My goal for the week is to write one solid chapter. It's the first chapter -- at least at the moment. I had several false starts, and then got into a groove I thought was working. I had a ruthless friend read it, and she put a line on the page and said, "Here's where I start caring." I deleted everything that came before that mark because she was absolutely right. Before that mark, I was just warming up. I wrote all the way to an end, and called it "done."
Only a few hours later, while driving home from a book club (a group led by my doctor was reading my first novel, and eating really killer cheesecake), I realized that the end of the chapter was weak. It was cliche. It didn't lead to anything -- didn't open any doors, ask any questions, pose any mysteries. So I woke up this morning knowing that my chapter wasn't, in fact, done. I needed to work on the ending.
How do you make a better chapter ending?
- Think of each chapter as it's own narrative. There is a beginning, middle, and end -- and it would be good if something is happening, or decided, or changed along the way. To read more about chapters as mini narratives, check out the Write a Better Novel blog.