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Leyelle
Apr '24
1

At the beginning of "Damsel in the Red Dress" as I was trying to get the feel for the story and get it moving, I used sections, because the individual ideas for each chapter weren't long enough, so it was important for me to find a way to separate the scenes, though I put them all into one upload.

Now it has normal length chapters because the story is fully flowing. I feel like it's a bit like "Wonder" by RJ Palacio in that way. Though "Wonder" used section type segments all the way through the story, they were very short at the story's and onset, but by the end/climax they were basically normal length chapters.

The new story i'm currently working on "Rigamarole" will probably use sections all the way through, because the random words titling each section are essential for the random seeming nature of the book.

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    Apr '24

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    Jun '24
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kyupol
Apr '24

A chapter ends when a cliffhanger or something of significance happens. Like new ability unlocked, a character that's not the MC dies, major change of scenery, etc.

A season ends when a major epic battle is won and the big bad is either dead or runs away and they won't be around for awhile or at least not taking the center stage as the big bad they once were.

Leyelle
Apr '24

Hmm, my story isn't divided by seasons but books, so each book is kind of one big arc, with mini arcs inside it, and it ends when the arc ends. In "Damsel in the Red Dress" the chapters end on cliff-hangers/something of major significance, but in "Rigamarole" the sections are a little more like specific trains of thought. they still have cliff-hangers and things of significance to end on, but they are very very small.

Panpan
Apr '24

Since the start of my breakthrough novel, I did Parts (maybe 50-60 chapters each)

But Part 3 became too long and now I am adding a Part 4.

Some readers get confused to call it Parts, because some chapters are split in to parts, too. I recently changed it to Seasons and added [S1], [S2], [S3], and [S4] in each chapter title to signify where the Seasons end and start.

BoomerZ
Apr '24

My comics is 5 books, each made up of 25ish episodes of about 30 panels. The comics is weekly so about 125 episodes/weeks to finish it. ( I take a one month break between books) Each episode can be a single part or multiple parts to tell that small part of the story. Most episodes end on some type of cliffhanger to hopefully draw the reader to the next episode. Only the final episode of each book actually has a conclusion, usually a wrap up of a theme that was flowing through that book, while opening up the narrative to the next book. This story is not open ended. I just started the final book for publication tomorrow, so almost done.

VibrantFoxRegular
Apr '24

current plan for h+h/beyond the boundary is a division of arcs and chapters where each arc contains it's own main conflict (some high stakes some low/ or in between) and the chapters are...well chapters covering that conflict beat to beat.

it's honestly the only one i've felt most confident about structuring how i want the pacing to flow but ideally it gives room for each character and their individual conflicts to meld well into the storyline and it's major conflicts so that its easy to digest but also not wholly lacking in meat or too bogged down by anything

im also considering the arc format for another project, journey to nowhere, but i feel like they'll end up much longer (at least in comparison to h+h) where there's a lot of smaller journeys that lead into bigger plot points before winding down again till the next one. but given it's still in much earlier stages than h+h i'm trying to give myself grace about not knowing yet :sweat_smile:

mg_xiii
Apr '24

I divide the major story arcs into books and then into chapters. In this case (on Tapas) I further divided it into parts. I did this because I think that readers will be stimulated to end the part if they know that they can stop at the end to continue where they left off. If they have a sudden event to attend to maybe they won't be able to read all the way through the chapter, parts are shorter so it will be easier for them.

Vassia
Apr '24

I do chapters and books but also acts. I think when I made my outline with a five act structure but I have a three act structure for the shorter story lines. Lol screenwriting brain had fun with that.

26 days later
Leyelle
May '24

When plot pointing, I often separate my stories into segments, like long paragraphs, even for short stories that don't really technically have chapters, so that I can know what things happen in each section of the story.

One could be one scene in a chapter and then i'll separate it with an asterisk. But one might be a long internal monologue in someone's head, and that'll be a separate paragraph from whatever action they do next lol.

20 days later
Leyelle
Jun '24

My newest novel "A Dozen Morning Glories" is divided into chapters, but then those chapters are divided into sections. What separates those sections is a spoiler, so I can't dive into any more detail about that yet XDDD.