Under the glow of dim lamplight, I read whichever novel’s been making friends with my nightstand. Hubby snores away. It’s late and I’m tired. I flip through the pages, find the nearest chapter break, and determine to set the book down as soon as I reach the end of chapter 3.
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Chapter endings are those natural places where readers STOP reading.
But as writers, we don’t want readers to stop. Because anytime they stop, anytime that book touches that nightstand, there’s a definite possibility it will languish there for all eternity. I know many a novel have spent a ridiculously long time on my nightstand. So long that I forget who the main characters are and eventually give up altogether.
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Here’s the thing. I don’t want my novels to be nightstand novels. I want them to be In-your-hands-eyes-so-bloodshot-you-can’t-see-straight novels. Those are the kind of novels that get people excited. That get people talking. And those are the type of novels I want to write.
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So how do we avoid being nightstand novels?
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The answers to that question are many and mysterious. One tangible answer, however, is learning how to write killer chapter endings.
How do we do that?
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A number of ways. We could stop in the middle of the action. Find an enticing hook. Foreshadow things to come. Etc. Etc. If used well, all are excellent ideas. But here’s what I think they all boil down to: End each chapter in a state of unbalance.
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When I write my 1st draft, I tend to overwrite. I feel this burning desire to wrap up each chapter in a pretty little bow. To write the climax, followed quickly by the tension-sucking denouement. I feel such a sense of closure when I write this way. Like, “Ahhh…I’m finished with that chapter.” Thanks to crit partners and craft books and helpful articles/blogs, I’ve learned to cut my chapters short. Utilize the delete button. It’s almost always the writer’s best friend.
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Consider cutting the last paragraph. The last line. The last page. Whatever you need to do to end each chapter on a note of unbalance. A sense that things aren’t well. Make your reader’s stomach squirm and propel them to the next page so they can slay the uncomfortable beast taking root in their bellies.
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Tension, and the ever-reaching quest to release it, hurls us through a book. Don’t release the tension for the reader at the end of a chapter. If anything, heighten it! Heighten it! Heighten it!
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Question to Ponder: What sort of chapter endings get you to turn the page and start the next?
I tend to just put novels down when I run out of time to sit and read. If I'm reading at night (and I don't very often) I stop once my eyes start to hurt. As a reader I don't use chapters as a place to stop. I'll stop mid-sentence if it is time to stop. I'll usually have to read a few pages again to find my place but I just stop.
Though, when I write, I try to leave chapters with enough mystery hanging in the air that there is a reason to read on, and enough resolution that the reader doesn't feel frustrated.
Thanks for sharing this post.
The Help. Have you read it? I don't know what she did to keep me reading….but I read while cooking, while the kids played in the tub.
Katie, excellent thoughts here. Thanks for sharing your well-earned wisdom. 🙂 I'm going to be keeping this in mind as I move forward with my WIP. Ah, there are SO many layers to the writing process, aren't there? It's mind-boggling at times. I guess a really good novel has all the good stuff, so worth it to keep learning, always.
I'm with you on this, Katie. I want to write page turners, and chapter turners. I like it when the chapter ends with a question and I have to read the next one to get the answer. Having a hook at the end of each chapter is just as critical as a hook at the beginning of a book, so me thinks.
It was my friend Camy Tang who taught me to fashion hooks at the END of chapters as well as the beginning!
If there's been a high-tension scene, I like to give a bit of natural relief and vice versa. It's always fun…and I think, good reading, when your heartbeat shifts as you read (less likely for you to start snoring!)
Blessings,
patti
you won on my blog today!
i always start in the middle of a scene and end on some type of cliffhanger (question, action etc)
Good thoughts. Chapter endings and openings are major headaches. Those few little paragraphs take me longer to write than the whole rest of the chapter sometimes! But the effort is infinitely worth it.
Everything you just said. Love the can't put the book down feeling and then the frustration when I absolutely have to. :O)
I've never thought of books that way. I do most of my writing at night in bed. But yes, I do have books that I read on and off maybe taking weeks to finish. And others that I read all the way through, sometimes in one sitting. But the hook idea is intriguing. I always thought Mr. Clavell did it very well.
I remember Mary Connealy had a post about this very thing on Seekerville once. Not the nightstand novel idea, but the fact that we need to end our chapters with a hook. I distintly remember there being a joke about being a good "hooker". *blush*
It is so true that we need to up the tension and then leave the reader wanting more. Not an easy thing to do, but oh, it sure feels good when we "get it"!
Excellent post!
Woohoo! Awesome post Katie!!! This is so true and honestly, I love a good chapter hook. I'm one of those readers who'd stay up all night reading a book if it's that good. Plus, I almost never end at a chapter break. If I'm stopping at a break, then I know I'm not that into the book.
This is so good. 🙂 Very funny about you wanting your chapters tied up! Fits your plotter type. Heeeehheeeeee (just kidding, just making fun of plotters, lol) (I might possibly be insecure about my own plotting skills *wink*)
Hope you had a nice day at school today. 🙂
Yes! Cliff hanger chapter endings are the only way to go. I haven't always subscribed to this logic but it is what works. That's funny you should categorize those sleeper novels as nightstand books. I don't want to write those either!!
Oh yeah! My girlfriend writes amazing end-of-chapter hooks. I've studied them and am trying to make my own more page-turning!
This is a great reminder for my final edit. I like cliffhanger endings myself- sometimes I have to stop reading in the middle of a chapter because I know there's another cliffhanger looming.
Great tips–and a good reminder to keep that tension. I LOVE books that make me want to keep reading, even when the scene or chapter ends. I enjoy when chapters end with some action or dialogue. When they end with a lot of reflection that doesn't have much tension, it doesn't make me want to move on as quickly. (I need to remember that for my WIP :D)
I completely agree! That's the mark of a great novel for me. Even if the ending isn't satisfactory, I consider it a good book if it kept me reading voraciously until the end.
I am on board with this method of writing!!! Right there with you! As a reader I do want to feel the tension, the burning desire to say "oh just a few more pages" right before bed, and then you realize its 4am and you need to get up in an hour!
I will remember this each time my chapter ends "the delete button can be your best friend!"
Great post!
I hear you loud and clear on this! I really try to end my chapters in a way that makes the reader want to turn the page to find out what happens next.
The books that don't do this? Ones where the MC falls asleep at the end of every chapter. I just read a book like that, and every chapter seemed like a great place to put the book down. So I really try not to make my MC sleep at the end of a chapter.
Cliff hanger endings! Those always make me turn the page.
I love the unexpected ending, or the one that leaves me teetering on the edge of a cliff. Chapter endings that conclude with a BANG.
One of the best chapter enders is romance writer Julie Garwood. The last line of one chapter contradicts the first line of the next, and you just have to see how the hero's or heroine's expectations got thwarted so quickly.
Great thoughts! My nightstand novels are usually the slower reads that put me to sleep and ones have no trouble putting down. Sure don't want to be a nightstand novelist. But an elliptical novel, that's what I'm going for! A book that keeps me moving and unaware that 45 minutes has just gone by!!!
I love the novels that I plow through non- stop, that haunt my dreams until I finger the final page. Those are the novels that I carry with me, those are the novels I want to write.
I beginning to think my chapters are a bit long, I'll wait to hear what my critique group thinks, but you've made some excellent points.
I hope I leave my readers on a bit of a cliff!
I totally agree with what you are saying. Ending the chapter on a ROP (read-on-prompt). Sometimes it's not even cutting the action short, but a foreshadow, or plot tension or twist. The point is that we want our readers to keep turning the page!
Great post!!
"End each chapter in a state of unbalance." Love this, Katie. You should write a writing help book. Excellent advice. Ending with a strong question in the reader's mind is a way of creating that unbalance, too.
This is great advice! I've started to stop reading in the middle of chapters than the end, because often I keep reading at the end of a chapter. They're doing something right! Now I'm going to go back through my novel!
I love ending (and reading books that end) with good chapter hooks.
It actually helps me when I'm writing, I envision the hook, or I build up, and at this great moment where everyone is holding their breath…
Next chapter.
It's even eviler when one skips to another scene, or doesn't give the detail right away of what happened (but don't wait too long… it annoys said reader aka ME!)
I do have to say, as a reader it can get annoying to have chapter hooks, because I really want to put the book down and go to bed…. *grin*
I love some good foreshadowing at the end of chapters. An untidy chapter ending makes me want to turn that page to get answers. I definitely don't want people finding it easy to stop reading at the end of chapters.
That's kind of funny because I have a "nightstand" novel I'm trying to get through now. But I think it's more about the lack of tension that's making it hard to get through. It's well written and has humor in it, but there's no "how is she going to get out of this?" moment. I've figured it out, so there's no rush to finish it.
I get excited about writing the beginning and ending of chapters. It's the middle stuff I need to tighten and pump up with juice.
The best chapter endings for me are ones that make questions whir in my head, drop a clue about some integral thing, add a new element, or one bang-up sentence will do it too.
Great post, Katie!
~ Wendy
chapter endings… very interesting question.. I'm thinking..
I think for me, it's the whole book, not the chapter endings — that move me along.
For instance, anything Pat Conroy writes moves me to complete absorption. He simply draws me into the complete story. So I read and read and read til I simply cannot hold the book anymore from exhaustion. Often tho, when I'm reading a book like that at night (one that I'm totally into), I keep holding the book even in my sleep.
Totally weird I know.
Great advise. I like the nightstand novel concept too.
I have a question though, are some books the kind that actually need to be put down and digested? Just thinking… I guess I am meaning the non-fiction variety. Powerful too. But maybe not meant to be read in one gulp. I don't know. Just a thought…
I like this nightstand concept! Very creative:) I too have been trying to not tie up my chapter endings as much in my current WIP, I stop it so it makes me say, "What?"
Katie this is such an excellent post. I don't want my book to be a nightstand novel either. That thought horrifies me. And I agree, chapter endings that really entice the reader to keep reading are necessary. In my MG novel, the story is about two thirteen year – old girls lost in the mountains so there is plenty of enticing chapter endings. But now I must do that with the next one and the next one. YIKES!
The chapter endings that make me HAVE TO turn the page and begin the next chapter are the ones where I simply must know what happens next. The author didn't release the tension, he/she heightened it, heightened it, heightened it! (^_^) And that isn't so hard to do once you are engrossed in writing your book, is it? Thanks Katie, for reminding us how important that is.
I have never even thought about this-as I am a non-fiction writer.
I will say, I tend to put a book down when the story has more than one POV or main character because it often changes by chapter. In fact, I don't think I have ever read a novel with more than 1 POV that didn't do that-and I wonder if they could. In this case, must it be done by chapter? Maybe not!