I have a love/hate relationship with brilliant chapter ends. I love them when I have a large amount of time to read. I hate them when it's late at night and I can't bring myself to close the book. As writers, it's safe to assume we all wish to write stories the reader can't put down. But from first draft to printed copy, how do we get there? How do you determine your chapter ends? Do you organize your chapters in such a way that the climax of a scene coincides with an acceptable word count? Do you alternate points of view with each chapter?
In Revision & Self-Editing, James Scott Bell offers these suggestions for page-turning chapter ends:
- a mysterious line of dialogue
- an image that's full of foreboding (like the fog rolling in)
- a secret suddenly revealed
- a major decision or vow
- announcement of a shattering event
- reversal or surprise - new information that turns the story around
- a question left hanging in the air
If the readers says, "Just one more chapter" at 1 a.m., the author has done his job. For more information about chapter ends, check out this post about Chapter Endings & the Hunger Games, and this one...The End is -- Shoot, Too Soon.
Please share: how do you determine a chapter's end or a page turn?
On a side note, I recently discovered an amazing resource for writers (am I the only one who didn't know about this?) It's called Writer's Knowledge Base (now linked on my sidebar). This Google-like search is organized by Elizabeth Craig, and if you're on Twitter, you know how plugged in she is.