman is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 40 books and novellas, plus short stories and scripts. She writes under two names: Pamela Freeman for children’s and fantasy, and Pamela Hart for mystery novels and historical fiction.
Prolific across multiple genres, Pamela has a Doctorate in Creative Arts (Writing) and she has been the director of creative writing here at the Australian Writers' Centre for over 10 years.
| Key information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key information: | |||||
Duration 1
This is an online self-paced seminar
Duration:
1.5 hours. Your 12 months’ access begins straight away
Seminar presenter: Pamela Freeman $65 | |||||
Connect with us
© Australian Writers' Centre | FAQs | Terms, conditions & privacy policy