: Re: When should I start thinking about chapters? I'm putting together an editing plan for myself for my novel, and someone said something that made me think of chapters. For my first draft, I hadn't

@Gonzalez219

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Chapters are part of the shape of a book, and they help govern the pacing. They also help readers break the book into manageable chunks -- most readers will wait until a chapter break before taking a rest from reading.
A chapter break should happen at a point where there is a logical break in the flow of the story -- a change in viewpoint, location, time, or focus. They should occur after something has been resolved (so the reader should feel a sense of satisfaction that progress is being made) but there also needs to be momentum to push the reader into the next chapter, otherwise you risk the reader putting the book down and never coming back. This could be a cliffhanger (but don't overdo this), but could just be that some new information has been revealed and the reader wants to understand how it fits in, or a character has decided to do something and the reader wants to learn how it works out.
Adding a chapter break slows the story down, gives the reader breathing space. This is especially important after action scenes, so this is a good place to put them.

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