Novel Craft: Transitions

Hi folks, I'm spending the month of January chewing on novel craft. This week I'm going to talk about transitions. Transitions are about leaving one chapter behind and picking up the thread of the story in the next chapter. Chapters are a convention for ease of reading, but they are more for the novelist. Chapters help you present your story. It's a huge piece of how you keep your reader hooked and longing for more. The way writers keep readers engaged is by devising provocative transitions between chapters. These transitions grab readers attention, plunge them into new action, and ensure complete satisfaction during the reading experience. You might find that some of this transition talk helps you in transitions in your life.

Transitions are about how one chapter ends and the next one begins. Instead of trying to tie everything up in a chapter. You must think of a chapter transitions as a dynamic phase, smack dab in the middle of the action, the epiphany, and/or the relationships.  Transitions are not neat things all wrapped up in bows. A good end transition launches you toward the next chapter. Be prepare to leap in the middle of the mystery. Raise a big question and then just cut off the chapter. Journey toward something audacious but don't arrive, cut off just before that. Stop trying to end things in easy way, Complication, surprise, and turmoil? This is the true stuff of transition.

Now that you have ended the last chapter in a compelling way, it's time to turn the page to the next chapter. You have primed your reader if they had to put the book away until tomorrow. They will be thinking about the chapter all day. They must see that next page. So how do you get that next chapter going. Some transitions are easier than others. If the next chapter is in the same time frame. The next step is logical. It's usually about dialogue and a twist. It's the the transitions that require a jump that are harder, mainly because it causes the writer to leap. My recommendation, don't get bogged down with time, but launch immediately into the heart of what is important in your story. It might be musing from your main character. It might be at the next point in time that stuff is going down. The important thing is not being trapped in the minutia of time change, setting change, and interior thoughts. Cut to what is most interesting, upsetting, or exciting.

Last, it's important transitions build satisfaction, but that does not mean complacency. It's important that readers feel like they are on a journey. Transitions keep your story from being a series of episodes. They are glue for the overreaching arc. How? Stories need to going somewhere just like our lives need to be going somewhere. We are all looking for a point, even if the point is there is no point. Powerful transitions illuminate.They make the reader feel that this journey is worthwhile. Readers inhabit stories that are nimble, like a mountain goat leaping from one peak to the next--a glorious and amazing sight. Good transitions are fearless, seamless, thoughtful, and thrilling. They make for one satisfying read.

That's a teaspoon of transition chat. I hope something resonates with you. I will continue my novel craft series next week.

Here is a doodle. Veg.

Now for the quote for your pocket:

A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and take advantage of it. Nikki Giovanni

Story Structure -- Beams

This week I'm talking about story structure. This is the second in a series. I'm using building element analogies in my discussions this month. I'm going to compare beams to chapters. I am also suggesting you that you go back to my previous story structure posts.  I hope that you find something here that resonates.

Beams are a structural element of housing that bear the load of the structure. Each chapter must also carry some of the load of your story. Unnecessary beams add weight to your structure and make it unsound. Unnecessary chapters add weight to story, these chapters must be cut or they drag it down. Each chapter needs to move the story forward. If you can't answer the question: Why is this chapter in this book?" Toss it. Next, you need to have enough beams to hold up the weight of your house. The same for stories. Missing chapters can be problem. An author, in a desire to get to the "good stuff" of the action, leaps ahead, missing sections in stories that make the work seem slight. Finding the right length and number of the chapters takes tons of practice.

Beams are connecting structural elements and so are chapters. Each chapter must truly fit with the one before it. It must be securely attached.  Each one leads to the next. How is this achieved? Beams are bolted together, so are good chapters. If your character is falling asleep at the end of a chapter, you leave yourself with with little to connect to the next chapter, other than to wake up. I caution, use "the sleeping character chapter transition" sparingly; it weakens your story. A good choice is to find the place something interesting happens for your character snoozes and end the chapter there. Start the next chapter when the an interesting thing happens not when the gal wakes up.

For example if your gal falls off a cliff and ends up on a ledge, end the chapter there, not when she falls asleep on the ledge. Don't start the next chapter when she wakes up, but when the surprise solution to that cliff problem shows up (perhaps the hot guy tries to help and they both fall into the river -- you know something unexpected), readers will want to turn the page. You have bolted your chapters together. Look at the beginning of chapters and think about bolting them to the previous chapter. Always connect chapters with high action or emotion.

Beams form corners in buildings. So major turns in stories happen at chapter ends that segue into chapter beginnings. If a beam is too long, the house collapses. If a chapter is too long, the story collapses. Perhaps the action goes on for twenty pages, the story really sags. Perhaps there are long descriptive passages for a dozen pages, the story sags. Cut to make it work. A good trick is go to the mid-point of the saggy chapter and cut the chapter in half. This often reveals what you need to cut or add. Do the work to make your story structure strong.

Here are my thoughts on short chapters. If a beam is too short you don't leave enough room under it for the rooms to be created.  This doesn't mean you can't have a short beam.  It's just, if all the beams are really short, it weakens the story. I am seeing stories these days with extra short chapters. These books tend to have hundreds of chapters. I find this weakening stories. It's a cinematic approach to writing. I'm not saying you can't be successful with it. I mean, straw huts don't have beams. It is viable form of building and it has been around forever. But stories can be so much more than huts. (Yes, I am saying that cinematic film offers a very limited story-telling structure). In the end, I'm asking you to consider if you can say more by varying chapter length.

OK!  You have some chapter stuff to think about.  Remember this is just an analogy and that they only go so far. I hope that you move forward with projects and create master works.

Here is another abstract piece: Transparent Olives

.Tuck this quote in your pocket:

Rexamine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul. Walt Whitman.

Golden Advice: "a time to every purpose under the heaven"

Hi, folks, Please give my little picture book in the left side bar a look. If you click on the book, it will take you a link so you can vote for it in the MeeGenius contest. Kudos to illustrator Anna Myers who did such a fine job of bringing my words to life.

I'm continuing my series on golden advice this week. This week I'm going to write about how this little quote from Ecclesiastes, "a time to every purpose under the heaven," helps me write. Is the timing working? Does this chapter/sentence have a purpose? I really do think about this in every chapter, even sentences and words, I write.

Writing is about finding the essential of a story and putting it on the page. I don't always feel like I'm in control of the storytelling. Storytelling is something that people have been doing for ages. As a writer, I'm forging new ground but I'm doing it at the end of long rows that stretch out through time, long before anyone had the thought to write down the first word. This is comforting to me.

So how do you know you've got the timing right and, heck, assurance every chapter has a purpose? Well, at first you don't know. You write a lot of absolute drivel. I believe you must write drivel to find the essential. Once you have a sprawling first draft that has plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon and numerous trips to nowhere riddle through it, you have to start sifting through it to find you novel. The good news, it's probably in there!

I start by looking for numerous chapters with the same purpose, chapters that are so well written they make me want to cry but they have nothing to do with my novel really, chapters that are 30 pages long, chapters that are less than six pages long. I suppose it not to difficult to figure out what to do with all this drivel. I fix it all and then my draft seems more solid.

After, I revise all the glaring disaster chapters. I move on to writing a list of all the chapters and then I write a little paragraph to myself pleading the chapter's purpose in the book. I find after have done this I usually have a boatload of good ideas to move toward my essential story...I also know what to boot out.

There is plenty more to say, but I will save that for another time. I hope this taste of my thoughts about getting to the essentials of my story has helped you. Seize the day!

Here is my doodle: "Jess at 3."


A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting. Henry David Thoreau

Golden Advice: Create a Great Start to Your Novel

Hi Folks, I've been running a series of writing advice every February for the last few years, and I've thought to continue it. To start out I'm going to offer tips to create your strongest first chapter.

The first big step is determining if you have the right start. You need some spare eyes for this one. Find a trusted reader or two and ask them to read until they are interested in your story. This reader needs to be coming cold to your work for good feedback. Another thing to do: look at or write chapter titles for the first five chapters. Which one jumps out to you? That might be chapter one. You need to have moxie. I just tossed the first five chapters of a work because I asked myself where did I get interested in my story and that was chapter six. Pull some bold out of your pocket and begin your story in the right spot.

Next up, is get rid of the chump stuff. No waking up in the morning, getting out of bed, getting on school buses, getting ready for work, nothing mundane here. Think about the normal world of your character. Say the character plays baseball, the oboe, is a talented gymnast, etc, etc. -- get inside one of those activites. The gist here is to start out in the middle of an interesting action in your character's normal world. This move garners reader interest and brings a sense of originality to your character. (Remember any advice here is just a guideline; sometimes there is a reason to start in the mundane -- usually in comic novels trying set a dead-pan tone.)

A good start is important. Consider trying to murder or murdering someone in your first chapter. Murder can be a great way to start a story. Neil Gaiman did it in THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. E.B. White did it in CHARLOTTE'S WEB. UH, BAMBI, Libby Bray's GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY, the list goes on and one. Murder really is a strong way to begin and lots of folks use it. Action starts are good too -- throw your main character out of airplane, into shark infested water or into the middle of a battlefield. This will grab readers attention. Embarrassment can be good -- a character could pee in their pants, vomit on the cute guy, run naked across the high school campus. This offers good interest to plumb off of. Some character blather on about how they feel and this can be a strong start, but this one is tough. Your character must be powerfully charismatic; you need to really have a good handle on this if you want it to work.

Another job of the first chapter is to make sure your main character pops off the page. This is about digging into the soul of your character and making sure their soul is on the page. You need to understand fully how they feel about everything from the get go. A good way to know if you are getting to the heart of this one is if you've had some sleepless nights struggling to understand what motivates your character. If the exploration into the motivation of your main character has become excruciatingly painful, you are on the right track.

You can capture readers with high concepts. You might want to rewrite the rules of the world to give rise to possibilities. Here are some examples: the atom bomb has wasted the planet and your main character is left alone, the aliens have arrived and made us all slaves, space travel is possible and you're on the wagon train to the stars , vampires lurk everywhere (don't do it - spoiler - over saturated market!). Do you need to shift the paradigm of your book to make it come alive?

Yes, writing is hard work. Good luck on your journey to an awesome first chapter. Happy work! See you next week!

This week's doodle is called: "Pondering."



Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe